The Ebb and Flow of Christianity in Eastern Europe and Russia

Eastern Europe is one of the Church’s oldest mission fields. Paul was on his second missionary journey when God used a dream to lead him to go to what is now Greece. Two of the churches Paul founded on that journey still exist today. Thessalonika (Modern day Salonika) and Corinth are still major administrative centers of the Greek Orthodox Church even to this day. For the first 300 years, the Church focused on planting congregations throughout the Roman Empire. Early missionaries gave little thought to reaching people groups beyond Rome’s control.

Early Efforts to Reach the Goths and Slavs

There were early contacts with the peoples of eastern Europe. Roman armies often raided lands north of the Danube River. These armies brought back slaves who were sold in the empire’s major cities. The Church reached out to these people with the gospel. Most of these slaves were from Gothic people groups.

When the Goths began migrating out of central and eastern Europe during the decline of Roman rule in the late 4th century, various Slavic people groups moved into the lands abandoned by them. These Slavic tribes were in the process of being driven west and south by the Huns, a vicious people group that poured out of Central Asia in search of new pastures for their flocks.

Attacks by Slavic tribes drove various Gothic people groups into the Roman Empire. The tribes that Rome’s weakened armies were unable to expel were allowed to settle within the empire. Rome was now divided and weaker than anyone realized. Two emperors now ruled the empire, one in the west and one in the east. Some of the Goths who had settled within the empire revolted in A.D. 378. This led to the Battle of Adrianople. The defeat of the Roman armies at Adrianople would start a chain of events that would lead to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire nearly a century later.

Strong emperors in the east prevented the collapse of the eastern Roman Empire after A.D. 476. One of them was Justinian, who ruled from 518 to A.D. 565. Justinian was a Christian, and he strongly supported the churches within his empire. He encouraged missionaries to reach out to the Slavic peoples living north of the Danube River. These missionaries fought a hard battle against paganism and heretical doctrines. Aryan missionaries had contacted some of these Slavic tribes first, winning them to their own heretical brand of Christianity. Seeds of faith were planted among the Slavs but converts were few.

Missionary Efforts Get Stalled

After A.D. 600, missionary efforts in eastern Europe got side-tracked by the birth of Islam and Arab attacks on the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian’s successors had little energy or resources to reach out to the people groups of eastern Europe. They were fighting a life-and-death war for the very survival of their empire and Orthodox Christianity. Lands that were once “Christian” were rapidly becoming Muslim with the advent of the Muslim empires.

Internal threats also side-tracked missionary efforts in eastern Europe. Churches in the east and the west went their separate ways after A.D. 476. Increasingly the doctrine of the Trinity divided Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. In the west, theologians believed the Holy Spirit emanated from the Father and the Son. In the east, theologians believed the Holy Spirit emanated from the Father alone. There was also a controversy over religious art. Statues of Jesus, Mary and the Apostles were considered acceptable in the West. In the east, such statues were thought of as idols and thus forbidden.

In the 11th century, the break between east and west became final when the Pope excommunicated the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Patriarch returned the favor. After the split, the Roman Catholic Church tended to ignore the people groups of Eastern Europe. The only notable exceptions were the Poles and the Slovenes.

The controversy between east and west didn’t stop all missionary efforts in Eastern Europe. Around A.D. 800, two brothers named Cyril and Methodius made a series of missionary journeys north of the Danube River on behalf of the Orthodox Church. They are also honored today by Roman Catholics. They reached as far as Russia and planted small churches at every stop they made. Their efforts expanded the reach of the Kingdom of God.

The split between east and west freed the Orthodox Church to resume outreach efforts in eastern Europe in earnest. New workers watered the seeds planted by Cyril and Methodius. Around A.D. 1000, King Stephen of Hungary was converted. Stephen’s conversion completely changed the spiritual climate of Hungary, the land of the Huns. As late as A.D. 955, the Huns had still been sacking Christian churches in Austria. Stephen quickly made Orthodox Christianity the national religion. Orthodox missionaries preached quick sermons to the Huns, which were followed by mass baptisms. Many of these converts were less than sincere, but it was a starting point.

