History of Christianity in Romania - Greater Romania

Greater Romania

Following World War I, ethnic Romanians in Banat, Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania. The new borders were recognized by international treaties in 1919-1920. Thus, a Romania that had thereto been a relatively homogeneous state now included a mixed religious and ethnic population. According to the 1930 census, 72 percent of its citizens were Orthodox, 7.9 percent Greek Catholic, 6.8 percent Lutheran, 3.9 percent Roman Catholic, and 2 percent Reformed.

The constitution adopted in 1923 declared that "differences of religious beliefs and denominations" do not constitute "an impediment either to the acquisition of political rights or to the free exercise thereof". It also recognized two national churches by declaring the Romanian Orthodox Church as the dominant denomination and by according the Romanian Church united with Rome "priority over other denominations". The 1928 Law of Cults granted a fully recognized status to seven more denominations, among them the Roman Catholic, the Armenian, the Reformed, the Lutheran, and the Unitarian Churches.

All Orthodox hierarchs in the enlarged kingdom became members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1919. New Orthodox bishoprics were set up, for instance, in Oradea, Cluj, Hotin (now Khotyn, Ukraine), and Timişoara. The head of the church was raised to the rank of patriarch in 1925. Orthodox ecclesiastical art flourished in this period due to the erection of new Orthodox churches especially in the towns of Transylvania. The 1920s also witnessed the emergence of Orthodox revival movements, among them the "Lord's Army" founded in 1923 by Iosif Trifa. Conservative Orthodox groups who refused to use the Gregorian calendar adopted by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1925 formed the separate Old Calendar Romanian Orthodox Church.

In this period, the preservation of ethnic minorities' cultural heritage became a primary responsibility of the traditional Protestant denominations. The Reformed Church became closely identified with a large segment of the local Hungarian community, and the Lutheran Church perceived itself as the bearer of Transylvanian Saxon culture. Among the new Protestant denominations, the Pentecostal movement was declared illegal in 1923. The intense hostility between the Baptist and Orthodox communities also culminated in the temporary closing of all Baptist churches in 1938.