Three Hundred Years of Orthodoxy in China

1850 from K. Skachkova album

Bishops Yuvenaly and Dimitry (Voznesensky), the father of Metropolitan Philaret, with the clergy and worshipers of the Mother of God of Kazan Monastery in Harbin.

Prof. Daniel Yeung, Director of Institute of Sino-Christian Studies (left), Prof. Zhang Baichun (Beijing Normal University), Bishop Ephraim (Prosyanok) of Bikin, Nelson Mitrophan Chin, President of Orthodox Fellowship of All Saints of China (Boston, USA) Prof. Marina Vitalevna Rumyantsev (IAAS MSU)

Protopresbyter Michael Li

Reader Papiy Fu Xiliang, Shanghai, Fr. Michael Li, and Matushka Anna, Sydney

Prof. Daniel Yeung, Director of the Institute of Chinese-Christian Studies and Fr. Dionisy Pozdnyaev

The Chinese Orthodox Church
English translation by Liubov Afonina
25/2/13

In Hong Kong, the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Orthodox Mission in China ended.

Background of the Mission

Orthodox people appeared on the territory of modern China in XIII century. By mutual agreement of Peter I and Kangxi – the fourth emperor (May 4, 1654 – December 20, 1722) of Manchu dynasty — an official mission was sent to China in 1712.

Decrees by Peter I preceded it: On June 18, 1700 he already issued a decree providing a future for Orthodox mission in Beijing: for enlightening Chinese people and inhabitants of Siberia with faith, the tsar together with His Holiness Patriarch Adrian V ordered Metropolitan Varlaam of Kiev, that he appointed a novice “who will become Metropolitan in Tobolsk”. The future Metropolitan had to find assistants for himself.

Same orders were repeated by Peter in 1706 and in 1710, but only in 1711 Kangxi allowed a mission with trade caravans from Russia to be sent. There was a reason for it: that time Emperor Kangxi was seriously ill and set a condition – to send within the Mission a good doctor.

Tobolsk – Beijing

Emperor’s requirement was fulfilled. Kangxi petition was passed to Peter I. Tsar ordered Metropolitan Ioann to select worthy people for the Mission. Archimandrite Hilarion (Lezhaisky) headed the Mission.

Father Hilarion — a Ukrainian and a graduate of the Kiev Theological Academy — was born in Chernigov. He served in Chernigov, and in Tobolsk from 1702. In 1709 he was promoted to the rank of Archimandrite and abbot of the Yakutsk Monastery of our Savior, as well as the manager in Kirensky and Ilimsky forts with the county.

The main part of legation together with members of the Mission departed on February 3, 1715 and arrived in Beijing at the beginning of 1716.

On June 14, 1728, the famous Treaty of Kyakhta was signed between Russia and China. It summed up more than the century-old relationship between the empires.

The fifth article of the Treaty defined the status and conditions of Mission’s presence in Beijing. China will not only permit the work of Mission, but also pledged to its upkeep at China’s expense. This was subsequently what saved the Mission, because there were times when no incomes from Synod came for its maintenance for several years.

Orthodox China today

Now in China there are four churches belonging to the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church. But unfortunately no service is conducted there because there are no Chinese priests in China. According to Chinese laws non-citizens are not allowed to engage in religious activities.

Celebrations to mark the round anniversary conducted jointly by the Institute of Sino-Christian studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the local Orthodox Brotherhood of Saints Apostles Peter and Paul at the temple in Hong Kong led by rector Archpriest Dionisy Pozdnyaev. Representatives of different regions, countries and nationalities were among the guests and participants who attended the ceremony, great sinologists from Russia and Russianists from China came, as well as the Orthodox clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

Russian delegation was led by Bishop Ephrem (Prosyanok) of Bikin, vicar of Khabarovsk diocese and provost of Khabarovsk Seminary, with the blessing of His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.

Honorable and especially anticipated guest was one of the oldest Chinese Orthodox clergy: 87-year-old Archpriest Michael Li (Australia and New Zealand Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He was ordained by Bishop Victor (Svyatin) half a century ago in China.

In 1999 at the invitation of the Chinese expat community Father Michael moved from Shanghai to Australia for the pastoral care of the Chinese Orthodox community of Sydney.

300 years of Mission – active dialogue

The official celebration took place two days – December 6 and 7. The day before the opening of celebrations, Bishop Ephrem together with the rector the parish of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Hong Kong, Fr Dionysy Pozdnyaev and Department for External Church Relations staff member Dmitry Petrovsky met V.A. Kalinin, Russian Consul General in Hong Kong. During the meeting they raised problems of cultural, educational and spiritual care of our compatriots who are temporarily or continuous live in Hong Kong.

