"Some
of this is with the support of the Foreign Ministry, some
is the personal initiative of individual diplomats," Fr Dionisy Pozdnyayev of the Moscow Patriarchate's secretariat
for inter-Orthodox relations told Keston News Service from
the Russian capital on 17 October. He said priests already
hold services in the Russian embassy in the Chinese capital
Beijing, there is one registered parish in the Mongolian capital
Ulan-Bator and another smaller community, and that a priest
based in the Thai capital Bangkok frequently visits Cambodia
and Laos. The Orthodox are also planning to build a church
in Vietnam.
Fr
Dionisy reported that services have been taking place in the
Beijing embassy for the past six years when priests are available. "There is no chapel, but there is a place we can hold
services. Such services are open for Russian citizens and
other foreigners in Beijing, but not for Chinese citizens." Asked why not, he responded: "This is a measure to
ensure the security of the embassy."
He
stressed that other Orthodox parishes in China - in Harbin,
Xinjiang and inner Mongolia, which barely function because
of the lack of priests - are not subject to the Moscow Patriarchate
as the Chinese Orthodox Church is independent. "There
are two priests and one deacon still alive, living in Beijing
and Shanghai," he noted, "but all are very
elderly and ill." Asked whether the Moscow Patriarchate
is still pressing to be allowed to send priests to serve these
parishes, he responded: "No. The Chinese authorities
will not allow this. Chinese law does not permit foreigners
to serve in religious communities there. This is one of the
principles of Chinese religious policy." He said
the "only way" for these parishes to acquire
their own priests is for the Chinese authorities to allow
local men to come to Russia or other countries to train for
the priesthood. "We presented this idea to the Chinese
authorities but there has been no response yet."
Fr
Dionisy reported that the two surviving Orthodox church buildings
in the southern coastal city of Shanghai are still being used
as restaurants. Russian prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov had,
he said, complained to Chinese officials while on a visit
to the city during the summer that the use of former churches
as restaurants was an insult to believers. "This had
evinced a promise that they would be instead turned into museums,
but as far as I know this has still not happened." He said the Russian Orthodox Church had not been able to raise
the question of their return to religious use as they did
not come under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Fr
Dionisy noted that his Church "has the intention" to build a church in Vietnam, but noted that the "first
contact" had only just been made. Metropolitan Kirill
of Smolensk, the head of the Department of External Church
Relations at the Moscow Patriarchate, discussed the issue
last November during a visit to South-East Asia that took
in Vietnam, China (including Hong Kong), Thailand and Cambodia.
While in Vietnam Metropolitan Kirill held services in the
Russian embassy in Hanoi and the Russian consulate in Ho Chi
Minh City (Saigon), as well as at a Russian-run company. The
Moscow Patriarchate stressed that those taking part in the
services were not just Russian citizens and those in mixed
Russian-Vietnamese marriages, but local Orthodox believers
also.
During
the November 2001 visit to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh,
Metropolitan Kirill served the liturgy in the chapel of the
Bulgarian embassy. The Moscow Patriarchate reported at the
time that "in answer to the appeals from the Orthodox
flock in Cambodia", Metropolitan Kirill had appointed
the Bangkok-based Fr Oleg Cherepanin to have pastoral oversight
over the community and instructed him to visit Phnom Penh
as often as he could. Fr Dionisy reports that he visits not
only Cambodia but neighbouring Laos also, where services are
held in the Russian embassy in the capital Vientiane.
Felix
Corley
