| Archbishop Feofan of Korea: We Continue the Work that Was Initiated Several Centuries Ago Source: DECR Photo: pravtuva.ru On February 26, 2019, at the session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, a decision was made to establish a diocese of Korea as part of the Patriarchal Exarchate of South-East Asia. Bishop Feofan of Kyzyl and Tyva was appointed its ruling hierarch. In an interview to Pravoslavie.ru portal Archbishop Feofan told about the history and present-day situation of Orthodoxy in Korea, as well as about the life of parishes in the newly-established diocese. – Your Eminence, at the session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which took place on February 26, 2019, it was decided to establish a diocese of Korea of the Patriarchal Exarchate of South-East Asia. On April 4, you were appointed its ruling hierarch. What has prompted these decisions? How timely are they? – The Holy Synod has rightly decided that the Russian Orthodox Church is called today to resume its pastoral and missionary work in South-East Asia – the work that was initiated several centuries ago. The emergence of Orthodoxy in Korea is closely linked with the development of Russian-Korean relations in the 19th-20th centuries. In the second part of the 19the century, Koreans began resettling en mass in the Far East of imperial Russia. The missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church among the Koreans began in 1856 when St. Innocent (Venyaminov), Archbishop of Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and the Aleutian Islands, began sending Orthodox preachers to the South-Ussuri Region with its inflow of Korean settlers. The Koreans embraced the Orthodox faith by whole settlements. Later many of them returned to Korea, thus forming the first flock of the Russian Ecclesial Mission in Korea established in 1897 and began functioning in the Korean peninsula in February 1900, and only the tragic events in the history of Russia and Korea prevented its normal function. I mean the 1917 Russian Revolution, which led to the formation of the Soviet state with its hostile policy toward the Church, and the division of Korea after World War II into North and South Koreas with a subsequent civil war waged in the period from 1950-1953. |
| U.S. Vice President Mike Pence excoriated North Korea’s record of human rights violations Thursday, asserting that the nation’s persecution of Christians is the worst on the planet. Alex Wong/Getty Images “North Korea’s persecution of Christians has no rival on the Earth,” Pence told leaders gathered in Washington, DC, for the State Department’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. “It is unforgiving, systematic, unyielding and often fatal.” “The mere possession of a Christian Bible is a capital offense,” Pence noted, and “Christians are regularly executed or condemned with their families to North Korea’s gulags.” Mr. Pence’s words echoed the findings of watchdog groups monitoring Christian persecution , which consistently place North Korea at the top of the list of nations where it is most dangerous to be a Christian. This year, one such organization, Open Doors, which publishes an annual World Watch List (WWL) about Christian persecution, noted that North Korea has been considered “the worst place for Christians” for 16 consecutive years, since 2002. In his address Thursday, the vice president said that while Americans all hope relations between the United States and North Korea will continue to improve, “there is no escaping the plain fact that North Korea’s leadership has exacted unparalleled privation and cruelty upon its people for decades,” a cruelty that has included “torture, mass starvation, public executions, murders, and even forced abortions, and industrial-scale slave labor.” Appearing with Mr. Pence at the Ministerial was a North Korean Christian woman named Ji Hyeona, whom he met when in the region this year. “Ji Hyeona was imprisoned and tortured simply for having a Bible that her mother had given her,” Pence said. “And after a failed escape attempt, the North Korean authorities forced her to abort her unborn child.” “Hyeona was lucky enough to escape with her life, and we are honored to have you with us today. Your faith and your courage inspire us all,” he said. |
| Patriarch Kirill Meets with Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Source: DECR Photo: mospat.ru On May 29, 2019, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Moon Hee-sang, at the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow. Participating in the meeting from the Russian Orthodox Church were also Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore and South-East Asia, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat; Archbishop Feofan of Korea; Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Archpriest Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for the far abroad; Deacon Andrey Titushkin, DECR secretariat for the far abroad. