The Catalog of Good Deeds

As to members of the Holy Orthodox Church living in districts beyond the reach of Orthodox clergy, I direct that the ancient custom of our Holy Church be observed, namely, in cases of extreme necessity, that is, danger of death, children may be baptized by some pious Orthodox layman, or even by the parent of the child, by immersion three times in the names of the (persons of the) Blessed Trinity, and in case of death such baptism is valid: — but, if the child should live, it must be brought to an Orthodox priest for the Sacrament of Chrismation.

In the case of the death of an Orthodox person where no priest of the Holy Orthodox Church can be had, a pious layman may read over the corpse, for the comfort of the relatives and the instruction of the persons present, Psalm 91 and Psalm 118, and add thereto the Trisagion (“Holy God, Holy Strong One,” etc). But be it noted that so soon as possible the relative must notify some Orthodox bishop or priest and request him to say the Liturgy and Requiem for the repose of the soul of the departed in his Cathedral or parish Church.

As to Holy Matrimony, if there be any parties united in wedlock outside the pale of the holy Orthodox Church because of the remoteness of Orthodox centers from their home, I direct that as soon as possible they either invite an Orthodox priest or go to where he resides and receive from his hands the holy Sacrament of Matrimony; otherwise they will be considered excommunicated until they submit unto the Orthodox Church’s rule.

I further direct that Orthodox Christians should not make it a practice to attend the services of other religious bodies, so that there be no confusion as to the teaching or doctrines. Instead, I order that the head of each household, or a member, may read the special prayers which can be found in the hours of the Holy Orthodox Service Book, and such other devotional books as have been set forth by the authority of the Holy Orthodox Church.

By St. Raphael of Brooklyn

Source: http://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/2014/07/01/st-raphael-of-brooklyn-instructions-to-orthodox-christians-with-no-orthodox-clergy-nearby/

While the presence of Western Christian Churches in China is a well-known fact, many people are not aware that the Orthodox Church has also been present in that country for more than 300 years. In this interview, the webmaster of Orthodox.cn, Mitrophan Chin, tells us more about the history, current situation and prospects for the Orthodox Church in China.

The Orthodox Church in China was given a status of autonomy by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1956 and had two Chinese bishops, several priests and possibly up to 20,000 faithful in the early 1960s.

But it has never fully recovered from the turmoils of the “cultural revolution” of the 1960s and its antireligious policies. In December 2004, the last Chinese Orthodox priest living in China, Father Alexander Du Lifu, passed away in Beijing at the age of 80. He did never manage to get permission from the government to open a church in Beijing: the authorities argued that the community (about 300 faithful) was too tiny.

However, there are efforts from several sides to revive Orthodox life in China, and a few Chinese students are reported to be currently training in Russian theological schools. According to estimates by Father Dionisy Pozdnyaev, who is in charge of Chinese affairs at the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, there are some 13,000 Orthodox faithful living in China. There are parishes – without clergy – in Xinjiang, in Inner Mongolia and in Harbin, where the Russian church building is a local landmark. The Moscow Patriarchate would like to see the Orthodox Church recognized officially, but its small size seems to present an obstacle.

Attempts to revive Orthodoxy in China also take place in virtual space. An Orthodox believer of Chinese background living in the United States, Mitrophan Chin, is the webmaster of the website Orthodoxy in China, which was launched in Spring 2004. In this interview, he tells us more about the history, current situation and prospects for the Orthodox Church in China.

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Religioscope: How did Orthodoxy reach China first, more than 300 years ago.

Mitrophan Chin: Orthodoxy reached China with the eastern expansion of the Russian empire across the Siberian Far East in 1651. At around the same time in 1644, the Ming dynasty was overthrown in China by the Manchurians who introduced the Qing dynasty which lasted until the Nationalist revolt of 1911. The Russian Cossack settlements along the Amur River at Albazin eventually was met by fierce attacks by the Chinese army in 1685 which led to the downfall of Albazin, and the captives were taken to the capital city of Beijing.

Religioscope: The first Orthodox in China could thus be described as “immigrants”. When did missionary activities directed toward Chinese begin, and how successful were they?

Mitrophan Chin: Missionary activities started when a number of the original captives of the Albazinians were given the honor to serve the Chinese Emperor Kangxi in the Imperial capital of Beijing in one of the most prestigious banners of the honor guards. The first Orthodox priest, Fr Maxim Leontiev, was sent unwillingly to provide spiritual guidance to these new Albazinian immigrants. An old Buddhist temple was provided at the northeastern corner of the capital, and it was converted to an Orthodox chapel bearing the name of St Nicholas the Wonderworker in honor of the miracle-working icon that Fr Maxim brought along with him.

