Religion in Russia

Like the United Kingdom, there is no separation of church and state in Russia. Orthodox Christianity is the official state religion in Russia. Approximately 15-20% of the total population practice Orthodox Christianity. Islam is the second largest religion. Approximately 10-15% of the total population are Muslim.

The majority of the country's Muslims live in the Volga-Urals region and the North Caucasus. Moscow, St. Petersburg, and parts of Siberia also have large Muslim populations. The country also has a small Jewish population, Approximately 600,000 Jews live in Russia and form 0.4% of the total population; most of them are concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It was reported in 2017 that atheism in Russia had fallen by 50% in three years.

Orthodox Christianity in Russia

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia.

In 2022, it was reported that attendance at Russian Orthodox Church services in Russia has dropped to around one percent.

See also: Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church is an international group of Patriarchal, Autocephalous and Autonomous churches. Each church is independent in her internal organization and follows her own particular customs. However, all the churches are united in the same faith.

Each Church is led by a Synod of Bishops. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is regarded as "First among Equals."

Eastern Orthodox churches, such as the Russian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church, were heavily persecuted under the atheistic, communist Soviet Union (see: Communism and religious persecution).

Russian Orthodox Church

Though there were already Orthodox Christians in some of the Black Sea ports, and though Viking traders had become Christians in Constantinople and had built some churches along their Volga river trade-route, and though the Polish had begun some missionary activity along the western frontier of the Kievan state, the year conventionally recognized as the establishment of the Church of Russia is 988 when St. Prince Vladimir decreed Orthodox Christianity as the state religion. This church, like many of the Orthodox Churches suffered from Islamic invasion, but also Mongol conquest and most recently, severe persecution under the Communists (though claims have been made that the church often sided with, or at least turned a blind eye to, actions taken by the Communist government). This last persecution produced more than 50 million holy martyrs.

The Russian Orthodox Church has historically clashed with Constantinople over which jurisdiction can declare a church body in a country to be autocephalous (the only matter on which they agree is that a secular government has no power to do so):

• Constantinople takes the position that its Patriarch, as "first among equals", has sole authority to declare a church body as autocephalous.
• Russia takes the position that the Patriarch of any autocephalous church can subsequently declare any church within a country under its geographical jurisdiction to be itself autocephalous.

This disagreement has arisen several times over the years:

• In 1832 the Greek Orthodox Church was declared autocephalous by the secular Greek government, a move not recognized by Constantinople. However, in 1850 Constantinople did declare the body to be autocephalous, but as it was BOTH within the geographical territory of Constantinople AND declared such by its Patriarch, the overarching issue was not resolved.
• A similar issue took place when the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Romanian bodies were declared autocephalous, as they were in the same situation as the Greek church before.
• In 1917, the Russian Church declared the Georgian Orthodox Church (at that time under its geographical jurisdiction) to be autocephalous, which Constantinople did not recognize at the time, but in 1990 it finally did so.
• In 1970, the Russian Church declared the American Orthodox Church (which is under its geographical jurisdiction) to be autocephalous, a decision Constantinople did not recognize and still does not.

The disagreement has come to the forefront over recognition of the Ukranian Orthodox body, resulting in Constantinople declaring the Russian Church in 2019 to be schismatic.

In 2022, it was reported that attendance at Russian Orthodox Church services in Russia has dropped to around one percent.

Also, according to a 2019 report "Using data from surveys carried out by the Higher School of Economics in Moscow in 2018, the sociologist Yana Roshchina worked out that while almost 81 percent of adult Russians consider themselves Orthodox, this is often a declaration of identity rather than faith. Just 6 percent of the population and 43 percent of believers go to church several times a month. According to Interior Ministry statistics, 4.3 million people across the country attended Easter services in 2019 – around 100,000 fewer than a year before."

Pew Research reported in 2017: "Relatively few Orthodox or Catholic adults in Central and Eastern Europe say they regularly attend worship services, pray often or consider religion central to their lives. For example, a median of just 10% of Orthodox Christians across the region say they go to church on a weekly basis."

The Russian Orthodox Church is influential in terms of the Russians and the Russian government rejecting homosexuality. Russia opposes the homosexual agenda and has passed laws prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality.

Russian Orthodox theology on salvation, faith and works

The Orthodox Teaching on personal salvation by Deacon Victor E. Klimenko, Ph.D, a graduate of the Pastoral School of the Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Evangelicalism and Russia

According to a 2006 report of CWNews: Baptists, Pentecostals and Catholics are among the Russian religious communities to complain recently of police failure to protect them from attacks or other unwarranted intrusions during services.

In addition, there were 2006 reports of police raids to prevent these groups from conducting religious activity - such as giving out religious literature- - which they regard as legitimate.

