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The Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church is the second largest religious denomination in Finland. The Orthodox Church suffered during the Second World War and lost its monasteries and 90% of its assets, and more than two-thirds of its members had to flee their homes when the Soviet Union occupied Karelia. Membership of the Orthodox Church fell in the 1950s and 1960s as a consequence of the large proportion (close to 90%) of marriages between Lutherans and Orthodox. The children of these marriages were usually baptized as Lutherans. The trend changed in the 1980s and membership of the Orthodox Church has begun to grow, with more people joining it than leaving it. Immigration from Russia has also contributed to the increase of absolute numbers of believers even though the percentage of population has remained the same. It currently has about 60,000 members (of which 16 % are born outside of Finland), which is 1.1% of the Finnish population.

updated by Kimmo Ketola

D 25 May 2017    AKimmo Kääriäinen

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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