In the past decade the Republic has become a much more diverse place where Christian churches are concerned, according to research carried out for the Irish Council of Churches (ICC).
It has found that due to immigration, as well as the presence of refugees and asylum-seekers, "the Orthodox presence is increasing" and "many black-majority churches have been established and are developing at a fast rate all over the country".
The ICC study does not include information about how the new arrivals have impacted on the Catholic Church, which is not an ICC member.
The study found that Romanians are now one of the largest minorities in the Republic, growing from hundreds in the mid-1990s to approximately 20,000 today. Since 1996 Romanians have accounted for an estimated one in five of approximately 44,000 applications for asylum in the State.
Based mainly in Dublin, they are primarily members of the Romanian Orthodox Church, which holds services in Belvedere College with weekly attendances of 150-300. The church is said to be in touch with about 1,000 people. Members meet less regularly in Cork and Galway.
About 100 members of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, which is in communion with Rome, meet on Sundays at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Seán MacDermott Street.
There are about 2,000 members of the Roma gypsy community in the State. They have little contact with other Romanians. Roma fellowships meet in various parts of the country, with an estimated 30-35 members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Dublin - out of a congregation of about 100. There is also a Romanian Church in Drumcondra, which has between 400 and 500 members.
There are about 6,000 Russian Orthodox members, 850 of whom belong to the new Dublin parish based around Harolds Cross church which was opened late last year. About 500 people belong to the church's Cork parish, 350 in Limerick, and 35 in Belfast. It is planned to open Russian Orthodox schools in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick.
There are now an estimated 10,000 people from the former Soviet Union in the State, most of whom are immigrants, some on work permits, some illegal, and none of whom are refugees or asylum-seekers.
The Greek Orthodox parish in Dublin was established in 1981 and has been based at its present church in Arbour Hill since 1993. There are an estimated 400 in the community, again neither refugees nor asylum-seekers, with about 100 in the congregation on Sundays. There are also about 50 members in Cork and about 25 in Portarlington.
The Coptic Orthodox Church, based in Bray, Co Wicklow, has about 150 members.
Black-majority churches have an estimated 10,000 membership throughout the State. It is estimated that in the past decade the number of Africans in Ireland has increased to 30,000, about 20,000 of whom are Nigerian, with "several thousand" Congolese.
The ICC study found that black-majority churches "are now a substantial presence in many towns all over the Republic, partly because of the Government's asylum-seekers dispersal policy. Most have been established by Nigerians. Some are highly structured with the Redeemed Church of God, for example, having 17 branches and two regional pastors. "But there is also a plethora of different fellowships, some founded in Ireland and often based in asylum hostels," it found.
Where the three main Reformation Churches in Ireland were concerned it was found that below 20 congregations reported a significant presence of refugees, asylum-seekers, or immigrants generally, with just 1,000 such people added to Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, or Methodist congregations.
Most were concentrated in Presbyterian, Methodist, and joint Methodist/Presbyterian congregations. Just two Church of Ireland parishes reported significant presence from among immigrants.
It was also found that most immigrants had a transient relationship with the main churches, where "there seemed little interaction in most cases between 'host' and 'guest", while "cultural difference and different worship styles were inhibiting interaction".
