Old Believers

[Jacob Dahlen]

Introduction

In 1652, Patriarch Nikon (1605–1681) of the Russian Orthodox Church introduced a number of ritual and textual innovations to impose uniformity between Russian and Greek Orthodox practices. Nikon, having noticed discrepancies between Russian and Greek rites and texts, ordered an adjustment of the Russian rites to the Greek ones of his time. Once these innovations were carried out, they who acted contrary to them were suppressed by state power.
[edit]

The Nikonian Reforms

By the middle of the 17th century Russian Church officials, including Patriarch Nikon had noticed discrepancies between contemporary Russian and Greek rites. The conclusion was made that the Russian Orthodox Church had, as a result of errors of incompetent copyists, developed rites and missal texts of its own that had significantly deviated from the Greek originals. Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church had become dissonant from the other Orthodox churches.

Nikon, supported by Tsar Alexis I (1629-1676), executed some preliminary liturgical reforms. In 1652, he convened a synod and exhorted the clergy on the need to compare Russian typikon, Euchologion, and other liturgical books with their Greek counterparts. Monasteries from all over Russia were requested to send examples to Moscow in order to subject them to a comparative analysis. Such a task would have taken many years of conscientious research and would have been unlikely to give an unambiguous result, given the complex development of the Russian liturgical texts over the past centuries and complete lack of textual historigraphic techniques at the time:

Having observed some discrepancies between the Russian and contemporary Greek rites and missal texts, patriarch Nikon ordered an adjustment of the Russian rites and texts to correspond to the Greek, without summoning a church council or consulting any Russian ecclesiastic authority. As research in the history of liturgic texts at that time was nearly nonexistent, no one could explain to him that these discrepancies were not necessarily the result of Russian errors of arbitrary textual revisions (...). – Zenkovsky S.A. Russia’s Old Believers, 1970, 1995, 9

A second synod was convened under locum tenens Pitirim of Krutitsy in 1666, which included the Patriarchs of Antioch and of Alexandria and many bishops to Moscow. It is alleged by Old Believer historians that the visiting patriarchs each received both 20,000 roubles in gold and furs for their participation. This council officially established the reforms and anathemized both all those against the reforms and the old Russian books and rites themselves. A side effect of condemning the past of the Russian Orthodox Church and her traditions was a weaking of the messianic theory about Moscow as the Third Rome. Instead of being the guardian of Orthodox faith, Russia seemed to be an accumulation of serious liturgical mistakes.

Nevertheless, both Patriarch and Tsar were anxious to carry out their reforms, although their endeavours may have been as much or more politically motivated as religious, although scenarious explaining this motive tend to make extravagant claims involving attempts to revive the Byzantine Empire and Jesuit meddling. In any case, once the reforms were imposed, they were enforced by the might of the state and protest against them was restricted to the small groups that became known as the Old Believers.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

Validity of the Reformist Theory

Starting in the 1850s various Russian scholars, none of whom were old believers, took up study of the causes and background of the reforms and resulting schism; their research showed that the official theory regarding the old Russian books and rites was unsustainable. Moreover, their research rather supported Old Believers’ positions. Among these scholars were two professors, one of the Moscow Spiritual Academy of the official synodal state church (E.E. Golubinsky) and the other was Nikolaj Fyodorovich Kapterev (1847-1917)

(...) was the first historian who questioned the theory about the “pervertedness” or incorrectness of the Oldrussian ritual and pointed out, that the Russian ritual was not at all perverted, but had on the contrary saved a number of early Old Byzantine rituals, among which the sign of the cross with two fingers, which had been changed later on by the Greeks themselves, in the 12th and 13th century, which caused the discrepancy between the Old Russian and the New Greek church rituals. — Zenkovsky, S.A., Russkoe staroobrjadčestvo, 1970,1990, 19-20.

