Old believers

Here is the website of an Old Believer parish that came under ROCOR. They have a Facebook page and everything, so you can probably ask questions there from people who know.

Church of the Nativity

M.

There are many different groups of "Old Believers". It's more proper to call the majority of them "Old Ritualists" since, for the most part, their theology is completely Orthodox. Though in some of the more secluded groups, superstition has equal weight to actual Orthodox teachings. They are split up into two main groups, the "Popovtsy" or "Priested" and the "Bezpopovtsy" or "Priestless". Both are split into dozens of other groups, and all but a few are uncononical. There is a parish in ROCOR in the US, and dozens of "Edinoverie" parishes in Russia, who are directly under the Moscow Patriarchate, whose Bishop I believe is Yuvenal of Kolomensk. Edinoverie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hello, Fr. Nikolai. It's nice to see you back here again.

Mary

CatholicAtHeart said:

But how does one become an Old believer?

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Why.Would.You.Ever.Want.To.Do.THAT???

CatholicAtHeart said:

This is kinda not suitable for this forum, I think! But how does one become an Old believer? I'm not going there, but I watched a documentary on them, and they seem in small secluded groups, so would be impossible to contact but I hear of converts. Do they even have priests?!

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There was actually a thread on the issue that may be helpful - as seen in Amazing Story

Nickolai said:

There are many different groups of "Old Believers". It's more proper to call the majority of them "Old Ritualists" since, for the most part, their theology is completely Orthodox. Though in some of the more secluded groups, superstition has equal weight to actual Orthodox teachings. They are split up into two main groups, the "Popovtsy" or "Priested" and the "Bezpopovtsy" or "Priestless". Both are split into dozens of other groups, and all but a few are uncononical. There is a parish in ROCOR in the US, and dozens of "Edinoverie" parishes in Russia, who are directly under the Moscow Patriarchate, whose Bishop I believe is Yuvenal of Kolomensk. Edinoverie - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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So are they somewhat comparable to the anti-Vatican-II Catholic groups, some of which remained formally in communion but continued to insist on the Latin Mass, and others which split and declared the Vatican to have fallen away? And some of which even appointed their own Pope?

And are they strictly Russian?

Ignatius21 said:

So are they somewhat comparable to the anti-Vatican-II Catholic groups, some of which remained formally in communion but continued to insist on the Latin Mass, and others which split and declared the Vatican to have fallen away? And some of which even appointed their own Pope?

And are they strictly Russian?

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The situation with the Old Believers is much different. After the Nikonian reforms (led by, as you might guess, Patriarch Nikon) lots of believers in Russia thought the reforms were not needed, and some even heretical. A council in 1551 called the "Stoglav" council had condemed many of the practices that the Russian Church didn't follow, so when the reforms made those same changes that Stoglav rejected, it was seen as an illegitimate change. But the reforms were pushed by Tsar Alexei by force, and many people were imprisoned, or killed. The people who would later become the "Old Believers" fled to neighboring countries, and some eventually went all over the world. After a few decades the Priesthood shrunk (since no Bishops were there to ordain new ones). Groups then split up into their various groupings based on the personal Theology of the lay leaders (called "Nastavniks"). Later on the Church of Russia admitted that both the Stoglav and Moscow Sobors (the one that mandated the reforms and athathematized the Old Rituals) weren't binding. So some communities were brought back into the Moscow Church. Supposedly there were hundreds of Old Rite Churches in Russia before the revolution, they even had their own Bishop (who later became a new-martyr, St. Simon) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Bishop_Simeon_Shleev.jpg But many Old Believers were too wary of the Moscow Church (or still think the Nikonian reforms are heretical, so won't join with the "Nikonian Church").

A good summary can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raskol