Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...

is a minority religion, accounting for 2.3% of the population or 630,000 according to a 2010 study by

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...

History

Historically, Uzbekistan had communities of

Eastern Christians Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

, including

Nestorians Nestorianism is a term used in Christian theology and Church history to refer to several mutually related but doctrinarily distinct sets of teachings. The first meaning of the term is related to the original teachings of Christian theologian N ...

and Jacobites (historically associated with

miaphysitism Miaphysitism is the Christological doctrine that holds Jesus, the "Incarnate Word, is fully divine and fully human, in one 'nature' (''physis'')." It is a position held by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and differs from the Chalcedonian positio ...

). Around the 14th century, Christianity began rapidly declining. Factors to the decline included a plague that spread into the region which killed off much of the Christian communities living there. Remaining Christians probably converted to Islam due to economic reasons. Under the Timurids, the political situation likely exacerbated the already struggling community. The last Christians in Samarkand and Central Asia were reportedly persecuted by his grandson,

Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...

.Dickens, Mark "Nestorian Christianity in Central Asia. p. 17-18 However, due to a lack of reliable records, the details surrounding the decline of the Syriac Christians of the area remains obscure. Christianity returned to the region after the Russian conquest in 1867, when Orthodox churches were built in large cities, to serve Russian and European settlers and officers. According to a 2009

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

release, about 5% of the population of Uzbekistan are Orthodox Christians, most of whom are ethnic

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

. According to a 2010 study by

2.5% of the population of Uzbekistan are Orthodox Christians. There are about 4,000 Roman Catholics in Uzbekistan. New parishes cannot register. In 2006 a law, by which printing religious books can be punished with three years, came. The government indulges in massive persecution of Christians. There is strong pressure on Christians from a Muslim background in remote areas. Uzbekistan was designated to its list of countries of particular concern of the U.S. State Department.

Christian converts

A 2015 study estimates some 10,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some sort of evangelical or charismatic Protestant community.

Protestants

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

are less than one percent of the population. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Uzbekistan has seven parishes. The seat of the bishop is

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

. The president of the synod is Gilda Razpopova.

Denominations

* Baptist Union in Uzbekistan *

German Evangelical Lutheran Church The United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (German: Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands, VELKD) was founded on July 8, 1948, in Eisenach, Germany. Its total membership is 8.6 million people. The Member Churches of this org ...

Korean Baptist Churches Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language ** Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju languag ...

Korean Methodist Church The Korean Methodist Church is a large Methodist denomination in South Korea, with approximately 1.5 million members. Methodist missionaries came from the United States in the late 19th century. It became independent in 1930, and celebrated its cent ...

Korean Presbyterian church Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) was a Protestant denomination based in South Korea; it is currently separated into many branches. History The first Korean Presbyterian church was founded by Seo Sang-ryun in Hwanghae province in 1884. Short ...

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

were present in Uzbekistan for decades before the country became an independent nation in 1991. Since 1992 Uzbekistan authorities continue to deny legal registration to all congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses except for one in Chirchik. There are estimated to be 500 followers of the religious organization just in Chirchik alone. Under Uzbek law, Jehovah's Witnesses have a right to hold meetings only in the Kingdom Hall, while any religious propaganda is prohibited.

References