[edit]

Examining the Sources of Russian Liturgetics

Russia had been officially Christianized in 988 by Hellenistic missionaries who had come from Constantinople, and who had introduced the so-called rubrics or typikon of Studion, written by Theodore the Studite (759-826), abbot of the famous Studion monastery in Constantinople. This typikon was predominant throughout the western part of the Byzantine Empire. These rubrics were gradually replaced by the rubrics of Saint Sabbas (†532), also called the rubrics of Jerusalem. These had originally been predominant in the eastern part of the Empire and were older; although they hadd been considerabely elaborated in the 8th century. These two typikons, in their turn, were based on the typicons of Saint Pachomius the Great (†348) and Saint Basil the Great (ca. 330-379). Russia, being rather conservative and suspicious of any novelties after the Florentine Union of 1439, adopted very little from the Jerusalem typicon and continued to use the Studite typicon. As a result, discrepancies emerged in the texts between the Russian and the Greek churches. The Greeks, not remembering the old Studite typicon, and Nikon and his assistants, not having thorough knowledge of ecclesiastical paleography, mistakenly interpreted these discrepancies as Russian innovations, errors, or arbitrary translations. Ironically, it was the Studite typikon which has turned out to have preserved many early Christian and early Byzantine elements, and thus was actually closer to the old Byzantine texts than the 17th century Greek rubrics (Zenkovsky, S.A. 1970).
[edit]

The Schism or "Raskol"

Opponents of the ecclasiastical reforms of Nikon could be found among all strata of the people and were quite numerous at the beginning (see Raskol). Even after the deposition of patriarch Nikon (1658), who presented too strong a challenge to the Tsar's authority, a series of church councils officially endorsed Nikon's liturgical reforms. The Old Believers fiercely rejected all innovations and the most radical amongst them maintained that the official Church fell into the hands of the Antichrist. Under guidance of Archpriest Avvakum Petrov (1620 or 1621-1682), who had become the leader of the conservative camp within the Old Believers’ movement, the Old Believers publicly denounced and rejected all ecclesiastical reforms. The state church anathemized both the old rites and books and those who wished to stay loyal to them at the synod of 1666. From that moment, the Old Believers were officially deprived of all civil rights. The state church had the most active Old Believers arrested and several of them were executed some years later in 1682, including Archpriest Avvakum.
[edit]

After the schism

After 1685 a period of persecutions began, including both torture and execution. Many Old Believers fled Russia, altogether. However, Old Believers became the dominant denomination in many regions; among them were Pomorye (Arkhangelsk region), Guslitsy, Kursk region, Urals, Siberia etc. By the 1910s, about 25% of the population in Russia said that they belonged to one of the Old Believer branches (census data).

Government oppression could vary from relatively moderate, as under Peter the Great (Old Believers had to pay double taxation and a separate tax for wearing a beard), to intense, as under Tsar Nicholas I. To the Russian synodal state church and the state authorities Old Believers were often seen as dangerous elements and a threat to the Russian state.

In 1905 Tsar Nicholas II signed an Act of religious freedom, which put the persecutions of all religious minorities in Russia to an end. The Old Believers were given the right to build churches, to ring church bells, to hold processions and to organize themselves. It was prohibited (as under Catherine the Great) to refer to Old Believers as “raskolniki” (schismatics), a name they consider to be insulting. The period from 1905 until 1917 is often called “the Golden Age of the Old Faith”. This period may be called the emancipation of the Old Believers, who had until then been in an almost illegal position in Russian society. Nevertheless some restrictions for Old Believers were maintained: e.g. they had no right to join civil service.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

Modern situation

In 1971, the Moscow Patriarchate revoked the anathemas placed on the Old Believers in the 17th century, but most Old Believer communities have not returned to Communion with other Orthodox Christians.

The total number of Old Believers that remain today is estimated from 1 to 10 millions, some living in extremely isolated communities in places to which they fled centuries ago to avoid persecution. A few Old Believer parishes in the United States have entered into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia [2].

