Church reform of Peter the Great

The Church Reform of Peter the Great was a set of changes Tsar Peter I (ruled 1682–1725) introduced to the Russian Orthodox Church, especially to church government. Issued in the context of Peter's overall westernizing reform programme, it replaced the Patriarch of Moscow with the Holy Synod and made the church effectively a department of state.

The Tsar did not abandon Orthodoxy as the main ideological core of the state, but attempted to start a process of westernization of the clergy, relying on those with a western theological education, although he remained faithful to the canons of the Eastern Orthodox Church.