country church of the nativity
Tiraspol ( Russian and ) is internationally recognised as the second largest city in ___MASK93___ , but is effectively the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognised Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic ( Transnistria ). The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River . Tiraspol is a regional hub of light industry , such as furniture and electrical goods production . ___MASK6___ ( tr . ) is a sovereign state in Eastern Europe , bordered by Russia to the east and northeast , Belarus to the northwest , Poland and ___MASK44___ to the west , Hungary , Romania , and ___MASK93___ to the southwest , and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast , respectively . ___MASK6___ is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which ___MASK6___ and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian . Including Crimea , ___MASK6___ has an area of , making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world . It has a population of about 44 . 5 million , making it the 32nd most populous country in the world . The Nativity Church , also known as the Cathedral of the Birth of Christ , is the largest and newest church in Tiraspol , the capital of ___MASK80___ . It is a Russian Orthodox Church completed in 1999 to serve as the Mother Church of the Orthodox Christian Diocese of Tiraspol . Celebrations marking the completion of the cathedral included , among other things , the issuing of a series of postage stamps featuring the church ( see Transnistrian stamps issued for Christmas 1999 ) . In 2001 , the cathedral ' s image was displayed on the principal coins struck for a commemorative series of gold and silver currency featuring Orthodox Temples of ___MASK80___ . See Orthodox Wiki Diocese of Tiraspol - Dubossary The name Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek :   , " Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía "), or Greek Orthodoxy , is a term referring to the body of several Churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity , whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Koine Greek , the original language of the New Testament , and whose history , traditions , and theology are rooted in the early Church Fathers and the culture of the ___MASK22___ . Greek Orthodox Christianity has also traditionally placed heavy emphasis and awarded high prestige to traditions of Christian monasticism and asceticism , with origins in Early Christianity in the Near East and in Byzantine Anatolia . Today , the most important centres of Christian Orthodox monasticism are Saint Catherine ' s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula ( ___MASK40___ ), Meteora at Thessaly in ___MASK74___ , Mount Athos in Greek Macedonia , Mar Saba in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank , and the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the island of Patmos in ___MASK74___ . Mother church ( Lat . " Mater Ecclesiae ") is a term , especially in Catholicism , depicting the Christian Church as a mother in its functions of nourishing and protecting the believer . It may also refer to the mother church of a diocese i . e . Cathedral or a metropolitan church . The term has specific meanings within different Christian denominations . The Christianization of Kievan ___MASK37___ took place in several stages . In early 867 , Patriarch Photius of Constantinople announced to other Orthodox patriarchs that the Rus ', baptised by his bishop , took to Christianity with particular enthusiasm . Photius ' s attempts at Christianizing the country seem to have entailed no lasting consequences , since the Primary Chronicle and other Slavonic sources describe the tenth - century ___MASK37___ as firmly entrenched in paganism . Following the Primary Chronicle , the definitive Christianization of Kievan ___MASK37___ dates from the year 988 ( the year is disputed ), when Vladimir the Great was baptized in Chersonesus and proceeded to baptize his family and people in Kiev . The latter events are traditionally referred to as baptism of ___MASK37___ in Russian and Ukrainian literature . The Russian Orthodox Church ( ROC ), alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate , is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches , in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates . The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus '. The ROC , as well as the primate thereof , officially ranks fifth in the Orthodox order of precedence , immediately below the four ancient Patriarchates of the Greek Orthodox Church , those of Constantinople , Alexandria , Antioch , and ___MASK99___ . The official Christianization of Kievan ___MASK37___ widely seen as the birth of the ROC is believed to have occurred in 988 through the baptism of the Kievan prince Vladimir and his people by the clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate whose constituent part the ROC remained for the next six centuries , while the Kievan see remained in the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate until 1686 . Kievan ___MASK37___ (, ) was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid - 13th century , under the reign of the Rurik dynasty . The modern peoples of Belarus , Ukraine , and Russia all claim Kievan ___MASK37___ as their cultural ancestors . ___MASK93___ ( or sometimes ), or Moldavia , officially the Republic of ___MASK93___ , is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe , bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north , east , and south . The capital city is Chiinu . Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of ___MASK6___ , located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River . The population in July 2015 was ( though higher estimated numbers have been cited in the press ), making Kiev the 7th most populous city in Europe . The Dniester River , or Dnister River ( translit . " Dnister ", , ) is a river in Eastern Europe . It runs first through ___MASK6___ and then through ___MASK93___ ( from which it separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria ), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Ukrainian territory again . A cathedral ( French : " cathédrale " from Latin : " cathedra ", " seat " from the Greek " kathédra " (  ), seat , bench , from " kata " " down " + " hedra " seat , base , chair ) is a Christian church which contains the seat of a bishop , thus serving as the central church of a diocese , conference , or episcopate . The counterpart term for such a church in German is " Dom " from Latin " domus ecclesiae " or " domus episcopalis "; also Italian Duomo , Dutch " Domkerk " and cognates in many other European languages . Churches with the function of " cathedral " are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy , such as the Roman Catholic , Anglican , Orthodox , and some Lutheran and Methodist churches . Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appear in ___MASK54___ , ___MASK94___ , Spain and North Africa in the 4th century , but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century , by which time they had developed architectural forms , institutional structures and legal identities distinct from parish churches , monastic churches and episcopal residences . ___MASK80___ ( Moldovan : ), officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic ( PMR ); also called Transdniester , Trans - Dniestr , Transdniestria , or Pridnestrovie , is a self - proclaimed republic on a strip of land between the River Dniester and the border with ___MASK6___ , recognised only by three non - United Nations ( UN ) states . The region is considered by the UN to be part of ___MASK93___ . The PMR controls most of the territory to the east of the River Dniester , and also the city of Bender and its surrounding localities on the west bank , in the historical region of Bessarabia . ___MASK14___ ( or "", Romanian Cyrillic alphabet : ) is a historical region , and former principality in Eastern Europe , corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river . An initially independent and later autonomous state , it existed from the 14th century to 1859 , when it united with ___MASK19___ as the basis of the modern Romanian state ; at various times , ___MASK14___ included the regions of Bessarabia ( with the Budjak ) and all of Bukovina . Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman / ___MASK22___ ( 330  1204 and 1261  1453 ), and also of the brief Latin ( 1204  1261 ), and the later Ottoman ( 1453  1923 ) empires . It was reinaugurated in 324 AD from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great , after whom it was named , and dedicated on 11 May 330 AD . Moscow ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of ___MASK17___ , with 12 . 2 million residents within the city limits and 16 . 8 million within the urban area . Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city . Bessarabia (; " Bessarabiya "; " Besarabiya ") is a historical region in Eastern Europe , bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west . Today Bessarabia is mostly occupied by modern - day ___MASK93___ , with the Ukrainian Budjak region covering the southern coastal region and part of the Ukrainian Chernivtsi Oblast covering a small area in the north .