Old Believer churches are currently restored in Russia, although Old Believers (unlike the nearly official mainstream Orthodoxy) are facing many difficulties in claiming their restitution rights for their churches. In Moscow, there are churches for all the most important Old Believer branches: Rogozhskaya Zastava (Popovtsy of Belokrinitskaya hierarchy official center), a cathedral for Novozybkovskaya hierarchy in Zamoskvorech'ye and Preobrazhenskaya Zastava where Pomortsy and Fedoseevtsy coexist.

Only Pomortsy and Fedoseevtsy treat each other relatively well; all the other denominations do not acknowledge each other. Among the ordinary Old Believers, there are some tendencies for intra-branch ecumenism, but these trends find sparse support among the official leaders of the congregations.

Significant Old Believer communities exist in Plamondon, Alberta; Woodburn, Oregon; Erie, Pennsylvania; and various parts of Alaska. A compact 40,000 strong Lipovan community of Old Believers lives in neighboring Kiliia raion (Vilkovo) of Ukraine and the Tulcea County of Romania in the Danube Delta.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

Old Believer Denominations

Despite that all Old Believers groups emerged as a result of the opposition to the Nikonian reform, they do not constitute a single monolithic body. In fact, the Old Believers are notable for the great diversity of groups that profess different interpretations of the church tradition and often are not in communion with each other. Some groups even practice rebaptism before admitting a member of another group into their midst.

The terminology that is used for the divisions within the Old Believer denomination is somewhat vague. Generally, larger movement or group - especially in case of such major ones as popovtsy and bespopovtsy - is called soglasie or soglas (Eng. "agreement" or more generally, "confession"). Another term - tolk (Eng. "teaching") is usually applied to lesser divisions within the major "confessions". In particular it is used with respect to multiple sects that appeared within the bespopovtsy movement.
[edit]

Popovtsy and Bespopovtsy

Since no the bishops joined the Old Believers, except bishop Pavel of Kolomna, who was executed, ordained priests of the old rite would have soon become extinct. Two responses appeared to this dilemma: the “priestist” Old Believers (поповцы (Popovtsy)) and the non-priestist Old Believers (беспоповцы (Bespopovtsy)).

The Popovtsy represented the more moderate conservative opposition, who strived to continue religious and church life as it had existed before the reforms of Nikon. They recognized any ordained priests from the new style Russian Orthodox church who joined the Old Believers and who had denounced the Nikonian reforms. In 1846 they convinced Amvrosii (Popovich, 1791-1863) deposed Greek Orthodox bishop (who had been allegedly removed under Turkish pressure) to become an Old Believer and to consecrate three Russian Old Believers priests as bishops. In 1859, the number of Old Believer bishops in Russia reached ten, and they established their own episcopate, the so called Belokrinitskaya hierarchy. Not all priestist Old Believers recognized this hierarchy. These dissenters were called беглопоповцы (beglopopovtsy) and obtained their own hierarchy in the 1920’s.

The Bespopovtsy (the "priestless") were characterized by rejecting “the World” where Antichrist reigned; they preached the imminent end of the world, asceticism, adherence to the old rituals and the old faith. The Bespopovtsy claimed that the true church of Christ had ceased to exist on Earth and therefore renounced priests and all sacraments except Baptism. The Bespopovtsy movement has many sub-groups.
[edit]