On the first day of celebration, a conference was held at the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies in Hong Kong. Before the start of the excursion around the Institute territory was conducted for the guests, they were shown at Tao Feng Shan a Lutheran church and chapel.

Presentations, talks and round-table discussions were devoted to various aspects of Orthodoxy in China: problems of expansion, translation problems of prayer, missionary and other Orthodox texts, problems of correct perception of the concepts and fundamentals of the belief by Chinese – people with a completely different system of philosophical, religious values and world outlook.

Almost none of the reports remain without vigorous and lively discussion.

Problems of mission in China

Fr Dionisy Pozdnyaev in his presentation on the Orthodox Church in the Chinese context told in details about the status and position of the Autonomous Orthodox Church of China.

As Father Dionisy said the purpose of the mission in Chinese community should be divided into two separate tasks: work in mainland China, which has its own characteristics and legal environment, and the support and spread of Orthodoxy in the Chinese world in other countries around the world, including Russia.

The main problems of the first task:

Legislation of China, Chinese Orthodox Autonomous Church is legally unformed and therefore unrecognized by the authorities;

Renewal and strengthening of ties between Russian Orthodox Church and Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church, which were significantly weakened in the 1950s;

Lack of Orthodox priests among the Chinese;

The establishment of institutions of theological education and training of the clergy, as well as the question of the recognition of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church by world Orthodoxy, which is absolutely impossible without substantial support from outside.

Solving these problems is seen in three main directions:

Awareness of the mission in the Chinese world as the problem of the whole Church;

Development and coordination of programs for church institutions, aimed at normalizing the situation of the Orthodox Church in China;

Establishing mechanisms of regular financing of missionary projects concerning preaching of Orthodoxy in the Chinese world.

Father Dionisy emphasized that the state of the Orthodox Church in China at the moment is critical.

As for the complex of problems of the second task, performance of work among the Chinese communion around the world, the main problem is that there is no united integral program of its realization. There are no mechanisms for regular discussion and debate on issues of Orthodoxy in China.

Key mechanisms in charge of the mission among the Chinese are Chinese language proficiency, education and training of Chinese students, conducting laborious work of translating books into Chinese.

Throughout the day with a lunch break following reports and presentations were read: Department for External Church Relations staff member Dmitry Petrovsky “Russian Orthodox Church and Russian-Chinese relations”, the president of the Orthodox Fellowship of All Chinese of China Nelson Mitrophan Chin “Ponomar Project: multilingual computing platform for order of service formation”, professor at Beijing Capital Normal University Lin Jinghua “Orthodox studies and Chinese academic world “, professor of the Institute of Asian and African Studies of Moscow State University M.V. Rumyantseva “The difficulties of translation of liturgical vocabulary and liturgical texts into Chinese”, professor of Beijing Normal University Zhang Baichun “On lexicon of Orthodox terms in Chinese”, professor of Peking University Xu Fenglin “On the uniqueness of Orthodox Anthropology ” and professor of Moscow Theological Academy Deacon George Maximov “Inner spiritual life of the Orthodox Christian.”

First day of celebration of 300 years anniversary of the Orthodox Mission in China ended with gala dinner on behalf of the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies in Hong Kong.

http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2013/02/three-hundred-years-of-orthodoxy-in-china-a-critical-point/

