Chinese Orthodox Church

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The Chinese Orthodox Church was an autonomous Eastern Orthodox church in China, which, prior to the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966, was estimated to have as many as twenty thousand members. It is unclear whether anything of the church remains.

Contents

[edit] Early history

A mission from the Assyrian Church of the East arrived in China in 635, and is commemorated in the Nestorian Stele of Xi'an.

[edit] Russian Mission

The first Russian mission of Orthodox Christians to China was undertaken in 1684 by 31 Russians, led by the cleric Maxim Leontiev. They were taken prisoner at Albasin on the Amur river and brought to Beijing.

Eastern Orthodoxy arrived in China via Siberia in 1685. In that year, the Kangxi Emperor resettled the inhabitants of the Russian border towns he had captured in China. Maxim Leontiev, the priest who led the 30 others, dedicated the first Eastern Orthodox church in 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.

In the first 150 years of its presence in China, the church did not attract a large following. In 1860 there it was estimated that there were no more than 200 Orthodox Christians in Beijing, including the descendants of naturalized Russians. There was, however, a resurgence in membership after 1860. 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.

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.

[edit] The Boxer Rebellion and the Cultural Revolution

The Boxer Rebellion of 1898-1900 saw violent attacks on Chinese converts to Christianity. Some Orthodox Chinese were among those killed, and in June every year the 222 Chinese Orthodox, including Father Mitrophan, who died in 1900 are commemorated as remembered on the icon of the Holy Martyrs of China. The mission's library at Beijing was also burned down. In spite of the uprising, by 1902 there were 32 Orthodox churches in China with close to 6,000 adherents. The church also ran schools and orphanages.

106 Orthodox churches were opened in China by 1949. In general the parishioners of these churches were Russian refugees, and the Chinese part was composed of about 10,000 people. The Cultural Revolution obliterated or nearly obliterated the Chinese Orthodox Church.

[edit] Today

Although the People's Republic of China extends official recognition to some religious communities (Protestantism, Islam, Taoism, and Buddhism), Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism are not among them (though with the latter, the Chinese government had formed a "Patriotic Catholic Church" or "Patriotic Catholic Association" that is not in union with Rome). 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.

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, Hong Kong, and 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 intention of returning to China to serve as priests.

Two former Orthodox churches in Shanghai are 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).

[edit] Self-Identified Orthodox Minorities in China

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 Evenki 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 ethnic Russian minority in China.

[edit] Further reading

Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches of Eastern Orthodoxy
Autocephalous Churches
Four Ancient Patriarchates: Constantinople | Alexandria | Antioch | Jerusalem
Russia | Serbia | Romania | Bulgaria | Georgia
Cyprus | Greece | Poland | Albania | Czechia and Slovakia | OCA*
Autonomous Churches
Sinai | Finland | Estonia* | Japan* | China* | Ukraine* | Western Europe* | Bessarabia* | Moldova* | Ohrid* | (ROCOR)
The * designates a church whose autocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized.


[edit] External links

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