Soglasie and Tolk

* Popovtsy - have priests and all sacraments, including the eucharist. They are split into 2 movements that have the same beliefs, but treat each other's hierarchy as illegitimate.
o Belokrinitskaya hierarchy - The largest Popovtsy denomination. The Russian part is known as Rogozhkoe soglasie or Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church.
+ Okruzhniki (extinct)
+ Neokruzhniki (extinct)
o Novozybkovskaya hierarchy or Russian Old-Orthodox Church
o Beglopopovtsy (extinct, now the Russian Old-Orthodox Church)
+ Luzhkane, also known as Luzhkovskoe soglasie (extinct). In some places, they had no priests and so belonged to Bespopovtsy.
* Bespopovtsy - have no priests and no eucharist.
o Pomortsy or Danilovtsy, not to be confused with Pomors. Originated in North European Russia (Russian Karelia, Arkhangelsk region). Initially they rejected marriage and prayer for the Tsar.
o Novopomortsy, or "New Pomortsy" - accept marriage
o Staropomortsy, or "Old Pomortsy" - reject marriage
o Fedoseevtsy – “Society of Christian Old Believers of the Old Pomortsy Unmarried Confession” (1690s- present); deny marriage and practice cloister-style asceticism.
o Fillipovtsy.
o Chasovennye (from a word Chasovnya - a chapel) - Siberian branch. Initially had priests, but later decided to change to a priestless practice. Also known as Semeyskie (in the lands that lay east of Baykal Lake).
* Edinovertsy (единоверчество) - Agreed to be a part of official Russian Orthodox Church while saving the old rites. First appeared in 1800. The Edinovertsy are under the omophor of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate or the Russian Church Abroad and are not generlaly considered Old Believers.

[edit]

Minor Groups

Aside from these major groups, many smaller groups emerged and died out at various times since the end of 17th century:

* Aristovtsy (beg. of 19th – beg. of 20th cent.; extinct) - from the name of the merchant Aristov;
* Titlovtsy (extinct in 20th cent.) - emerged from Fedoseevtsy, supported the use of Pilate's inscription upon the cross (titlo), which was rejected by other groups;
* Troparion confession (troparschiki) - a group that commemorated the tsar in the hymns (troparia);
* Daniel’s confession of the “partially married” (danilovtsy polubrachnye);
* Adamant confession (adamantovy) - refused to use money and passports as containing the seal of Antichrist;
* Aaron's confession (aaronovtsy) - 2nd half of 18th century, a spin-off of filipovtsy.
* “Grandmother’s confession” or the Self-baptized - practiced self-baptism or the baptism by midwives (babushki), since the priesthood, in their opinion ceased to exist;
* “Hole-worshippers” (dyrniki) - relinquished the use of icons and prayed to the east through a hole in the wall (!);
* Melchisedecs (Moscow, Bashkortostan) - practiced a peculiar lay "quasi-eucharistic" rite;
* “Runaways” (beguny) or “Wanderers” (stranniki);
* “Netovtsy” or Saviour’s confession - denied the possibility to celebrate sacraments and pray in churches, the name comes from the Russian net "no", since there are "no" sacraments, "no" churches, "no" priests etc.

[edit]

Break-off sects

The Old Believers movement also gave birth to several marginal break-off groups such as:

* the Skoptzy (Скопцы), who practiced castration of men and removal of breasts from women in order to enforce sexual abstinence;
* the Beguny (Бегуны), who treated any official papers (like passports) as marks of the Antichrist;
* the Duhobory (Духоборы), who rejected the idea of the Trinity;

and others. However, these break-off groups were always considered heretical by all the 'mainstream' Old Believers.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

Justification of Old Belief

The Old Believer schism did not occur simply as a result of a few individuals with power and influence. The schism had complex causes, revealing historical processes and circumstances in 17th century Russian society. Those who broke loose from the hierarchy of the official State Church had quite divergent views on church, faith, society, state power and social issues. Thus, “Old believers” is merely a collective noun for various movemtents in Russian society which actually had existed long before 1666-67. The things they had in common were a distrust towards state power and the episcopate, insisting upon the right of the people to arrange its own spiritual life, and the ambition to aim for such control.

Both the popovtsy and bespopovtsy, although theologically and psychologically two different teachings, were manifestations of a spiritual, eschatological and mystical tendencies throughout Russian religious thought and church life. The schism should also be seen within the political and cultural backgrounds of that time: increasing Western influence, secularization, and attempts to subordinate the Church to the state. Nevertheless, it was above all the purity of the Orthodox faith, embodied in the old rituals, which the Old believers sought to defend and preserve and which inspired many to strive against patriarch Nikon’s church reforms until death.

