Romanian Orthodox Church : Ask Biography

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The Romanian Orthodox Church (Biserica Ortodoxă Română in Romanian) is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch. Its jurisdiction covers the territory of Romania, with dioceses for Romanians living in nearby Moldova, Serbia and Hungary, as well as diaspora communities in Central and Western Europe, North America and Oceania.

It is the only Eastern Orthodox church using a Romance language. The majority of people in Romania (18,817,975, or 86.8% of the population, according to the 2002 census data) belong to it, as well as some 720,000 Moldovans. The Romanian Orthodox Church is the second-largest in size behind the Russian Orthodox Church.

Adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church sometimes refer to it as Dreapta credinţă ("right/correct belief" or "true faith"; compare to Greek ὀρθὴ δόξα, "straight/correct belief").