The paper describes how various communication practices affect the identity building process in the church discourse. We understand the church discourse as a discourse which the Russian Orthodox Church as a religious institution recreates and controls. The results are based on a series of interviews with priests, conducted in Tambov and Sverdlovsk regions. The discourse analysis (M. Foucault, E. Laclau and Ch. Mouffe) is the main methodological framework of the research. The discourse subject is formed through communication practices and at the same time expresses identity through them. As the results proved, communication practices in the church discourse can be vertical and horizontal. Vertical communication is constituted through the asymmetry of roles between the priesthood and the congregation. Horizontal communication practices is a series of interactions of parish members. Vertical and horizontal communication practices are important for the interpretation of religious values, introducing changes in performing discursive roles and following regulations.