Due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church plays a more and more important rolein the life of Russian society, and parishes of the Church often play a role of civil society structures,implementing significant social service and becoming active social entities, the interest to theproblems of parish and communal life is more noticeable in sociology. In this connection, there are Особенности сетевого и нишевого подходов в изучении православного прихода 104№ 4(11), декабрь 2014questions on modern theoretical approaches that allow solving research tasks of such studies. In ourwork we consider the statements of two theoretical approaches – network approach and the theoryof social niche in relation to the study of Orthodox communities in Russia and abroad. Moreover,specializing in our empirical researches on the study of Orthodox parishes abroad, we focus onniche approach. It should be noted that niche theory became popular in the West as early as themiddle of the XX-th century, but in domestic sociology this theory was almost not used and was nottranslated. In this article, we attempt to give a review of the main provisions of this theory, its mainforeign authors and their works. In connection with consideration of network approach, definitionof social network is given, as well as the types of communication of social network. In connectionwith the theory of social niche, the concepts of the “outsider” and marginal personality are given,introduced and developed in sociology by such sociologists as G. Simmel, R. Park, A. Schutz, M. Wood,Z. Bauman. General provisions of the theory of social niche are given, in particular definition of theniche, its typology, the concept of social niches with strong and weak resources is adopted, channelsof niche replenishment are considered, as well as the opportunities of its adaptation and relationto the environment. The author of the article attempts to identify the opportunities of the theoryof social niche studying Orthodox communities abroad, provides a list of research objectives thatcould be solved with the help of this theory studying Orthodox parishes abroad.

social network, social network binding force, social niche, different-resource form oforganization, environment, outsider, orthodox migrant, orthodox parish in Russia and abroad