Orthodox Church of Poland

Doctrines		On all major issues the Orthodox Church of Poland is in agreement with other Eastern Orthodox Churches. (See Eastern Orthodoxy.)
History		The modern state of Poland was created after the first world war out of territory previously governed by Russia and Germany. The new state acquired large numbers of Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians who found themselves without a national church. In order to accommodate these new populations the Orthodox Church of Poland was created in 1924 with the support of the Patriarch of Constantinople. When the borders of Poland were redrawn after the second world war, much of the Orthodox population was incorporated into the Soviet Union. In 1948 the Polish Orthodox Church was given a new charter of autocephaly by the Patriarch of Moscow. During the communist era the Polish church continued to be closely dependent on the Moscow patriarchate.
Symbols		Festal icons, Christ as Pantocrator, Mary as Theotokos. (See Eastern Orthodoxy.)
Adherents		The church has some 870,600 members (Europa Publications Limited 1995, 2:2495).
Headquarters/ Main Centre		Centre Polish autocephalous Orthodox Church, 03-402, Warsaw, AI Solidarnosci 52; tel. (22) 190886.