Source: The Wall Street Journal Covid restrictions are mild compared with what many of the faithful endure. By Timothy Dolan and Toufic Baaklini For the first time in their lives, millions of Americans have been ordered by their government not to attend church. For millions of persecuted Christians across the globe, this is the only reality they know. The theme of persecution lies at the heart of the Christmas story. The Holy Family were forced to flee their native land due to state-sponsored oppression. As citizens of a global superpower whose lawmakers are responsive to their citizens, we are called to stand in…
Browsing: China
Source: Christian Newswire MIDLAND, Texas, April 10, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ — As Trump convenes with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida, the husband of an American citizen languishes in a Chinese prison. John Cao, a pastor renowned for his educational endeavors among Myanmar’s minority groups, was arrested by public security officials in Yunnan on March 5 and arbitrarily charged with “organizing illegal crossings of national borders.” Retracting their promise to his family that he would be released, authorities formally arrested Cao on March 25. As a result, his relatives, which include his wife, North Carolina native and U.S. citizen Jamie Powell, and their…
Source: The China Post By Tom Hancock, AFP HARBIN, China–His red and gold vestments bathed in candlelight, the first mainland Chinese Orthodox priest ordained for six decades led an Easter service on Sunday — one of the most surprising fruits of warming ties between Moscow and Beijing. Alexander Yu Shi said prayers in the Church Slavonic language and in Mandarin beside the Church of Holy Protection in the northeastern city of Harbin, surrounded by local worshippers. “It is a happy day. We are welcoming the resurrection,” he said. “And for the Eastern Orthodox Church in Harbin, it’s also a resurrection.”…
Source: AsiaNews by Marta Allevato Metropolitan Hilarion, the Moscow Patriarchate’s ‘foreign minister’, made the announcement after a visit to China where he met the leaders of the State Administration for Religious Affairs. The first priest should serve in Harbin. Two more ordinations are expected. With a new Cold War as the background, the Moscow-Beijing strategic alliance also has a Church connection with the People’s Republic recognizing the latter’s ‘political’ role in Russia. Moscow (AsiaNews) – In order to compensate for its isolation from the West over the Ukrainian crisis, Moscow has revived its strategic alliance with Beijing, a step that…
Source: The Economist BY B.C As A colleague has written in this week’s print edition, Christianity in China is experiencing spectacular, but turbulent, growth; by one estimate, the number of Chinese Christians could by 2030 have reached 250m—the largest Christian population of any country in the world. Unless something extra-ordinary happens, only a tiny fraction (less than 0.1%) of those Christians will be of followers the eastern Orthodox church, which you might have expected, on geographical grounds, to be the faith’s prevailing form. Why is it so relatively weak? In part, perhaps, because Chinese Orthodoxy’s position has been affected by…
Source: Interfax Moscow, June 16, Interfax – The Shanghai Foreign Languages University and the Patriarchal Council for Culture signed an agreement to set up a center for studying Orthodox culture at the university in Shanghai. The document was signed by the University rector professor Cao Demin and executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), the Moscow Patriarchate website reports. The Center will help to get acquainted with traditional Russian culture, organize scientific work, publish books, especially the Chinese-Russian Bible vocabulary and Orthodox terms vocabulary, launch exchange programs for students and aspirants, carry out seminars and conferences,…
Source: RIA Novosti HARBIN, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The leader of Russia’s Orthodox Church conducted a landmark service in the Chinese city of Harbin on Tuesday, the first in several decades. Patriarch Kirill, accompanied by a large Orthodox clergy delegation, sang a hymn celebrating Easter at a 1930-built cathedral in the city. Kirill’s visit to China, which began last week, is the first by a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. Harbin, in northeast China, founded by imperial Russia in 1898, became a refuge for White Russian émigrés fleeing their homeland after their side lost the civil war in…
Source: RIA Novosti BEIJING, May 10 (RIA Novosti) – The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, on Friday arrived in China for an official visit during which he will carry out services in Orthodox Cathedrals and meet with senior Chinese officials. “The head of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet with government leaders in China, leaders of religious groups, and also with the Chinese officials responsible for religious affairs,” the Patriarch’s press service told RIA Novosti. During the five-day visit, the Patriarch will hold a service in the Pokrovsky Cathedral in Harbin, and will meet members of China’s…
Met. Hilarion in China
Source: Moscow Patriarchate Department of External Church Relations On June 19, 2012, the second consultations were held by the Russian-Chinese group for contacts and cooperation in religious sphere at the PRC State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) in Beijing. The group was established in accordance with the memorandum of understanding on the development of Russian-Chinese contacts and cooperation in religious sphere concluded between the Russian Federation’s Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organizations and the PRC State Administration for Religious Affairs. The group has worked in the format of consultations, with the first consultations held on June 8, 2011, in…
Holy Trinity - St. Sergius Lavra, Russia
Source: DECR Communications English translation by Katherine Ilachinski On March 16, 2012, a group of journalists accredited in Russia, the People’s Republic of China media (“Xinhua” news agency, China Central Television, China Radio International, China’s news agency, newspaper “People’s Daily”, “Guangming Daily”, “Economic Daily”, “Wen Wei Po”) visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . The trip was organized by the Russian-Chinese Business Council and the Department for External Church Relations of Moscow Patriarchate, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Embassy of China in Russia. In the city administration the Chinese journalists were welcomed…
At least 24 Coptic Christians were killed in Cairo during clashes with the Egyptian Army on Oct. 9., Thomas Hartwell / Redux
Source: Commentary Magazine | David Aikman From Egypt to North Korea, an unlikely minority suffers a plague of persecution IN OCTOBER 2011, when the so-called Arab Spring took a dark turn in Cairo, Egypt, the social media and smartphone technologies that had aided protesters in their fight for freedom captured new and dangerous developments. On video-hosting websites such as YouTube, one can see footage of the Muslim mobs that began throwing rocks at Coptic Christians on October 8. These young Copts had been protesting the burning of a Coptic church in Aswan and the failure of the Egyptian authorities to…