Old Believer church outside of Gervais, Oregon.
In 1971 the Moscow Patriarchate revoked the anathemas placed on the Old Believers in the 17th century, but most Old Believer communities have not returned to Communion with other Orthodox Christians. Estimates place the total number of Old Believers remaining today at from 1 to 10 millions, some living in extremely isolated communities in places to which they fled centuries ago to avoid persecution. One
Old-Believer parish in the United States has entered into communion with the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Old-Believer churches in Russia currently have started restoration of their property, although Old Believers (unlike the nearly-official mainstream Orthodoxy) face many difficulties in claiming their restitution rights for their churches. Moscow has churches for all the most important Old Believer branches:
Rogozhskaya Zastava (
Popovtsy of the
Belokrinitskaya hierarchy official center), a cathedral for the
Novozybkovskaya hierarchy in
Zamoskvorech'ye and
Preobrazhenskaya Zastava where
Pomortsy and
Fedoseevtsy coexist.
Russian Old Believers in Woodburn, Oregon. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev.
Within the Old-Believer world, only
Pomortsy and
Fedoseevtsy treat each other relatively well; none of the other denominations acknowledge each other. Ordinary Old Believers display some tendencies of intra-branch
ecumenism, but these trends find sparse support among the official leaders of the congregations.
Nowadays Old Believers live all over the world they scattered mainly due to persecutions under the Tsars and due to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Significant Old-Believer communities exist in Plamondon, Alberta; Woodburn, Oregon; Erie, Pennsylvania; Erskine, Minnesota and in various parts of Alaska including near Homer (Voznesenka, Razdolna, and Kachemak Selo), Anchor Point (Nikolaevsk), Anchorage, Willow, Wasilla, and Delta Junction. A flourishing community also exists in Sydney, Australia.