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The '''Church of Russia''', also referred to as the '''Moscow Patriarchate''' and known officially as the '''Russian Orthodox Church''', is one of the [[autocephalous]] Local Orthodox churchesChurches, ranking fifth after the Churches of [[Church of Constantinople|Constantinople]], [[Church of Alexandria|Alexandria]], [[Church of Antioch|Antioch]], and [[Church of Jerusalem|Jerusalem]]. It exercises [[jurisdiction]] over the Orthodox Christians living in Russia and the surrounding Slavic lands as well as [[exarchate]]s former member republics of the USSR and patriarchal representation churches around the worldtheir diasporas abroad. It also exercises jurisdiction over the autonomous [[Church of Japan]] and the Orthodox Christians living in the People's Republic of China. The current Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia is His Holiness [[Kyrill I (Gundyayev) of Moscow|Kyrill Cyril I (Gundyayev)]].

According to the statutes of the Russian Orthodox Church, its jurisdiction includes persons of the Orthodox confession faithful living on the its [[canonical territory]] of the Russian Orthodox Church in RussiaAzerbaijan, UkraineBelarus, BelarusChina, MoldaviaEstonia, AzerbaijanJapan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, EstoniaUkraine, Japan and also Uzbekistan as well as Orthodox Christians living in other countries who voluntarily join the submit to its jurisdiction.

This includes these In addition to its regular [[diocese|dioceses]] the Russian Orthodox Church is comprised of the following self-governing and/or autonomous churches:*The [[Church of Estonia (Moscow Patriarchate)|Estonian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)]]

*The [[Moldovan Orthodox Church|Orthodox Church of Moldova]]

* The [[Church of Japan|Japanese Orthodox Church]] The autonomous and self-governing churches receive their [[chrism]] from the Patriarch of Moscow and exercise their activities on the basis of their patriarchal [[tomos|tomoses]]. This claim of The Russian Orthodox Church's jurisdiction over particular territories is disputed by other Orthodox churches in a number of cases (particularly , most notably in Estonia and , Moldova, as well as in the [[diaspora]]; there are also major schismatic elements in and Ukraine that want an [[autocephaly|autocephalous]] Ukrainian church), due mainly to but it remains by far the changing shape of the boundaries of Russia. Due to the moving of political borders largest Orthodox Church present in history, the canonical territory of the Russian church is not clearly defined—the 1593 Council of Constantinople which confirmed its [[autocephaly]] defined it as the territory of "Moscow, Russia, and all the Northern Landsthree countries."