Romanian Orthodox Church

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The Romanian Orthodox Church (Biserica Ortodoxă Română in Romanian) is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches. A majority of Romanians (18,817,975, or 86.8% of the population, according to the 2002 census data<ref>2002 census data on religion</ref>) belong to it, as well as a significant number of Moldovans. Among all Orthodox Christians, the mere numbers of Romanians make the Romanian Orthodox Church second only to the Russian Orthodox Church in size.

Adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church sometimes refer to it as Dreapta credinţă ("right/correct belief"; compare to Greek ὀρθὴ δόξα, "straight/correct belief"). Orthodox believers are also sometimes known as dreptcredincioşi or dreptmăritori creştini.

[edit] History

See also: History of Christianity in Romania

In 1859, the Romanian principalities of Moldova and Wallachia formed the modern state of Romania. The hierarchy of the Orthodox churches tends to follow the structure of the state. Therefore, shortly afterwards, in 1872, the Orthodox churches of the former principalities (the Metropolitanate of Ungrovlahia and the Metropolitanate of Moldova) decided to unite to form the Romanian Orthodox Church. In the process, they canonically separated from the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Romanian Orthodox Church declared autocephaly. In the same year a separate synod was constitued.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople only recognized the autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1885. First organized with the rank of Metropolitanate, the Romanian Orthodox Church became a Patriarchate in 1925, when the ranks of the Romanian Orthodox Church grew following the formation of Greater Romania.

[edit] The Communist regime

The Communist government, through the 1948 Law of Cults, made the Church tightly controlled by the state. Many monasteries were transformed into craft centers and priests were encouraged to learn other 'worldly' jobs.

The leadership of the Church had good relations with the Communist regime, but there were many members of the clergy who dissented: until 1963 as many as 2,500 individual priests and monks were arrested and further 2,000 monks were forced to give up the monastic life.

While the dissenters were sentenced to fairly long terms in prison, there were also many priests who collaborated and were informers for Securitate, the secret police. In 2001, the Romanian Orthodox Church tried unsuccessfully to change the law which allowed access to the archives of Securitate, in order to deny public access to the files of the priests who collaborated with the Securitate.

It was only after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, when Romania became a democracy, that the Church was freed from state control, although the state still provides clergy with their salaries.

[edit] The Church in Moldova

Romanians in the Republic of Moldova belonging to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia (Romanian: Mitropolia Basarabiei), having resisted Russification for 192 years (after the annexation of Bessarabia by the Russian Empire in 1812), are 2 million strong in 2004. In 2001 they won a landmark legal victory against the Government of the Republic of Moldova at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights.

This means that despite current political issues, the Moldovan Metropolitan Church is now recognized as "the rightful successor" to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and Hotin, which existed from 1918 to 1940 and was only brought by Joseph Stalin under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church's Moscow patriarchate.

[edit] Relationships with the Greek Catholic Church

In 1948 the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic was outlawed, and all its assets, including churches, were handed over to the Orthodox church. After the fall of the Communist regime, the Greek Catholics requested that their churches be returned, but so far only 16 of the 2600 claimed churches have been returned. There are reports that several old Greek Catholic churches were demolished while under the administration of the Orthodox Church [1].

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[edit] Unique features

The Romanian Orthodox Church is the only Orthodox church using a Romance language in the divine liturgy.

Byzantine religious records also mention a unique form of bishoprics in the region - namely the chorepiscopate or countryside episcopate - as opposed to the better-known religious centers in large cities. This can possibly be compared to the "monastic bishops" of Ireland, who united the functions of countryside Abbot with that of district Bishop in another country that did not emphasize an urban episcopate, at least for a time.

The very word for "church" in Romanian, Biserică, is unique in Europe. It comes from Latin "basilica" (in turn a loanword from Greek βασιλικα - meaning "communications received from the king" and "the place where the Emperor administered justice"), rather than "ecclesia" (from Greek εκκλησία, from "those called out").

[edit] Canonical status

The Romanian Orthodox Church is organized as the Romanian Patriarchate. The highest hierarchical, canonical and dogmatical authority of the Romanian Orthodox Church is the Holy Synod.

[edit] Organization

There are five Metropolitanates and ten archbishoprics in Romania, and more than twelve thousand priests and deacons, servant fathers of ancient altars from parishes, monasteries and social centres. Almost 400 monasteries exist inside the country for some 3,500 monks and 5,000 nuns. Three Diasporan Metropolitanates and two Diasporan Bishoprics function outside Romania proper. As of 2004, there are, inside Romania, fifteen theological universities where more than ten thousand students (some of them from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Serbia benefiting from a few Romanian fellowships) currently study for a doctoral degree. More than 14,500 churches (traditionally named "lăcaşe de cult", or worshiping places) exist in Romania for the Romanian Orthodox believers. As of 2002, almost 1,000 of these were either in the process of being built or rebuilt.

[edit] Relations with other Orthodox jurisdictions

Most Eastern Orthodox autocephalous churches, including the Romanian, maintain a respectful spiritual link to the Ecumenical Patriarch. Now in office is His All-Holiness Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople and New Rome.

[edit] Famous theologians

Rev. Dumitru Stăniloae (1903 - 1993) is ranked among the greatest Orthodox theologians of the 20th century, having written extensively in all major fields of Eastern Christian systematic theology. One of his other major achievements in theology is the 45-year-long comprehensive series on Orthodox spirituality known as the Romanian Philocaly, a collection of texts written by classical Byzantine writers, that he edited and translated from Greek.

Father Archimandrite Cleopa Ilie (1912 - 1998), elder of the Sihastria Monastery, is considered as one of the most representative spiritual fathers of contemporary Romanian Orthodox monastic spirituality.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Coronation of Ilie Stănescu as International King of the Rroma at Curtea de Argeş

On 31 August 2003 Ilie Stănescu was proclaimed International King of the Rroma. The ceremony took place in Curtea de Argeş Cathedral, the Orthodox Church where Romania's Hohenzollern monarchs were crowned and are buried.[2] The text read by one of the four priests performing the service contains:

According to an Imperial Decree and with the approval of the Court of Vienna, in accordance with the council and the tradition of ethnic Rroms from within and outside Romania, forming a global people of 78 million Rroms, the supreme title of International King was accorded to His Majesty Stănescu Badea Ilie from the city of Costeşti, Romania.

[3]

The Romanian Orthodox Church officials (Eparhia Argeşului şi Muscelului) announced:

According to the request of Rroms from within and outside Romania, on Sunday 31 September of this year [2003], at the Curtea de Argeş monastery, we performed the ceremony of blessing the crown that will be worn by Mister Stănescu Badea Ilie, from Costeşti, Argeş, declared by imperial decree, issued by Emperor Iulian, International King of Rroms. The ceremony consisted in blessing the crown, which was done with holy water, followed by a Te Deum. Such services are common and can be done for any objects with Christian use: houses, offices, clothing, any kind of objects, etc...

[4]