The Old believers movement has often been depicted as an obscure, fanatic faith in rituals that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of ignorant people. All people of that time, however, felt that ritual expressed the very essence of their faith. Otherwise, Patriarch Nikon would have felt no need to alter Russian practices. Old believers hold that for the preservation of a certain ‘microclimate’ that enables the salvation of ones soul it is not only necessary to live by the commandments of Christ, but also to carefully preserve Church tradition, which contains the spiritual power and knowledge of past centuries, embodied in external forms.

he church reforms of Nikon were mainly of texts and rituals, which sometimes leads to a view of the Old believers faith as extremely conservative, not able to develop, and preferring form to content. From an Old believers point of view, the idea of contents a priori prevailing over form is simplistic. Their response could be illustrated by considering poetry.

If one converts a poem into prose, the "contents" of the poem may remain intact, but the poem will lose its charm, emotional impact, and much of its ability to influence an audience's reaction, moreover, the poem will essentially no longer exist. In the case of religious rituals, form and contents are not just two separable, autonomous entities, but are connected to each other by complex relations, including theological, psychological, phenomenal, easthetic and historic dimensions.

These aspects, in their turn, play a role in the perception of these rituals by the faithful and in their spiritual lives. Considering the fact that Church rituals from the very beginning have been connected with doctrinal truth, changing these rituals can have a tremendous effect on religious conscience and a severe impact on the faithful.

Nevertheless, centuries of persecution and the nature of their origin have made them very culturally conservative and mistrustful of anything they see as insufficiently Russian. Some Old Believers go so far as to consider any pre-Nikonian Orthodox Russian practice or artifact to be exclusively theirs, denying that the Russian Orthodox Church has any claims upon a history before Patriarch Nikon.

However, late 19th century/early 20th century history shows that the Old Believer merchant families were more flexible and more open to innovations while creating factories and starting the first Russian industries. This observation is an apparent contradiction with the official doctrine of the Old Believers' faith, but centuries of struggle developed in them a habit of working and living without great concern for the state and mainstream cultural influences. Old Believers also lent money to each other with a much lower interest rate than any financial institutions and individuals, which helped them to arrange a cross-financing network and to accumulate capital.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

