Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC); or The Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Русская Православная Церковь (Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov), or Московский Патриархат (Moskovskiy Patriarkhat) (the latter designation being another official name[4]) since 1943, Поместная Российская Православная Церковь (Pomestnaya Rossiyskaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov) before the reinstitution in 1943), also known as the Orthodox Christian Church of Russia, is a body of Christians who constitute an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow, in communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The ROC is often said[5] to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world and second only to the Roman Catholic Church among Christian churches, numbering over 135 million members world wide and growing numerically since late 1980s. Up to 65% of ethnic Russians[6][7] and a significant number of Belarusians and Ukrainians identify themselves as "Orthodox".[6][7][8] According to the data made public December 12, 2008, the Church had 157 dioceses including 29,263 parishes served by 203 bishops (another 14 are on retirement), 27,216 priests and 3,454 deacons; there were 804 monasteries, including 478 in the Russian Federation (another 25 are within the ROCOR jurisdiction), 87 theological schools, including 5 theological academies and 38 seminaries.[9][10]

The ROC should not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (also known as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, or ROCOR), headquartered in New York. The ROCOR was instituted in the 1920s by Russian communities outside then-Communist Russia who refused to recognize the authority of the Moscow Patriarchy headed by Metropolitan Sergiy Stragorodsky. The two Churches reconciled on May 17, 2007; the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church.