ROCOR Bishop Job: Orthodoxy in Germany seeks to become a Local Church
At a conference marking the 100th anniversary of ROCOR’s German Eparchy, the vicar bishop outlined key challenges for the future and called for overcoming the “guest mentality” in a foreign country.
On May 10, 2026, at a conference in Blutenburg marking the 100th anniversary of ROCOR’s German Eparchy, Bishop Job of Stuttgart delivered a keynote address on the past, present, and future of the Orthodox presence in Germany, UOJ in Germany reports.
The hierarch identified six historical stages of this presence – from the diplomatic chapels of the tsarist era to the current wave of Ukrainian refugees – and showed that, through all the changes, a single thread can be traced: the Church’s striving to take root on German soil.
Speaking about the challenges ahead, Bishop Job urged communities to overcome the “guest mentality” – the self-perception of being newcomers in a foreign land: “Together with other Orthodox churches represented in Germany, we have the right and the duty to understand ourselves also as the Church in this place, as a Local Church. This is a goal, not a claim.”
Among other challenges, the hierarch named the gradual loss of the Russian language among descendants of émigrés: “If they do not lose the Orthodox faith together with the language, then German-language Orthodoxy must become an integral part of church life.”
Speaking of the eparchy’s resilience in the face of historical trials, Bishop Job said: “Amid all the politics, personal ambitions, and external pressure, the ministry of the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany has been and remains directed toward one goal – to be the Church of Christ and the bearer of the thousand-year Orthodox tradition.”
The hierarch especially noted the merits of Metropolitan Mark (Arndt), an ethnic German who has headed the eparchy for 46 years: “No Orthodox hierarch has done more for German-language Orthodoxy and for Orthodoxy in Germany than he has.”
The UOJ earlier reported that the 100th anniversary of ROCOR’s German Eparchy was prayerfully marked in Munich.
