The majority of Greek people roughly between 95 and 98 percent are baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. Most of these citizens do celebrate at least the main religious feasts especially the Pascha which is the Greek Orthodox Easter. The United States Department of State has said that the Greek Government does not keep any statistics on any religous groups and the census does not ask for religious affliction. The Department of State’s International Religious Freedom Report of 2005 says that approximately 97 percent of its citizens identify themselves as Greek Orthodox.
It is estimated that officially recognized Muslim minorities range anywhere form 98,000 to 140,000 while immigrant Muslim communities is anywhere from 100,000 and 300,000. But in the address to Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece had made an announcement on October 10, 2006, the Archbishop Christodoulou stated that “ Today more than 500,000 Moslems live in out country”. Members of the Roman Catholic faith does include the Byzantine Greek Catholics and the Latin Catholics are estimated at 50,000 with the immigrant Catholic community consisting of mostly Polish and Byzantine Catholic Ukrainians were estimated at about 200, 000. The Jehovah’s Witness say that they have about 30,000 active members
The State Department calculates that Protestants including Evangelicals are about 30,000 strong. The two biggest Protestant denominations are the Greek Evangelical Church and the Free Evangelical Church. There are independent Pentecostal denominations; the Free Apostolic Church of Free Pentecost is very active with more than 20,000 members. There are also an additional 12,000 Pentecost’s from different churches in the area.
In Greece you can find Adventist, Mormons and even Quakers. The Jewish community figures in at about 5,000 adherents and about 2,000 which reside in Thessaloniki. They worship of Ancient Greek religion is making slowly coming back with 2,000 adherents.
The people of Greece take religion very seriously. They have a great belief that there is a God and 16 percent of Greeks believe that there is a higher power, not necessarily a God but a force guiding them from above. Only 3 percent of Greeks do not believe there is a God, spirits or even some life force.
There are many old Churches and Cathedrals in Greece. They attract a great number of tourists every year with just Cathedrals alone, especially around Greek Orthodox Easter.
Religion is one of many things that Greece is known for; they are very cultural as well as spiritual people. They take religion very seriously.
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