Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; Russian: Русская Православная Церковь, tr. Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov) headed by the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Московский Патриархат, tr. Moskovskiy Patriarkhat), 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 other Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world. Including all the autocephalous churches under its supervision, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide — about half of the 300 million estimated adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Among Christian churches, the Russian Orthodox Church is second only to the Roman Catholic Church in terms of numbers of followers. Within Russia the results of a 2007 VCIOM poll indicated that about 75% of the population considered themselves Orthodox Christians. Up to 65% of ethnic Russians and a similar percentage of Belarusians and Ukrainians identify themselves as "Orthodox". However, according to a poll published by the highly-respected church related journal Pravmir in December 2012, only 41% of the Russian population identifies itself with the Russian Orthodox Church. Pravmir also published a 2012 poll by the respected Levada organization VTsIOM indicating that 74% of Russians consider themselves Orthodox. According to figures released on February 2, 2010, the Church has 160 dioceses including 30,142 parishes served by 207 bishops, 28,434 priests and 3,625 deacons. There are 788 monasteries, including 386 for men and 402 for women.

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