Christianity in Uzbekistan

Sacred Heart Cathedral, Tashkent (Roman Catholic)
A Russian Orthodox church in Samarkand
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tashkent

Christianity in Uzbekistan is a minority religion, accounting for 5% of the population. Prior to the advent of Islam, present-day Uzbekistan had sizable communities of Eastern Christians, including Assyrians (historically associated with Nestorianism) and Jacobites (historically associated with miaphysitism ). Initially tolerated by the Muslim rulers, they came under increasing persecution and pressure to convert. Around 1400, Tamerlane engaged in a fierce campaign to exterminate Christianity within his empire. The last Christian churches in Samarkand and Central Asia were destroyed by his grandson, Ulugh Beg.[1]

Christianity returned to the region after the Russian conquest in 1867, when Orthodox churches were built in large cities, to serve Russian and European settlers and officers.

According to a 2009 US State Department release, about 5% of the population of Uzbekistan are Orthodox Christians, most of whom are ethnic Russians.[2] There are about 4,000 Roman Catholics in Uzbekistan. New parishes cannot register. In 2006 a law, by which printing religious books can be punished with three years of jail, came. The government indulges in massive persecution of Christians. There is strong pressure on Christians from a Muslim background in remote areas. Uzbekistan was designated to its list of countries of particular concern of the U.S. State Department.

Protestants

Protestants are less than one percent of the population. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Uzbekistan has seven parishes. The seat of the bishop is Tashkent. The president of the synod is Gilda Razpopova.

A 2015 study estimates some 10,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some sort of evangelical or charismatic Protestant community.[3]

Protestant Denominations

References

  1. ↑ Dickens, Mark "Nestorian Christianity in Central Asia. p. 17
  2. ↑ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2924.htm
  3. ↑ Johnstone, Patrick; Miller, Duane Alexander (2015). "Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census". IJRR. 11 (10): 1–19. Retrieved 30 October 2015.

See also

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