The Dependency of the Russian Orthodox Church in Taiwan is to recruit young people who wish to bring the news of Christ to the Philippines. The Dependency Press Service stated that:
‘The Lord has now brought about extremely favourable conditions for such a witness in the Philippines, where thousands of people wish to join the Orthodox Church’. ‘Young people of both sexes who wish to do missionary work in the Philippines must be prepared to serve the Church with zeal and self-sacrifice, must have a profound faith and be loyal to the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church and possess high moral qualities’. ‘The missionary must be ready to spend two months or more there. Knowledge of English and experience of missionary work are welcome but are not essential. It is vital to have the recommendation of your confessor, parish priest or diocesan bishop’.
I have questions. Is this the latest news about this mission? I found this story at Orthodox England which gives it as back in 2014. Has the mission happened yet?
First, is the recruiting church in Thailand or Taiwan?
Second, is this the church that the Greek church in Taiwan had the jurisdictional problem with? I only heard about that second or third hand.
Third, there is no third thing (as Monty Python might have said).
Fourth, since English is the desired language, has thought been given to recruiting people from Australia or the United States? Two months is longer than OCMC’s ten-day short-term mission period that I did when I went to Medan, Indonesia a couple summers ago. It is great to be in a place for a while. English teaching in China is an academic school year in length, long enough to get used to the environment and make friends.
Fifth, do the people going raise support?
Richard, the answer is “We don’t know.” We only report what news we can find. Remember, NO ONE (except our own readers) helps us.
I find this interesting as a Traditional Roman Catholic who attends the Latin Mass is that the Orthodox Church has seen that there is a yearning for traditional theologies and practices that have not been practiced/preached since Vatican II.
The doors are open, Greg. It’s a well worn path, these days.
At an FSSP/ICKSP/SSPX parish you are pretty much getting the same theology (bar the two areas of dispute) that you would hear from the East. I was watching an Orthodox sermon on the Nicene Creed on YT (which of course is the true confession of Christian faith) and surprise surprise the theology was pretty much line for line what you would hear from a Roman Catholic Priest from any of these three orders in a Traditional Latin Mass Parish. You will be surprised that in Traditional Catholicism there is a lot of respect for Orthodoxy. In some ways it would have been better that Vatican II went in a different direction that it did, by looking East in lieu of looking towards Protestantism.
Greg, while that is a massive oversimplification of Orthodox theology, I know what you are saying. Of course, pastoral or parish doctrinal sermons are not the place to distinguish similarities and differences in two historic churches, but certainly traditional Catholics have a closer hold on historic Christianity than what is passing for it today. Sadly, FSSP/SSPX/etc are all fringe movements under the RC umbrella, barely tolerated by most. I do recommend a journey east where you are no longer the ugly duckling, but at home among the flock of swans.