A person is not allowed to enter an old believer church if:
1) they have not been baptized in the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. With the permission of a priest or the person who stands by the door and watches over the order in the church, a non-old believer can enter the church, especially if they came with the purpose to familiarize themselves with the right faith in their search for the true Church.
However, they may only stand near the entrance (in the vestibule of the church), without externally expressing prayer (that is, without making bows and the sign of the cross). If an unbaptized or non-old believer would like to put up a candle, this may be done in the vestibule, if there is an icon with a candleholder, or they may ask one of the parishioners to put up a candle in the church;
2) they are a woman who has not passed forty days from the birth of her child. After the fortieth day of giving birth, special cleansing prayers are read to her and only then can she enter the church.
3) they are women and girls during the menstruation period;
4) they are married Christian old believers, on a day when there was physical spousal relations;
5) they are a Christian old believer who committed grave sins (murder, fornication and irreconcilable hostility) and was excommunicated from the Church by the bishop. Sometimes, being without a divine service does not rectify, but, on the contrary, casts those who have sinned into even further serious iniquities. Therefore, a person who committed a grave sin can be in church and pray, according to the reasoning of the spiritual father, but should, like an unbaptized person or non-old believer, stand near the entry doors and not approach the holy icons, the holy Cross and other holy objects for veneration.