Russia Converts to Orthodox Christianity

Other Orthodox missionaries worked with the churches Cyril and Methodius had started in Russia. One of them converted Princess Olga of Kiev. Olga’s grandson, Prince Vladimir, would later go on a spiritual search. He investigated Islam, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism. In A.D. 988, Vladimir embraced Eastern Orthodoxy and ordered his subjects to do the same.

Vladimir sent for more Orthodox missionaries. The churches of Greece supplied as many workers as they were able. Again, mass sermons were preached in every village of the Principality of Kiev, which controlled most of what is now European Russia. As with the Huns, after the sermons they held mass baptisms. Many of these converts, too, were not sincere; they knew that the penalty for refusing baptism was death. Only a few of the missionaries remained in Russia after the mass baptisms. Most new converts understood little of their new faith. In Hungary and Russia, the Orthodox Church had relied too much on conversions of the leaders. This mistake would lead to spiritual weakness. Vladimir quickly declared himself to be the leader of the newly formed Russian Orthodox Church. A shortage of workers led to a serious problem with nominalism in many Russian churches.

Disaster struck in A.D. 1237 when the Mongols invaded the Principality of Kiev. Kiev would remain under Mongol rule until A.D. 1480. During the occupation, the Russian Orthodox Church became a hotbed for opposition to Mongol rule. Faith and patriotism became entwined, creating another source of nominalism within the Russian Orthodox Church. The occupation diverted resources away from missionary work as the Russian church focused on winning independence from the Mongols.

In 1480 Russia threw off the Mongol yoke and established a new Russian state in Moscow. Internal divisions soon side-tracked the Russian Orthodox Church from missionary work. In 1503 there was a controversy over whether monasteries should own land, leading to a church split. After 1600, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Nikon introduced a new liturgy that angered traditionalists into splitting from the Russian church. In a twisted attempt to restore unity, the reformers persecuted the old believers.

During the 1700s, church/state relations became an issue when Peter the Great tried to take direct control over the Russian Orthodox Church. Although Grand Prince Vladimir had ruled the Russian church directly, many of his successors had appointed patriarchs to rule the Russian Orthodox Church. This controversy would divert resources away from missionary work.

The Orthodox Church Suffers During the Communist Era

The controversy ended in 1917 when the Russian monarchy was overthrown and Tikhon was appointed Patriarch of Moscow. Tikhon quickly denounced Vladimir Lenin and his communist comrades, who had taken control of Russia during the chaos of the 1917 Revolution. Lenin put up with Tikhon’s denunciations until he was securely in power. Lenin then shut down all churches and banned religion. Many priests and believers ended up in labor camps in Siberia. The Russian church, forced to go underground, was in no condition to engage in missionary activity.

Between 1941 and 1945 Stalin briefly legalized the Russian Orthodox Church in an attempt to unify all Russians against the German invaders. After they won World War II, Stalin outlawed all religion and persecution resumed. Attacks against the Russian church would gradually ease starting in 1984, when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. Complete religious freedom would be restored in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Boris Yeltsin became the President of the Russian Republic.

Today nominalism is still a major problem within the Russian Orthodox Church. Various church leaders are trying to get Orthodoxy declared the state religion. The Russian church has also engaged in slander campaigns against other denominations such as the Baptists and Pentecostals. But there are still a small number of true believers within the Russian Orthodox Church, people who have joined forces with the Baptists and the Pentecostals to reach out to unreached people groups in what had once been the Soviet Union.

Let Us Pray

The Orthodox Churches in eastern Europe need our prayers. Nominalism is a serious problem in many of them. Some Orthodox Churches are also plagued by hard core nationalist elements. The Serbian Orthodox Church is a mixture of true believers and radical nationalists who believe God has called them to wipe out all Bosnian Muslims. Pray for a restoration of doctrinal purity. Because of division and heresy, there has also been serious shortage of missionaries being sent out by the various Orthodox Churches. Ask God to restore unity and put a stop to the diversion of resources away from the fulfillment of the Great Commission.