The Russian True Orthodox Church (RTOC, russian: Российская истинно православная церковь, РИПЦ), also called lazarites (after Archbishop

Lazar (Zhurbenko) Lazar may refer to: * Lazar (name), any of various persons with this name * Lazar BVT, Serbian mine resistant, ambush-protected, armoured vehicle * Lazar 2, Serbian armored vehicle * Lazar 3, Serbian armored van * Lazăr, a tributary of the river J ...

) or tikhonites (after Archbishop Tikhon (Pasechnik)), is an independent

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

church professing

True Orthodoxy True Orthodox church, True Orthodox Christians, True Orthodoxy or Genuine Orthodoxy, often pejoratively "Zealotry", designates groups of traditionalist Eastern Orthodox churches which have severed communion since the 1920s with the mainstream East ...

. It was formed in 2002 by Archbishop

and Bishop Benjamin (Rusalenko), the two hierarchs of ROCOR inside the territory of Russia, who refused the processe of unification of the

ROCOR The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (russian: Ру́сская Правосла́вная Це́рковь Заграни́цей, lit=Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, translit=Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov' Zagranitsey), also called Ru ...

with the

Moscow Patriarchate , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

; Lazar and Benjamin therefore joined the (a rival Church of the ROCOR), then left it thereafter and thus their Church became independent. The RTOC has two

Archbishops In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdioc ...

(Tikhon and Benjamin) and 3

Bishops A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

(Filaret, Savvati and Germogen); the president of the Holy Synod is Archbishop Tikhon.

History

The RTOC was formed in 2002, when Archbishop

and Bishop Benjamin (Rusalenko) ordained Bishop Tikhon (Pasechnik), Hermogen of

Chernigov Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative ...

and

Gomel Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census). Etymology There are at least six narratives of the o ...

, Bishop Irenaeus of Verniy (today

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

) and Semirechiye and Bishop Dionysius of

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...

and

Tver Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...

. In 2003 they transformed their Hierarchical Forum into a Hierarchical Synod, the Russian True Orthodox Church. According to the RTOC, all this was in accordance with the Decree of Saint

Patriarch Tikhon Tikhon of Moscow (russian: Тихон Московский, – ), born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin (russian: Василий Иванович Беллавин), was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). On 5 November 1917 ( OS) he was ...

number 362, with their Second All-Russian Conference of clergy and laity, and had the blessing of Metropolitan

Vitaly (Ustinov) Metropolitan Vitaly (russian: Митрополит Виталий, secular name Rostislav Petrovich Ustinov, russian: Ростислав Петрович Устинов; 18 March 1910, St Petersburg – 25 September 2006, Magog, Quebec, Canada) wa ...

. In 2011 the hierarchs of the RTOC have ordained hieromonk Akakije (Nemanja Stanković) as the bishop of the Serbian True Orthodox Church. In 2018 the bishops of the RTOC broke communion with the Serbian True Orthodox Church as Bishop Akakije took under his omophorion a large number of clergy that had no canonical leave from the hierarchs of the RTOC. Currently in Russia, the Russian True Orthodox Church has the following dioceses: Omsk-Siberia, Odessa-Kharkiv, Black Sea-Kuban, Chernihiv-Gomel, Novgorod-Tver, and Verney-Semirechiye (Kazakhstan).

Doctrine

The RTOC rejects Sergianism and holds that the

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the real ...

of the

Moscow Patriarchate , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

(which they consider distinct from the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

that existed before the

Bolshevik revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was ...

) are

anathema Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a cr ...

or invalid and ineffectual for salvation. The RTOC upholds in principle and emphasizes the ROCOR 1983

against ecumenism, which is an anathema against the

branch theory Branch theory is an ecclesiological proposition that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church includes various Christian denominations whether in formal communion or not. The theory is often incorporated in the Protestant notion of an invis ...

Notes

References

{{Eastern Christianity footer True Orthodox denominations 20th-century Eastern Orthodoxy