Saturday, September 22, 2007

Moscow-affiliated Russian Orthodox church grows in Helsinki

Two Orthodox Christian congregations in Helsinki affiliated with the Russian ecclesiastical tradition have grown in the Helsinki region in recent years.

The congregations of St. Nicholas and Pokrova, which fall under the Moscow Patriarchate, have about 2,000 members. The membership has been growing at a rate of about 150 a year.

About 75 per cent of the members registered in the congregations are citizens of Finland. The Finnish Orthodox Church disengaged from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1923. However, some of the Orthodox in Finland wanted to retain Russian ways, and the use of Church Slavonic in the liturgy, and they set up their own congregation.

When the Finish Orthodox Church decided in 1927 to reject the old Julian calendar, READ THE REST HERE:

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