A call for renewal
Gleb Yakunin, Metropolitan Stefan (Linitsky), Metropolitan Kiriak (Temercidi) and Vitaly Kuzhevatov publicly announced the movement “For the Revival of Orthodoxy” in Moscow.
Our history
Renewal born from
faith and freedom.
The Apostolic Orthodox Church emerged in 2000 from a movement calling Orthodox Christians toward spiritual renewal, conciliar life and freedom of conscience.
The Apostolic Orthodox Church
The developing church adopted the name Apostolic Orthodox Church. Communities also appeared in Ukraine during the first year of the movement.
Alexander Men commemorated
The Church canonised priest and Christian educator Alexander Men, an early sign of its desire to honour witnesses associated with spiritual freedom and renewal.
Public legal form
The central religious organisation was registered under the official name “Association of Orthodox Communities of the Apostolic Tradition,” registration number 1047746005636.
Local communities grow
Church records document communities across Russia and beyond, including Ukraine, Germany, Africa and the Americas. Different local and autonomous expressions developed over time.
A new Primate
An extraordinary session of the Church Council elected Archbishop Grigory (Mikhnov-Vaitenko) as Primate. Official publications continued to identify him in that role in 2025.
An international horizon
The Council began a renewed discussion of the Church’s supranational structure and international coordination. Current church history states that communities are active in 27 countries across all continents.
A distinctive inheritance
Gleb Yakunin and the freedom of the Church
Fr Gleb Yakunin spent decades challenging state interference in religious life. In the Soviet period he publicly documented restrictions on believers, later became active in human-rights work and served in elected public office. His presence among the founders anchors a central theme in the AOC’s modern identity: the Church must be free enough to tell the truth.
People who shaped the Church →The AOC’s history includes separations, autonomous branches and competing institutional claims. This site does not erase those developments. Where a public source describes a proposed rather than final structure, we say so; where church recognition is disputed, we do not present it as universal.