See also: Growth of Protestantism in Russia

According to the Christian Broadcasting Network:

“

The Orthodox Church's biggest competitors are the evangelical, charismatic congregations, which are experiencing tremendous growth. "So many Russians are leaving the Orthodox Church and joining the charismatic churches and they don't like it," Ryakhovski said. Ryakhovski gave CBN News a document produced by a leading Russian research group and backed by the Orthodox Church. The paper was titled, "Ways to weaken the potential of neo-Pentecostal sects and to help their victims.".... Once a persecuted minority, evangelical Christians in Russia and the surrounding countries that once made up the former Soviet Union, are now exerting more influence in society by displaying what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. "People are looking for meaning, they are looking for authentic lifestyles, authentic relationships," Sipko told CBN News. "And so in the midst of all the economic and social changes, we have the opportunity to demonstrate what a personal relationship with Jesus is like."

”

A large number of missionaries operating presently operating in Russia are from Protestant denominations.

According to a survey conducted at the end of 2013, 2% of surveyed Russians identify as Protestants or another branch of Christianity.

Russia Watch in an article entitled Is Russia Turning Protestant? wrote:

“

Russia’s Justice Ministry has registered 14,616 Orthodox parishes, 4,409 Protestant parishes, and 234 Catholic parishes. But Anatoly Pchelintsev, a religion specialist and professor at the Russian State Humanitarian University, estimates that for every registered Protestant congregation, there are at least two unregistered ones. Pchelintsev, who edits the Religion and Law publication here, concludes that Russia has about 15,000 Protestant congregations, roughly equal to the number of Russian Orthodox ones. He says the number of Catholic parishes is roughly the same as the official number. In Siberia, long a land of dissenters and discontents, there are believed to be more Protestants in church on Sunday mornings than Russian Orthodox. On one recent visit to Khabarovsk, the second largest city of the Russian Far East, I went to a packed Baptist church, only a kilometer from a sparsely attended Russian Orthodox Cathedral. The massive Cathedral had been built with federal funds.

”

In 2016, Christianity Today reported:

“

Yesterday, Russia’s new anti-terrorism laws, which restrict Christians from evangelizing outside of their churches, went into effect. The “Yarovaya package” requires missionaries to have permits, makes house churches illegal, and limits religious activity to registered church buildings, among other restrictions. Individuals who disobey could be fined up to $780, while organizations could be fined more than $15,000. Forum 18 offers an analysis of the laws and their ramifications for Protestants and other non-Orthodox believers. World Watch Monitor compiled the worried reactions of Russian evangelical leaders and concerned observers. The new laws will “create conditions for the repression of all Christians,” wrote Russia’s Baptist Council of Churches in an open letter. “Any person who mentions their religious view or reflections out loud or puts them in writing, without the relevant documents, could be accused of ‘illegal missionary activity.’” Russia’s Protestant churches are concerned but not panicked, reports independent journalist and Russian Evangelical Alliance consultant William Yoder. With more than 1,000 Protestant house churches meeting in Moscow alone, cracking down to the letter of the law will not be easy. He wrote: Russian evangelicals have many decades of experience in dealing with a non-sympathetic state. There have also been frequent run-ins with the state since the mid-1990s. In fact, Belarus has had restrictive legislation very similar to the “Yarovaya Laws” in force since November 2002. Despite occasional incidents, non-registered Baptists and Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to meet there and Minsk’s highly-visible and Charismatic “New Life” congregation keeps on meeting—illegally—in a rebuilt cow barn. Humanitarian work and evangelistic efforts continue. Far-flung Russia will hardly be more “successful” regarding implementation of its new laws. Konstantin Bendas, deputy head bishop of the “Associated Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical-Pentecostal Faith” (ROSKhVE), notes that over a thousand Pentecostal house groups are meeting alone in Moscow. Yet, sadly, a complex legislation of repression is now in place and could be put into practice if ever the need arises. That “need” would arise as a result of greatly-heightened East-West tensions—tensions which are also very much contingent upon Western behaviour. Western citizens can do something about this.

”

Reports of present-day restrictions on religious activity and/or persecution of Protestants in Russia

See also: Restrictions on religious activity and/or religious persecution in Czarist, Soviet, and contemporary Russia

Under Russian law, unregistered religious activity is illegal, such as public evangelism without a permit, as seen in some of the reports below:

• Russia Keeps Punishing Evangelicals in Crimea, Christianity Today, 2022

• Is Religious Persecution in Russia Escalating? Elderly Baptist Pastor Charged for 'Illegal' Missionary Work, Newsweek, April 5, 2019

• RUSSIA: Protestants targeted in Nizhny Novgorod, Church in Chains website, 2018

• EXCLUSIVE: When One US Missionary Dared to Share the Gospel in Putin’s Russia, Christian Broadcasting Network News, Video, 2017

• Lutheran Archbishop in Russia - An Immense Challenge, DW News, Video, 2017

• RUSSIA: Alleged "missionary activity" prosecutions continue, Worldwide Religious News, 2017

• Living as a Persecuted Christian in Russia, ArriveMininstries.org

2006 report of present-day restrictions on religious activity and/or persecution of Pentecostals, Baptists and Catholics

According to a 2006 report of CWNews: "Pentecostals, Catholics and Baptists are among the Russian religious communities to complain recently of police failure to protect them from attacks or other unwarranted intrusions during services, or of police raids to prevent them conducting religious activity-- such as giving out religious literature- - which they regard as legitimate, the Forum 18 news service reports."

See also

• Church attendance in Russia