RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

The Russian Orthodox Church has a history that is is more that one thousand years old. St. Anthony of the Caves founded the famous Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, which was to become the center of religious life in Old Russia. The monasteries in Russia were the major centers of education; they recorded all the main historical events in the life of Russia.

Freedom of worship is one of the keystones of the modern Russian constitution. Around 11,000 places of worship are registered in Russia, according to the Ministry of Justice (1994). They belong to the following world religions, denominations of Christianity and other faiths:

- Russian Orthodox Church - 5,494
- Islam - 3,264
- Evangelical Christian - Baptists - 550
- Pentecostals - 192
- Adventists - 156
- Old Believers - 141
- Roman Catholic - 138
- Evangelical Protestants - 109

There are also dozens of other places of worship for other faiths, including Buddhist, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Jehovah's Witnesses, Methodists and Hare-Krishna. There are 132 inter-denominational churches.

The Eastern Church calls itself the Orthodox Church, which means the "right teaching", because it claims to keep much closer to the teachings of the Apostles than the Roman Church does. Christianity helped unite Russian people and promote the development of a written language, and also helped introduce Byzantine culture to Russia.