Christianity in Azerbaijan

Christianity in Azerbaijan is a minority religion. Christians who estimated between 280,000-450,000 (3.1%-4.8%)[1] are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic (almost all Armenians live in the break-away region of Nagorno-Karabakh). There is also a small ethnic Azerbaijani Protestant Christian community most of them came from Muslim backgrounds.[2][3]

Denominations

St. Mary Protector of Caucasus icon in Archangel Michael church, Baku.

There are eleven Molokan communities. The Molokans are a Christian minority which, much like Protestants in Western Europe, center their beliefs on the Bible and reject church hierarchy. 2.5% of the population (1998) belong to the Russian Orthodox Church (1998). The Russian Orthodox Church has the Eparchy of Baku and the Caspian region with a seat in Azerbaijan. Among the famous landmark Russian churches are Church of Michael Archangel, Holy Myrrhbearers Cathedral and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral destroyed by the communists at the beginning of the 20th century.

There is only one Roman Catholic congregation. A Roman Catholic church in Baku was opened in 2007.

The Albanian-Udi Church is of the Udi people minority in Azerbaijan.

There is a German Lutheran community, likely to number less than 7,000 Protestants. There is also a Georgian Orthodox community and churches.

The Armenian Apostolic Church currently has no community outside the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Before the outbreak of the war, Armenians formed the largest Christian population. The Armenian churches in Azerbaijan remain closed, because of the large outmigration of Armenians and fear of Azerbaijani attacks.[4] During the Nagorno-Karabakh War, despite the constitutional guarantees against religious discrimination, numerous acts of vandalism against the Armenian Apostolic Church have been reported throughout Azerbaijan.[5] At the height of atrocities against the Armenian minorities in Baku in 1990, the Armenian Church of St. Gregory Illuminator in Baku was set on fire,[6] but was restored in 2004 and is not used anymore. The Church of St. Gregory Illuminator is the only remaining Armenian church in Baku, all other Armenian churches have been demolished in the 1990s.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Global Christianity An Interactive Feature
  2. ↑ "5,000 Azerbaijanis adopted Christianity" (in Russian). Day.az. 7 July 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  3. ↑ "Christian Missionaries Becoming Active in Azerbaijan" (in Azerbaijani). Tehran Radio. 19 June 2011. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  4. ↑ United States Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, February 1993), p. 708
  5. ↑ Memorandum from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to John D. Evans, Resource Information Center, 13 June 1993, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union" (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, January 1993), p. 116

Further reading

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