Zdravstvuyte, China

St.Sophia church in Harbin, a landmark of Russian architecture in China 　　No longer Russia's "little brother," China still enjoys the culture of its Russian minority 　　By David Eimer 　　No one knows exactly how many foreigners there are living in China. In Beijing alone, estimates range from up to 50-100,000 people. It's easy though, to find the expats. Just wander through the bars and restaurants of Sanlitun in Beijing, or the night clubs in Shanghai's former French concession, and you'll find people from Europe, North and South America and Australasia mixing together in a way that wouldn't happen in their home countries. 　　In China, the common bond of being a laowai is enough to override mere nationality. That though, doesn't apply to the Russian community, the foreigners with the closest and deepest ties to China. From Harbin in the north to Macau in the south, as far west as Yining in Xinjiang and in all the major eastern cities, there's a Russian presence that, in some cases, dates back hundreds of years and which is distinctly different from the other foreign communities in China. It's the result of a shared history that no other country can match. 　　The British, French and Americans might have run Shanghai as their own personal fiefdom, the Germans had Qingdao and a whole host of countries divided Tianjin between them, but, along with the UK's occupation of Hong Kong and the Portuguese in Macau, it's hardly something to be proud of. The Bund in Shanghai might look spectacular when it's lit up at night, but it was built with the profits from the opium trade and it's a reminder of a time when China existed only to be exploited by the colonial powers. No one should be surprised that the Avenues of the French concession were swiftly re-named after 1949 (the creation of the People's Republic of China), or that it's only the tourist trade that has led the Chinese to preserve the European-style buildings in the other old Treaty Ports. 　　But many Chinese cities have a monument or building that was a gift from the old Soviet Union to China in the Fifties, a period when the USSR was China's only ally. They stand as testimony to a relationship that's been difficult and uneasy at times, but always more equal than the dealings China has had with the rest of Europe and America. 　　For Russians who live and work in China, that has obvious benefits. "I like the attitude of the people in Beijing, they're very friendly and I can't say that about my own city, Moscow," says Natalia Karelova, who went to school in Beijing and now manages the Traktirr Restaurant there. "When you talk to the older generation, they try and remember the Russian they were taught in school. There was an expression in China years ago that 'Russia is our older brother'. Now it is 'Russia is our friend'. China isn't the younger brother anymore, but the people are still friendly." 　　After returning to Russia to study at Moscow University, Karelova chose to come back to Beijing because of its more affable atmosphere. "There are plenty of opportunities to make money in Russia, but I don't feel comfortable living there. I have the feeling that this is much more my home. It's like when I'm in the taxi coming back from the airport here, I feel like 'Oh, I'm back at home'. I don't feel like that in Moscow. I go there to do stuff I can't do here and then I'm back on the plane." 　　But the vast majority of Russians who come to China now do so for work and,although a group of Russian Orthodox priests who arrived in 1684 as missionaries can claim to be among the first Russian residents in China, it has always been that way. The key date is 1897, when construction on the China Eastern Railway, designed to link the Russian Far East to Northern China and now known as the Trans-Manchurian Railway, began. 　　There were already Russian traders in Harbin, many of them Jews escaping the pogroms of Tsarist Russia, but it was the building of the railway, which ran south from Vladivostock through Harbin to Dalian, that transformed Harbin from a sleepy village on the banks of the Songhua Jiang River into a boom town. Thousands of Russians arrived to work on the railway and not even the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, which saw the Japanese push Russia out of Port Arthur (now Lushun), and take over control of much of the south of northeast China, could halt the city's rapid expansion.

Chinese audio recording of Bishop Ephraim of Bikin on the Eve of Great Lent

The Chinese Orthodox Church 

English translation by Nina Tkachuk Dimas 

16/3/13

An audio recording of the words of Bishop Ephraim of Bikin about Great Lent; it was published in Chinese, with the assistance of the SS. Peter and Paul parish in Hong Kong, on social networks and websites devoted to Orthodoxy in China. Such pastoral instructions are available to believers in China primarily in print; thus of special importance is the fact that the recorded message is made in the native Chinese language.

The brightest, most beautiful, instructive and poignant time on the Orthodox calendar is the period of Lent and the most important holiday – Pascha. Why does one need to Fast?

We offer an answer to this question.

Great Lent [Great Fast] – is the most important period of the Orthodox Christians. It is the preparation for meeting of the chief Orthodox Christian holiday – the Resurrection of Christ. Interestingly, the Fast is both a modest consumption of food and spiritual exercises. Every person who fasts should exclude from their food products of animal origin (this is restriction of food for the body) and pray much, read the Scriptures, ask God for forgiveness of sins and purify one’s soul of anger, resentment, and everything that is bad (this restriction is for the soul). Fasting is very important for people. Even doctors recommend abstaining from animal proteins and fats for some time , because it’s good for everyone. However, the meaning of fasting is not to lose weight. While fasting is a necessary rejection of excess food. This makes it possible to test yourself: how a person can limit himself, does he have the willpower to not eat meat, whether a person has power over himself, not to do anything bad from the start of the Fast to the chief holiday of Pascha. It is also a time of cleansing the soul of extra, unnecessary moods that hinder being a good person. God wants everyone to be good. God help everyone to become good. But in order to begin to change on the inside, to become better, one must exercise. The simplest exercises (and also the difficult ones ) -are to limit oneself in food and words and thoughts. Thus a person begins to change for the better.

When a person begins to limit food, entertainment, cleanse himself of evil thoughts, then he does it not only for himself, but also for God, who wants everyone to become good and kind. That’s why Fasting is needed – to make man better.

So, if someone wants to change for the better, if one wants good changes with God’s help, you must begin to limit yourself and ask God for help. If God sees that a person is trying, God helps.

Lent is a treatment and medicine for every human soul. What happens to a person during the Fast? He gets rid of diseases of body and soul; he casts out his bad thoughts. That is, the person becomes attentive and changes for the better. But we all know that when a drug is taken continuously, then a person becomes healthy. This also applies to Fasting. Try to give up meat for several days; during these days ask God to help you to improve; pray, read the Scriptures, and you will see that God helps you. If you like it, then try it for a few more days. It may happen that a few days plus a few more days will eventually turn into a few weeks. And you will see how good it it that you know about fasting – it is a spiritual medicine for people.