The Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC; Belarusian: Беларуская праваслаўная царква, romanized: Bielaruskaja pravaslaŭnaja carkva, Russian: Белорусская православная церковь, romanized: Belorusskaya pravoslavnaya tserkov',) is the official name of the exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus.[2] It represents the union of Russian Orthodox eparchies in the territory of Belarus and is the largest religious organization in the country, uniting the predominant majority of its Eastern Orthodox Christians.
The church enjoys a much lower degree of autonomy than the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which received a tomos of independence and self-governance from the Patriarch of Moscow in 1990, and declared its own full autonomy and independence from the Russian Orthodox Church in 2022.
In a statement from 2023, the exiled Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic accused the Belarusian Orthodox Church of failing to condemn violence in Belarus following the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests and of interfering in the affairs of other Christian churches and thereby being "the main source of inter-religious tension in Belarus".[4] The Rada characterised the church as "a Russian colonial institution" and "one of the ideological pillars of A. Lukashenka's regime".[4][non-primary source needed]
^ВЕНИАМИН, МИТРОПОЛИТ МИНСКИЙ И ЗАСЛАВСКИЙ, ПАТРИАРШИЙ ЭКЗАРХ ВСЕЯ БЕЛАРУСИ - "Решением Священного Синода от 25 августа 2020 г. (журнал № 46) назначен Патриаршим Экзархом всея Беларуси, митрополитом Минским и Заславским, с сохранением временного управления Борисовской епархией. Возведен в сан митрополита Святейшим Патриархом Московским и всея Руси Кириллом 6 сентября 2020 г. за Божественной литургией в кафедральном соборном Храме Христа Спасителя в городе Москве."
