Bespopovtsy ( rus, беспоповцы, p=bʲɪspɐˈpoft͡sɨ, "priestless ones") are Priestless Old Believers that reject Nikonite priests. They are one of the two major strains of

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow bet ...

. Priestless Old Believers may have evolved into the first

Spiritual Christians Spiritual Christianity (russian: духовное христианство) is the group of belief systems held by so-called ''folk Protestants'' (), including non-Eastern Orthodox indigenous faith tribes and new religious movements that emerge ...

which were divided into various and diverse tribal sects including:

Pomortsy The Pomorian Old Orthodox Church ( rus, Древлеправославная поморская церковь, Drevlepravoslavnaya pomorskaya tserkov), also known as the Pomorian Church, Danilovtsy, Danilov's confession, or simply as Pomorians, i ...

Fedoseyans Fedoseevtsy, also Fedoseyans (федосеевцы, феодосиевцы in Russian), sometimes anglicised as Theodosians, comprise a dissident religious movement formed in Imperial Russia. They have become one of the denominations among the Bes ...

Filippians Filippians or Philippians () was a ''soglasiye'' (confession, literally, "agreement") of the Bespopovtsy (the "priestless") strain of Old Believers. They detached themselves from Pomortsy under the leadership of a "teacher" Filipp at the beginn ...

, ''Beguny'' ("Runners"), ''Netovtsy''/''Netovshchina'', and many others. Some reject

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

s and a number of church

rite Rite may refer to: * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite of passage, a ceremonious act associated with social transition Religion * Rite (Christianity), a sacred ritual or liturgical tradition in various Christian denominations * Catho ...

s, such as the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

, believing that any priest or

hierarch An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws. Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ...

who has used the Nikonite Rites has forfeited

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

. Others still believe in the existence of a priesthood, but happen to find themselves without priests. Many such sects have historically received Nikonite priests that have publicly repented from the reforms of Patriarch Nikon.

Sources

* Crummey, Robert O. ''The Old Believers & The World Of Antichrist; The Vyg Community & The Russian State'', Wisconsin U.P., 1970. * Zenkovsky, Serge A. "The ideology of the Denisov brothers", ''Harvard Slavic Studies'', 1957. III, 49–66. * * * * * *

Sources

See also