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→The Church in Moldova
====The Church in Moldova====
Romanians in the Republic of Moldova (a region formerly known as "Moldavia") belonging to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, having resisted Russification for 192 years (after the annexation of Bessarabia by the Russian Empire in 1812), are improbably said to currently number about 2 million. The Metropolis of Bessarabia is part of the Romanian patriarchate. In 2001 at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights, it won a landmark legal victory against the government of the Republic of Moldova for its official recognition in that country.
Following the creation of Greater Romania after the First World War, Orthodox Christians in Moldova became part of the Church of Romania. Following Stalin's annexation of the country in 1944, the church there was again brought under the authority of the [[Church of Russia]]. Following the fall of communism, Moldova's government refused to allow the Romanian church to exercise any authority in Moldova. The Bessarabian metropolis was created by the Romanian Patriarchate to cater for those clergy and people wanting to return part of Moldova to Romanian rule. With the European Court ruling of 2001, the Metropolis of Bessarabia was declared to be a part of the Church of Romania and permitted to operate in Moldova.
