Orthodox Church of Romania

Doctrines		On all major issues the Orthodox Church of Romania is in agreement with other Eastern Orthodox Churches. (See Eastern Orthodoxy.)
History		Christianity came to the region that is now Romania as early as the second century. In the ninth century the region was conquered by the Bulgars who imposed the Byzantine rite on their subjects. Following the schism of 1054 the Romanian church broke with Rome and allied itself with Constantinople. Between 1712 and 1829 the Romanian Church was administered by the Patriarch of Constantinople. In 1864 the autocephalous Church of Romania was established, and was recognised by Constantinople in 1885. After the first world war the boundaries and population of Romania were considerably enlarged, making the Orthodox Church of Romania the second largest of the Orthodox Churches. During the communist period from 1948 the Orthodox Church of Romania worked in close co-operation with the political authorities. In 1989 a popular uprising overthrew the authorities and established a democratic constitution.
Symbols		Festal icons, Christ as Pantocrator, Mary as Theotokos. (See Eastern Orthodoxy.)
Adherents		The Romanian Orthodox Church has some 19,000,000 members (Europa Publications Limited 1995, 2:2554).
Headquarters/ Main Centre		Holy Synod, 70666 Bucharest, Str. Antrim 29.