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was represented by Mr. I. Sagitov, deputy director of the First Department for Asia. From the Korean side, there was also the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in the Russian Federation, H. E. Lee Sok-bae, and a delegation of Korean parliament members and representatives of several Korean parties, as well as Korean embassy officials. Patriarch Kirill cordially welcomed the high guest and his delegation, saying in particular, “Russia and Korea are countries with a rich cultural and spiritual tradition. Therefore, an important role in the relations between these countries should belong to inter-cultural dialogue, as well as discussion on religious topics”. His Holiness shared remembrances of his visits to South and North Korea, “In 1990, I chaired the conference on “Peace, Justice and Integrity of the Creation”, which took place in Seoul under the aegis of the World Council of Churches, and in 2006, I visited the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. I have an experience of communicating with those who live in the north and in the south of the Korean Peninsula. I should say that it gives a clear idea of the tragedy which has led to the division of the Korean people”. |
| On 2 November 1950, Father Kapaun made the decision that led to his death. The Korean war chaplain was in the middle of a firefight, with the American forces overrun by Chinese soldiers outside a crossroads town called Unsan in North Korea. Lighting forest fires to frustrate US reconnaissance planes, the Chinese surrounded the Americans and pressed in, attacking with small arms, grenades and even bayonets. Meanwhile, Chaplain Emil Kapaun, a Catholic priest from a farming village in Kansas, gathered the wounded in a dug-out shelter made of logs and straw. Father Kapaun in an undated photograph from Korea Though he never fired a shot, Father Kapaun saw as much mean action as any man in his unit When American officers ordered the able-bodied to retreat, Father Kapaun, a 35-year-old captain, refused to leave the wounded. As the Chinese soldiers began lobbing grenades into the dug-out, Kapaun negotiated a surrender. " Father Kapaun had several chances to get out, " Warrant Officer John Funston later told a Catholic priest who collected accounts of Fr Kapaun's actions in Korea, " but he wouldn't take them. " His capture and forced march northward with hundreds of other American prisoners was merely the beginning of Father Kapaun's trial, an ordeal that ended in his death from starvation, cold and lack of basic medical care at a prison camp in North Korea six months later. For his heroism, a group of Kansas politicians are pushing to have him awarded the Medal of Honor, America's highest military decoration. Reports of Kapaun's selfless bravery have got him short-listed for another rare high honour: the Catholic church has named Kapaun Servant of God, the first step toward sainthood, and the Vatican has opened a formal inquiry into whether he merits canonisation. It is remembered bitterly along the Korean peninsula as a period of misery, massacres, political violence and the wholesale destruction by the US Air Force of virtually every town, city and major dam in the north. |
| On August 27, 2018, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with the chairman of the Orthodox Committee of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Vitaly Kim Ji Son, and other representatives of the DPRK, at the Red Hall of the Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Participating in the meeting from the Korean side were Mr. Kim Hyung Jun, North Korean ambassador to Russia; O Chol Zin, representative of the DPRK embassy in Moscow; Rev. Vladimir Jang, Deacon Basil Hwang, Deacon Pavel Pak, Deacon George Yun, and interpreter Kim Sung Il. From the Russian Orthodox Church there were Archbishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate administrative secretariat and administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate parishes in East and South-East Asia; Rev. Nikolay Stolbikov, Khabarovsk seminary expert in the work with foreign students; Rev. Alexander Volkov, director of the Patriarchal Press Service; and D. Petrovsky, Department for External Church Relations. Addressing the participants in the meeting, His Holiness said, ‘Dear brothers, I am glad to welcome you to Moscow, especially Brother Vitaly in his capacity of chairman of the Orthodox Committee of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It is your first visit. Your predecessor visited Moscow several times. And I would like to say that I am always glad to receive our brothers from Korea. I have been to both the North and the South and I have been imbued with respect for the Korean culture, for monuments of the Korean history. I should say I feel personal sympathy for the Korean people, which has been inspired by my visits to both North and South Korea’. His Holiness noted that the Russian-Korean relations have a long history, though diplomatic relations were officially established rather late, in 1884. In 1897, a Russian Orthodox Mission was founded in Korea. ‘I would like to express special satisfaction with the attention that the leader of your country Kim Jong-un has shown for our church. May be, Mr. Kim Jong-un will someday wish to visit this church. For us it would be a very significant event. For this event I could send to Pyongyang a high-ranking delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church. |