Detailed Differences between the Old Believers and post-Nikonian Russian Orthodoxy
* Old Believers use 2 fingers while making the sign of the cross (2 fingers straightened, 3 folded) while new style Orthodoxy uses 3 fingers for the sign of cross (3 fingers straightened, 2 fingers folded). That is not the major difference between the two branches of Orthodoxy, but one of the most noticeable.
* Old Believers reject all changes and emendations of liturgical texts and rituals introduced by the reform of Patriarch Nikon. Thus, they continue to use the older Church Slavonic translation of the sacred texts, including the Psalter, striving to preserve intact the "pre-Nikonian" practices of the Russian Church.
* Old Believers only recognize performing the baptism through three full immersions and reject the validity of any baptismal rite that has been performed otherwise (e.g. through pouring, as has been occasionally accepted in the Russian Church since the 18th century).
* Old Believers are in principle opposed to ecumenism, even though there had been many instances of good relationship and collaboration with other Eastern Orthodox churches.
* Old Believers and new style Orthodoxy have a lot of small, but essential differences in church services. The very style of services is different.
o Old Believers do not use polyphonic singing, but only monodic, unison singing. They also have their own way of writing down music: not with linear notation, but with special signs Kryuki or Znamena ('hooks' or 'banners' in English translation; see znamennoe singing). There are several types of Old Believers znamennoe singing: znamenny raspev, stolpovoy raspev, pomorsky raspev(or khomovoe singing), demestvenny raspev etc.
o Old Believers use only icons of old Russian or Byzantine iconography; they do not believe in venerating realistic images of Christ, Our Lady and the Saints as icons (which is widely accepted in new style Orthodoxy).
o Old Believers do not kneel while making prayers, but in comparison with new style Orthodoxy, they perform more bows and especially low bows (nearly prostrations, see zemnoy poklon). While making low bows, Old Believers use a special little rug called a podruchnik, placing their hands on it. It is necessary that the fingers that are used for the cross sign remain clean during the prayers.
o On average the Old Believers' services are 2-3 times longer than in new style Orthodoxy. In general, the Old Believers insist on following the rubrics to the letter, and refrain from shortening the Psalter readings and hymnography. They also tend to combine several services together, sometimes redundantly. Thus, a typical Old-Rite "vigil service" (vsenoschnoe bdenie) would include shortened ("small") vespers, a solemn ("great") vespers, compline, midnight office, matins and the First Hour.
o It is advisable to attend Old Believer services in native Russian dress, or at least to try to correspond to the very style of this dress. For men, it means that shirts should be worn outside the trousers. It is also advised that a belt should be put on, but nowadays this recommendation is rarely followed. For women, a long skirt and a head kerchief are necessary. The kerchief shouldn't be tied (as it is in new style Orthodoxy), but rather fastened with a pin under the chin.
o While saying repetitive prayers, Old Believers use a special type of beads called lestovka.
o The Liturgy is performed with 7 Hosts, but not 5, as in new style Orthodoxy. The alleluia verse after the psalmody is chanted twice, but not three times.
+ i.e., as in Russian Orthodoxy today, the section of the psalmody would end: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, O God, the Old Believers retain the earlier version: Alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, O God.
o A more strict preparation to Communion (among those who have ordained priests) is used - very strict fasting within the week before Communion.
o This is one of the reasons why Communion among laity is common only during the Lent and other long fasts.
o It is common after each Confession to have some epitimia. Usually, it is certain number of bows, which are counted with the help of lestovka.
* Old Believers do not venerate saints that appeared in Orthodoxy after 1666. For example, they do not venerate St. Seraphim of Sarov, one of the most well-known Russian saints of the 19th century. On the other hand, many Old Believers' ecclesial bodies have canonized a number of saints who are not being recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church, e.g. archpriest Avvakum and others.
* Old Believers use cast (silver, bronze) and carved (wooden) icons as well as painted ones. The veneration of icons in relief was prohibited in new style Orthodoxy, but in Old Believers it wasn't only forgotten, but became very popular, since Old Believers had often to hide their religious implements. Cast icons, that were little and often also folding (see skladen) were very useful in that purport.
* Old Believers also have unique daily life practices:
o To shave a beard is considered a sin. Some modern denominations of Old Believers are rather tolerant toward shaved chins, however.
o Some denominations prohibit drinking coffee and tea.
o Smoking or any other use of tobacco is considered a diresin.
o The most strict and eschatological Old Believers have practices of refraining from the outer world. That may include: prohibition of sharing meals with people of other faiths, of using their belongings and wares, etc.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

Similarities between Old believers and Protestants
Despite the fact that the Old Believers movement was created as a reaction to a reform, not as a 'reform' itself, the views and the philosophy of the movement in some aspects strongly resemble Protestant philosophy (particularlyAmish, Hutterites, Mennonites and other very socially conservative denominations). This makes some people argue that Old Believers' appearance can be treated as a part of the pan-European Reformation processes. Similarities between Old Believers and Protestants have been seen as follows:

* Both Old Believers and early Protestants positioned themselves as an alternative (right alternative) to the official church.
* Since Old Believers treated Orthodoxy as a heretical church, they rather quickly developed a feeling of themselves as the only confession that can provide salvation to its members. This feeling later was transformed to a practical philosophy and theology very similar to that of the Calvinist theory of predestination. However, predestination never was proclaimed officially among the Old Believers.
* About half of the Old Believers currently have no priests; in that sense, every educated person can be chosen by a community to be a religious reader or presider.
* Those branches of Old Believers movement that rejected priests appeared in the northern parts of Russia (mainly near Novgorod and Pskov) where even pre-reform Orthodoxy developed into a rather 'democratic' form, as opposed to the highly centralized and ceremonial Orthodoxy of the southern regions.

