Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Western Asia, Northeast Africa, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Malabar coast of South Asia, and parts of the Far East. The term does not describe a single communion or religious denomination.
Samarkand, also known as Samarqand, is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city from the late Paleolithic Era, though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded; several theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and Europe, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities of Central Asia. Most of the inhabitants of this city are Persian-speaking and speak the Tajik Persian dialect. This city is one of the historical centers of the Tajik people in Central Asia, which in the past was one of the important cities of the great empires of Iran.
As of 2011, most Armenians are Christians (97%) and are members of Armenia's own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is one of the oldest Christian churches. It was founded in the 1st century AD, and in 301 AD became the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion.
Christianity in Azerbaijan is a minority religion. Christians who estimated between 280,000 and 450,000 (3.1%-4.8%) are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic. There is also a small Protestant Christian community which mostly came from Muslim backgrounds.
Religion in Ukraine is diverse, with a majority of the population adhering to Christianity. A 2018 survey conducted by the Razumkov Centre found that 71.7% of the population declared themselves believers. About 67.3% of the population declared adherence to one or another strand of Orthodox Christianity, 7.7% 'Christian' with no declared denominational affiliation, 9.4% Ukrainian Byzantine Rite Catholics, 2.2% Protestants and 0.8% Latin Rite Catholics, 2.5 % Islam, Judaism was the religion of the 0.4%; while a small percentage follow Hinduism, Buddhism and Paganism (Rodnovery). A further 11.0% declared themselves non-religious or unaffiliated. According to the surveys conducted by Razumkov in the 2000s and early 2010s, such proportions have remained relatively constant throughout the last decade, while the proportion of believers overall has decreased from 76% in 2014 to 70% in 2016 and 72% in 2018.
The History of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the formation, events, and transformation of the Eastern Orthodox Church through time.
According to the 2021 census, the predominant religion in Lithuania is Christianity, with the largest confession being that of the Catholic Church. There are smaller groups of Orthodox Christians, Evangelical Lutherans, members of Reformed churches, other Protestants, Jews and Muslims as well as people of other religions.
Christianity in Russia is the most widely professed religion in the country. The largest tradition is the Russian Orthodox Church. According to official sources, there are 170 eparchies of the Russian Orthodox Church, 145 of which are grouped in metropolitanates. There are from 500,000 to one million Old Believers, who represents an older form of Russian Orthodox Christianity, and who separated from the Orthodox Church in the 17th century as a protest against Patriarch Nikon's church reforms.
Christianity in Uzbekistan is a minority religion, accounting for 2.3% of the population or 630,000 according to a 2010 study by Pew Research Center.
The wide variety of peoples inhabiting Georgia has meant a correspondingly rich array of active religions in the country. Today most of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily in the Georgian Orthodox Church, whose faithful make up 83.4% of the population. Around 1% belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, while about 3.9% of the population follow the Armenian Apostolic Church, almost all of which are ethnic Armenians. Adherents of Islam make up 10.7% of the population and are mainly found in the Adjara and Kvemo Kartli regions and as a sizeable minority in Tbilisi. Catholics of the Armenian and Latin churches make up around 0.8% of the population and are mainly found in the south of Georgia and a small number in Tbilisi. There is also a sizeable Jewish community in Tbilisi served by two synagogues.
Today 84% of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily the Georgian Orthodox Church. Of these, around 2% follow the Russian Orthodox Church, around 5.9% follow the Armenian Apostolic Church and 0.8% are Catholics and are mainly found in the south of Georgia but with a small number in its capital, Tbilisi.
The Turkmen of Turkmenistan, like their kin in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran are predominantly Muslims. According the U.S. Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report for 2019,
According to U.S. government estimates, the country is 89 percent Muslim, 9 percent Eastern Orthodox, and 2 percent other. There are small communities of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shia Muslims, Baha’is, Roman Catholics, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and evangelical Christians, including Baptists and Pentecostals. Most ethnic Russians and Armenians identify as Orthodox Christian and generally are members of the Russian Orthodox Church or Armenian Apostolic Church. Some ethnic Russians and Armenians are also members of smaller Protestant groups. There are small pockets of Shia Muslims, consisting largely of ethnic Iranians, Azeris, and Kurds, some located in Ashgabat, with others along the border with Iran and in the western city of Turkmenbashy.
Christianity is the most adhered to religion in Canada, with 67.3% of Canadians identifying themselves as of the 2011 census. The preamble to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms refers to God. The monarch carries the title of "Defender of the Faith". The French colonization beginning in the 17th century established a Roman Catholic francophone population in New France, especially Acadia and Lower Canada. British colonization brought waves of Anglicans and other Protestants to Upper Canada, now Ontario. The Russian Empire spread Orthodox Christianity in a small extent to the tribes in the far north and western coasts, particularly hyperborean nomadics like the Inuit. Orthodoxy would arrive in mainland Canada with immigrants from the eastern and southern Austro-Hungarian Empire and western Russian Empire starting in the 1890s; then refugees from the Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc, Greece and elsewhere during the last half of the 20th century.
Christianity has a long history in Kyrgyzstan, with the earliest archaeological remains of churches belonging to the Church of the East in modern-day Suyab dating back to the 7th century. By the 9th century an archdiocese of the Church of the East cared for the Christians of Kyrgyzstan and adjacent areas in eastern Turkestan. Although primarily Turkic there was also an Armenian community in what today is Kyrgyzstan by the 14th century. By the 15th century, however, there were no longer ecclesiastical structures of any church caring for what is today Kyrgyzstan and Islam gained the ascendancy amongst the Kyrgyz people.
Islam is the predominant religion in Uzbekistan. It totals 92% of the population.
Eastern Orthodoxy in Uzbekistan refers to adherents and religious communities of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has a Muslim majority, but some 5% of the population are Eastern Orthodox Christians, mainly ethnic Russians.
Armenians in Central Asian states: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, were mainly settled there during the Soviet era for various reasons.
Based on the numbers of adherents, the Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian communion in the world, after the Roman Catholic Church, with the most common estimates of baptised members being approximately 220 million. The numerous Protestant groups in the world, if taken all together, substantially outnumber the Eastern Orthodox, but they differ theologically and do not form a single communion.
Oriental Orthodoxy in North America represents adherents, religious communities, institutions and organizations of Oriental Orthodox Christianity in North America, including the United States, Canada, Mexico and other North American states. Oriental Orthodox Christians in North America are traditionally organized in accordance with their patrimonial ecclesiastical jurisdictions, with each community having its own structure of dioceses and parishes. Most Oriental Orthodox Christians in North America belong to Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Indian, Syriac and some other communities, representing religious majority or minority within a particular community. Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions are organized within the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches.
Oriental Orthodox Churches are the churches descended from those that rejected the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Despite the similar name, they are therefore a different branch of Christianity from the Eastern Orthodox. Oriental Orthodoxy consists of several autocephalous and autonomous jurisdictions holding a single set of beliefs and united in full communion. However, they each have their own separate rites, and there are significant differences between their respective practices. Thus, there is more internal diversity of practice among the Oriental Orthodox than among the Eastern Orthodox.
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