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March 8, 2014 |
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cleanup-date|April 2005 The first Christian Orthodox mission to China was undertaken by the holy Apostle St. Thomas, who preached The Holy Gospel to the peoples of China in the first century. Unfortunately his mission had little success, but nevertheless China recieved the holy blessing of the Apostle. The first Russian mission of Orthodox Christians to China was undertaken in 1684 by thirty-one Russians, led by the cleric Maxim Leontiev. They were taken prisoner at Albasin on the Amur river and brought to Beijing. The first mission establishment was begun in 1715 at Beijing by an Orthodox Archimandrite, Hilarion. This mission is first recorded in a 1727 Russo-Chinese treaty. The intention of the mission was not to evangelize among Chinese but merely to serve as chaplains to the original mission and, later, to the Russian diplomatic mission staff as well. The mission published four volumes of research in Chinese studies in the 1850s and 60s. Two clerics became well-known for scholarship in the subject, Father Iakinf Bichurin, and the Archimandrite Palladius, who also compiled a "very valuable" dictionary. During the Boxer Rebellion, the mission suffered greatly, including the destruction of its library. The government of the People's Republic of China extends official recognition to five religions communities (Protestantism in China|Protestantism, Catholicism in China|Catholicism, Islam in China|Islam, Taoism, and Buddhism in China|Buddhism) but not to Orthodox Christianity. The officially declared reason for the government's non-recognition of The Orthodox Church is the government's fear that external political forces from outside nations—in this case, primarily Russia—could achieve influence within China. This places The Church to the legal status of religia-illicitata, which The Church had in the early period of its history. Several Orthodox congregations continue to meet in Beijing and northeast China (in Heilongjiang and elsewhere), with, apparently, the tacit consent of the government. There are also Orthodox parishes in Shanghai, Province of Guandong, in Hong Kong and on Taiwan. As of 2005 there were only five priests; however, a number of Chinese nationals are currently studying in Orthodox seminaries in Russia, with the intent of returning to China to serve in priestly ministry. The former Orthodox church in Shanghai is currently in a process of being returned to The Church and no activities are carried out inside. Meanwhile, as of the early 21st century, The Church operates relatively freely in Hong Kong (where the Ecumenical Patriarch has sent a metropolitan, Bishop Nikitas and the Russian Orthodox parish of St.Peter and St.Paul resumed its operation) and Taiwan (where archimandrite Jonah George Mourtos leads a mission church). Although many of them have adopted Lamaism—which is the mainstream form of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism—the Evenkis of both the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China are a nominally Orthodox Christian people. Along with their Even cousins and a few other tribes in Siberia or in China, they are some of the only Asiatic peoples who nominally practice Orthodox Christianity, which they had voluntarily (as opposed to being coerced to do so) adopted during contacts from Russian expansion into Siberia. There are also around 3,000 Evenks in neighbouring Heilongjiang Province. Orthodox Christianity is also practiced by the Russians|ethnic Russian minority in China.
Category:Religion in China Category:Religion in the People's Republic of China Category:Eastern Orthodoxy This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Orthodoxy in China".
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