Metropolis of Bessarabia | |
|---|---|
 Organization of the Metropolis of Bessarabia | |
| Location | |
| Territory |  Moldova |
| Headquarters | Chișinău |
| Statistics | |
| Population - Total | 720,000 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Eastern Orthodox |
| Sui iuris church | Romanian Patriarchate (Autonomous Metropolis) |
| Established | 1918 |
| Language | Romanian |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Metropolitan Petru |
| Website | |
| mitropoliabasarabiei.md | |
The Metropolis of Bessarabia (Romanian: Mitropolia Basarabiei), also referred to as the Bessarabian Orthodox Church,[1] is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan bishopric of the Romanian Orthodox Church, situated in Moldova. Its canonical jurisdiction is the territory of the Republic of Moldova, and over the Moldovan and Romanian Orthodox diaspora from the former USSR.[2]
The Metropolis of Bessarabia was created in 1918, as the Archbishopric of Chișinău, and organized as a Metropolis, in 1927.[3] Inactive during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940–1941) and the Soviet rule in Moldova (1944–1991), the Metropolis of Bessarabia was re-activated on 14 September 1992, and raised to the rank of exarchate, in 1995. The current Metropolitan of Bessarabia is Petru (Păduraru).[4]
- ^ International Religious Freedom Report 2007 about Moldova
- ^ Mitropolia Ortodoxa Romana a Basarabiei at crestinortodox.ro
- ^ "The Position of the Romanian Patriarchate concerning the Reactivation of the Three Dioceses in the Metropolitanate of Bessarabia". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-04.
- ^ Administrative Organisation of the Romanian Orthodox Church Archived 2014-01-23 at the Wayback Machine at patriarhia.ro