Moscow (AsiaNews) - Mission in mainland China, while complying with the law of the People's Republic, has become an issue throughout the Russian Orthodox Church because, "there are prospects for development” on the horizon. The rector of the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Hong Kong, Archpriest Dionisy Pozdnyayev is convinced of this and in an interview with Interfax news describes the current state of the autonomous Orthodox Church of China between prohibitions and openings.   The priest is attempting in a way to discredit the "common belief” that the Orthodox faith is banned in China [1]. "It's a mistake – he says -. In China, all religious movements are legally protected, have their rights, but there are certain conditions. The main condition for religious life of officially recognized religious organizations in the PRC is independence from foreign influences. The Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church does not exist at the national level, but there are four officially opened sites for celebrating Divine Liturgies: two of them are in country's north-west in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, one in Harbin, and the last one in the city of Labdarin in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous District. These four churches belong to the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church".

Small faith communities (about 5 thousand in total) are present not only in these regions but also elsewhere in the country. Particularly in large cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Yunnan Province, but they have no places of worship. Following the Cultural Revolution, the Church was decimated and there are no priests present on the territory. A dozen seminarians are studying in Russia with the intention of returning to China.

"According to the law – explains the Archpriest Pozdnyayev - foreign priests can celebrate in Chinese churches, if local communities invite them and the service is approved in the Religious Affairs Administration. but in practice we haven't had such cases when foreign priests, for instance Russian priests, celebrated divine services for Chinese citizens at these opened churches. There were services for foreigners as religious activities of foreigners are regulated with another special legislation”.

In practice, therefore, the Orthodox Church does not celebrate functions for Chinese. For large celebrations at Christmas and Easter there are Russian priests who celebrate the liturgies, but within the territory of the embassies or consulates. Nevertheless, Pozdnyayev is confident: " We haven't had such practice, but I don't exclude a possibility that it can take place. There've been some positive tendencies this year and some steps of the Chinese authorities make us think it is possible. We were first time allowed to celebrate for foreigners in Harbin. Then there's a very old Chinese priest who is retired and lives in Shanghai. He was allowed to celebrate for Chinese citizens and foreigners were also allowed to the service. An Orthodox church is given to the Orthodox community in Shanghai for the time of Expo-2010, though the community still doesn't have legal status".

The priest tells of a "a great interest to Christianity, but Chinese people mostly see Catholicism and Protestantism that are much wider presented in China. Though I can say that academic circles show great interest to Orthodoxy, there's much feedback at our website, there are active discussions in Chinese section of our forum dedicated to Orthodoxy in China. Ordinary and educated people show great interest to Orthodoxy as Catholicism and Protestantism don't answer some of their inner questions. There are certain things in Chinese spiritual tradition that make Orthodoxy more attractive than Catholicism and Protestantism for the Chinese".

This he says, because there is fertile ground, "it is important that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church does not save on efforts in this direction". The Moscow Theological Academy, for example, opened optional courses in the Chinese language and culture for students. But that is not enough: "whole Church should consider the question: on one side, it involves bordering dioceses, on the other, theological educational establishments, and, on the third, the Department for External Church Relations.

"There are prospects.– he concludes-. - The main task is to solve the question of creating Orthodox environment. We have to educate people and to bring up the Chinese, to give them education, to translate literature into the Chinese language".

The Chinese Orthodox Church is an autonomous Church: its Primate should be appointed by the autocephalous Church on which the Church formally depends, ie, the Moscow Patriarchate. But the autonomy of the Chinese Church is not recognized by Constantinople and the establishment of the metropolis of Hong Kong by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1996, has created tensions in relations with Moscow.

Regarding China, feeble government openings were registered in 2007, when a liturgy was celebrated in memory of the 222 martyrs killed during the revolt of the Boxers the chapel inside the Russian embassy.

[1] The Russian Orthodox Church is not recognized among the "official" religions they are: Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Protestant Christianity, Catholicism.