The recent visit to China by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has exceeded even the most ambitious expectations, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, said.
“Even a year or two ago, only a few people could have imagined that Patriarch Kirill would visit China, that it would not be just a private visit, but it would be a semi-official visit, which would take place at such a high level – the highest state level,”
the metropolitan told the Voice of Russia radio station. Patriarch Kirill was the first Christian faith leader to meet with the head of China, he said.
“A year ago, no one could have thought that religious services would be conducted in Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai, especially in Shanghai’s Church of the Mother of God the Surety of Sinners, which had not been used for religious services for almost 50 years. In my opinion, this visit has exceeded even the most ambitious expectations in many ways,” Metropolitan Hilarion said.
However, there is still a great deal to do to bring the life of the Orthodox Church in China back to normal, he said.
The Russian Orthodox Church will conduct this work in close cooperation with the Chinese authorities and China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs.
Metropolitan Hilarion described the main task as securing the ordination of Chinese priests and resuming religious services at churches that still function as lay churches, he said.
“Our church is Orthodox. It must have priests. We will not be satisfied until all churches in China have priests,” Metropolitan Hilarion said. “The Chinese Orthodox Church is “not some foreign church structure, but it is a national church, which was established certainly with the help of Russian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries, and became a national church in the 18th century.”
“The Orthodox Church of China is not some project imposed on us from outside. It was born in the depth of the Chinese Orthodox community, which is small, but is strongly committed to its faith. And I hope that this understanding will keep growing from now one,” the metropolitan said.
Source: Interfax
C H R I S T I S R I S E N,……………”This is the day the Lord hast made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” His-holiness:+Kirill, blessing this sacred Mission with his personal touch, is proof positive of his concern for the Chinese people. Glory to God in all things. I N D E E D, H E I S R I S E N.
This is good, but I would love to see the orthodox and Catholics working together!
Kaleb,
From your lips to God’s ears! In our community, the Orthodox Church fundraises and volunteers to cook at St. Vincent de Paul’s kitchen for the poor a charity of the Catholic Church. We donate our furniture and clothing to the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store. But, when we have a modest fundraiser where the soups, soup bowls and materials are 100% donated, and that 100% of the funds raised go to St. Vincent de Paul’s kitchen (at no cost to the Catholic Church), the Catholic priests in the community will not allow any announcementof the fundraiser in the Catholic parishes. We believe we are working for a common purpose: “when I was hungry, you fed me”, unfortunately, not everyone does. Until that day comes, we’ll continue to be friends of the poor.
As an inquirer into the Orthodox faith, this article just reinforced unfortunately some presumptions about the Eastern Orthodox Church. China is known to have the largest underground church in Christendom- despite the level of persecution, it has encountered during the Maoist and present still Communist era. The government of China is still to this day greatly persecuting those who preach in the name of Christ, and impose restrictions on anyone professing faith in Christ. Yet, the last couple of articles I read are praising how the Orthodox Church to be willingly collaborating with a government that has time and time again persecuted Christians. Before making any further assumptions of people may or may not think, I would appreciate if someone could explain the reasoning behind all this from the perspective of an Orthodox Christian.
Certainly! The Orthodox Church also has many underground Christians in China, but the difference is the Orthodox Church of China is actually an autonomous Church in China from before the revolution, with Church buildings and facilities which we hope to have returned to us as soon as possible. And that means dealing with the bureaucracy there. There is no ‘collaboration’ in the sense of compromise, only an attempt to return the properties of these churches back to their rightful owners for the purposes which they were built. There isn’t anything sinister in it. They are simply going through the channels which exist in order to get more of what we had originally back, which would benefit ALL Christians in China.