It is important to understand, however, that the very philosophical basis of Old Believers was opposite of that of Protestants. Old Believers were trying to save the old heritage, not to make a reform, or even to return to something 'more old'. They were conservators, not reformers. And only a need for struggle for freedom of faith later made them apparently similar toProtestants. It is also noteworthey that "protestant" is a theological obscenity among conservative old believers, so a statement of similarity between these religious groups' philosophies may provide great offense.

 

[Jacob Dahlen]

References and select bibliography

NB All these works are written by scholars and scientists, non of them Old believers, except for Melnikov, who was an Old believer apologete.

In English: Cherniavsky, M., The Reception of the Council of Florence in Moscow and Shevchenko I., Ideological Repercussions of the Council of Florence, Church History XXIV (1955), 147-157 and 291-323 (articles)

Gill, T. The Council of Florence, Cambridge, 1959

Zenkovsky, Serge A. The ideology of the Denisov brothers, Harvard Slavic Studies, 1957. III, 49-66

Zenkovsky, S.: The Old Believer Avvakum, Indiana Slavic Studies, 1956, I, 1-51

Zenkovsky, Serge A.: Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia, Harvard U.P., 1960 and 1967

Zenkovsky, S.: The Russian Schism, Russian Review, 1957, XVI, 37-58


In Russian: Зеньковский С.А. Русское старообрядчество, Мюнхен 1970, Москва 1995 (Russian, with a proverb in English) / Zenkovskij S.A. “Russia’s Old Believers”, Munich 1970, Moscow 1995

Голубинский Е.Е. История русской церкви, Москва 1900 / Golubinskij E.E. “History of the Russian Church”, Moscow 1900

Голубинский Е.Е. К нашей полимике со старообрядцами, ЧОИДР, 1905 / “Contribution to our polemics with Old believers”, ČOIDR, 1905

Каптерев Н.Ф. Патриарх Никон и его противники в деле исправления церковныx обрядов, Москва 1913 / Kapterv N.F. “Patriarch Nikon and his opponents in the correction of church rituals”, Moscow 1913

Каптерев Н.Ф. Характер отношений России к православному востоку в XVI и XVII вв., Москва 1914/Kapterev N.F. Charakter of the relationships between Russia and the orthodox East in the XVI and XVII cent., Moscow 1914

Карташов А.В. Очерки по иситории русской церкви, Париж 1959 / Kartašov A.V. “Outlines of the history of the Russian chruch”, Paris 1959

Ключевский И.П. Сочинения, I – VIII, Москва 1956-1959 / Ključevskij I.P. Works, I – VIII, Moscow 1956-1959

Кутузов Б.П. Церковная «реформа» XVII века, Москва 2003 / Kutuzov B.P. “The church “reform” of the XVII century”, Moscow 2003

Мельников Ф.И., Краткая история древлеправославной (старообрядческой) церкви. Барнаул, 1999 (Russian) / Melnikov F.I., 1999 “Short history of the Old orthodox (Old ritualist) Church” Barnaul 1999
[edit]

Old Believer Churches

* Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church (Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy)
* Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church (Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy)
* Russian Old-Orthodox Church (Novozybkovskaya Hierarchy)
* Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church (Pomortsy)

 

[Ben W]

I had the opportunity when I began Bible College to make a limited amount of study of the Russian Orthodox church for a paper that I did for Church History.

I was quite taken with their liturgy, and their sound Biblical teaching on Christian doctrines like the Trinity. In fact I would go as far as to say that it is the Orthodox Scholars that do the best job of showing how the Trinity exists in Scripture.

There has been more and more dialogue between the Orthodox and some of the western evangelical Churches, I think that this is a good thing, and that evangelicals will be in a position to learn quite alot!