| The problem of religiously motivated extremism and terrorism is very acute and presents a common threat both to Christians and Muslims. The events in Ukraine have diverted the world community’s attention from the global problem of persecution against Christians, steadily growing in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East and Africa. One in four Christians in the world is subjected to persecution today. People are ousted from their native lands; their rights are infringed; they are kidnapped and killed on the grounds of faith. The scale of the unfolding historical drama, its causes and ways of overcoming the escalation of the violence, the aid given to persecuted Christians in Syria and other countries are discussed in an interview given to RIA-Novosti journalist Olga Lipich by the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. – It is not for the first year that we hear from church representatives disturbing reports about a decrease in the Christian population in the Middle East and North Africa. This problem was also discussed by heads of Orthodox Church during the celebrations marking the 1025 anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ in Moscow, Kiev and Minsk and during the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Korea and during the March pan-Orthodox meeting in Istanbul. Is there any progress in this matter? – Christianity remains the most persecuted religion in the world. According to statistics received in the latest studies, since 2007 the number of countries, in which Christians are persecuted, has doubled from 24 in 2007 to 47 in the late 2012. Today, one in four Christians in the world is subjected to discrimination on religious grounds. The problem of the oppression of religious minorities is very acute in many regions. One of the most problem regions is the Middle East – the cradle of Christianity. We can see that where extremists become influential, there religious minorities are subjected not only to discrimination and oppression but often to full-scale persecution. |
| 700th anniversary of the birth of St Sergius of Radonezh celebrated in North Korea About Pages About %20%20 Donate Contact Us Проекты «Правмира» Pravmir.ru Матроны.RU Не инвалид.RU Pravmir.com Форум Книги Лекторий Благотворительность Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation News В данной категории нет материалов. Family Before marriage Bringing up children Children's page Divorce In the Family What is Christian Love in Marriage? Family Life and Spiritual Warfare Should People Limit Marital Relations in Lent? Pastoral Advice Library Holy Fathers Lives of Saints New Russian Martyrs Other Media Sermons, Lectures The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience Do We Have A Reaction To The Gospel? What Does the Cross Mean for us Today? Our Faith History of Christianity Icons In the Church Liturgical Life Missionary work Orthodoxy around the World Prayers Religions Sacraments Social Life Theology “Le monde entier reste silencieux au sujet de l’Artsakh” : 120 000… “The whole world is silent about Artsakh.” 120,000 people are in the blockade,… The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience Calendar Fasting Feasts The Tree Heals the Tree The Lights of an Approaching Rescue Preparing the Way of the Lord in our Own Lives family В данной категории нет материалов. Multimedia Contact us Искать Искать 700th anniversary of the birth of St Sergius of Radonezh celebrated in North Korea Source: DECR Natalya Mihailova 29 October 2014 With the blessing of Bishop Innokenty of Ussuriysk, rector of the Church of the Dormition in Vladivostok, an icon of St Sergius of Radonezh with a particle of his holy relics was brought from Vladivostok to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Pyongyang. At the invitation of the Orthodox Committee of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Orthodox parish in Pyongyang, Rev. Alexy Sabansky, a cleric of the diocese of Vladivostok, visited North Korea on 17-20 October 2014, and delivered the icon to Pyongyang. On the 18 th of October, a thanksgiving before the icon of St Sergius of Radonezh was said in a prayer room of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the DPRK. Among those present at the service were H.E. Alexander Timonin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and staff members of the diplomatic mission. |
| Clergy of the Trinity Church in Pyongyang Visit Khabarovsk About Pages About %20%20 Donate Contact Us Проекты «Правмира» Pravmir.ru Матроны.RU Не инвалид.RU Pravmir.com Форум Книги Лекторий Благотворительность Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation News В данной категории нет материалов. Family Before marriage Bringing up children Children's page Divorce In the Family What is Christian Love in Marriage? Family Life and Spiritual Warfare Should People Limit Marital Relations in Lent? Pastoral Advice Library Holy Fathers Lives of Saints New Russian Martyrs Other Media Sermons, Lectures The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience Do We Have A Reaction To The Gospel? What Does the Cross Mean for us Today? Our Faith History of Christianity Icons In the Church Liturgical Life Missionary work Orthodoxy around the World Prayers Religions Sacraments Social Life Theology “Le monde entier reste silencieux au sujet de l’Artsakh” : 120 000… “The whole world is silent about Artsakh.” 120,000 people are in the blockade,… The Importance of Patiently Letting Down Our Nets in Obedience Calendar Fasting Feasts The Tree Heals the Tree The Lights of an Approaching Rescue Preparing the Way of the Lord in our Own Lives family В данной категории нет материалов. Multimedia Contact us Искать Искать Clergy of the Trinity Church in Pyongyang Visit Khabarovsk admin 26 August 2012 On August 22, 2012, the Day of St. Matthews, Metropolitan Ignaty of Khabarovsk and Priamurye celebrated at the Church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. Among his concelebrants were priests from the Church of the Holy Trinity in Pyongyang, North Korea, Fathers Kim and Ioann Ra. The delegation from North Korea also included Kim Shi Song, chairman of the North Korean Orthodox Committee, and Nicolay Kim, the precenter of the Orthodox church in Pyongyang, the website of the Priamurye Metropolia reports. |
| Another 500 to 600 million are hindered from practicing their faith freely, according to Massimo Introvigne, the founder of the Center for Studies on New Religions. Roughly 70 percent of the deaths in 2016 are due to African tribal conflicts, with a 62 percent increase in violent killings in Nigeria at the hands of Muslim groups such as Boko Haram. Of course Christians are in daily danger in the volatile Middle East, including Iraq and Syria. North Korea is another country especially noted for its intolerance and cruelty towards Christians. As deadly as 2016 has been, persecutions are expected to rise in Islamic countries and in India and China, reports The Christian Times . According to an annual report from Release International , a group ministering to persecuted Christians worldwide, the greatest threat is from the Islamic world with hostile governments and militant groups. Further, attacks from Hindu militants have increased in India, and in China congregations are under constant pressure from the government. Iran, northern Nigeria, and Pakistan also continue to be places of violent attacks against Christians and their churches. Despite the global situation, there are some bright spots. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has stated, “there have been certain changes that saved [the Syrian] crisis and the whole human race from a perhaps very dangerous political development,” reports Interfax-Religion . “Perhaps the greatest problems that our country and the whole world faced started settling thanks to God’s grace,” he said, referring to successful campaigns against ISIS militants, with the help of the Russian military. 3 января 2017 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: В воскресенье — православный календарь на предстоящую неделю. Новые книги издательства Сретенского монастыря. Специальная рассылка к большим праздникам. Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Attacks on Christians Continue in India Attacks on Christians Continue in India Congressman Expresses Disappointment in India’s Evasive Behavior Bombed, Burned, and Urinated On: Churches Under Islam Raymond Ibrahim Bombed, Burned, and Urinated On: Churches Under Islam Muslim Persecution of Christians, January 2016 Raymond Ibrahim The report entitled " Muslim Persecution of Christians " was developed to collate some -- though by no means all -- of the instances of the Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month.It documents what the mainstream media often fails to report.It posits that such Muslim persecution is not random but rather systematic, and takes place in all languages, ethnicities, and locations. |
| “Orthodox youth have gathered today at the walls of Christ the Savior Cathedral to honor the memory of Andrei Gennadievich Karlov who far from his homeland gave his life for the fatherland, and his path in life serves as an example for us all,” remarked Mikhail Kuksov, head of the Moscow diocese youth department and the “Orthodox Volunteers” movement. Representatives of several youth organizations and universities gathered to pray for the repose of Karlov’s soul, lighting and placing lamps in the shape of a large cross, followed by a minute of silence. On Thursday His Holiness Patriarch Kirill served the funeral for the ambassador in the cathedral, following a farewell ceremony Thursday morning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Photo: https://ria.ru/religion/20161222/1484324161.html According to RIA-Novosti , before gathered relatives, friends, clergy and political representatives, the patriarch noted that he had met Karlov several times when he served as ambassador to North Korea and later Turkey. He had helped to arrange the building of a church in Pyongyang, where his own wedding was among the first services. “He will go down in the history of our Fatherland as an ambassador killed in the line of duty. We have had few such servants, and he will be a hero among them forever. In the categories of human life his death has immortalized him. That which is tragic for us, surrounding his casket, is not a tragedy for him—his immortal soul is together with them now. That world exists, and if it were not so, then the point of human life would be lost,” said the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. “We believe that through our prayers, and especially through his martyric death, Andrei Gennadievich will enter into the Heavenly Kingdom of glory, and upon him will be shed the grace of the merciful God,” His Holiness added. 22 декабря 2016 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: В воскресенье — православный календарь на предстоящую неделю. |
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