Thus the seed of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission has been planted on Chinese soil. In the 200 years leading up to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Mission took in only a small number of indigenous Chinese converts, mostly through inter-marriage with the Albazinians. This stood in stark contrast with active missionary efforts by rival Catholic and Protestant missionaries.

Religioscope: Orthodoxy in China had its first martyrs at the time of the uprising of the Boxers, which not only targeted Catholics and Protestants, but Orthodox as well. Your Christian name, Mitrophan, is the name of a martyred Chinese priest, isn’t it?

Mitrophan Chin: St Mitrophan, along with over 200 other Chinese and Albazinians in Beijing gave their lives up for the Christian faith during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, or the Yihetuan Movement as the Chinese called the uprising. Albazinians at this time have pretty much assimilated with the local population after two centuries of cohabitation. Their outward appearance is not much different from the majority Han Chinese population even though ethnically they consider themselves of Russian descent.

Religioscope: After the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, many Russians fled East and settled in China, where there was during a few decades a very active church life. When did those Russian emigrants then leave China? Are there still some of them left?

Mitrophan Chin: The Orthodox population swelled in the 20th century in China, mostly due to the influx of white Russians. At the same time, the Boxer uprising had not stopped the blood of the Martyrs from bringing forth a new generation of Chinese believers. Archimandrite Innokenti Figurovsky, who in 1902 became the first Bishop of Beijing, initiated translations of liturgical and catechetical Orthodox material for the first time into spoken Chinese called guanhua.

This was considered the golden era of Orthodoxy in China, with many churches being built. Unfortunately, most of the Russians fled China when the Communists took over in 1949. Some returned back to Russia but many others immigrated to Australia or America.

The famous St John, who was Archbishop of Shanghai, was one of the last to leave when the Communists took over and eventually settled in California. Also, Fr Elias Wen, who was the rector of the Church dedicated to the Surety of Sinners Icon of the Theotokos in Shanghai fled to Hong Kong and eventually immigrated to San Francisco. Fr Elias is the oldest Orthodox priest still alive and will be approaching 108 years of age this November. May God grant him many years!

Also, the priest Michael Wang, and protodeacon Evangelos Lu stayed behind in Shanghai and suffered much through the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). They have likewise reached an old age and have withdrawn from active clerical involvement as there are no functional Orthodox Churches in Shanghai. Another Protopriest Michael Li, also originally of Shanghai, immigrated to Australia and serves as the spiritual father of Russian-Chinese Orthodox Missionary Society of Sydney.

Today, there are a few hundreds of Albazinian or Russian descent who consider themselves Orthodox that reside in each of the major cities of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Harbin. Many more are scattered in the western and northern autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. In all, the most recent Chinese census have recorded around 13,000 Chinese citizens of Russian descent.

Religioscope: How did the Church first manage to continue its activities under the Communist government? What happened then to Chinese Orthodox at the time of the “cultural revolution”? Did some type of underground church life continue, insofar we know it?

Mitrophan Chin: The Church was required to be independent by Chinese government. Therefore the archbishop Victor consecrated Archimandrite Vasily to be the first Chinese bishop of Beijing in preparation to lead the Church to autonomy which was eventually granted in 1957. The Cultural Revolution destroyed most of the Church buildings and many believers were persecuted. Church life was practically eliminated and the believers have to resort to reader services in private homes to continue living their faith.

The Chinese Martyrs icon mounted at the entrance to the Orthodox Church of St. Luke the Evangelist in Hong Kong was commissioned to the famed Greek iconographer Maria Sigala.

Religioscope: In recent years, there have been attempts by several Orthodox Churches to help Chinese believers. The Moscow Patriarchate has been quite active, including attempts to convince the Chinese government to register the Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate (Constantinople) has established a diocese in Hong Kong – which is now part of Chinese territory – in 1996, serving South Asia and the Far East. Moreover, priests of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia have also been regular visitors to the Chinese mainland. Those visiting priests have performed baptisms and celebrated liturgies for scattered communities of believers. Would you please summarize those efforts?

Mitrophan Chin: Efforts by non-indigenous priests have been hampered, including the recent deportation of an Orthodox priest who was secretly crossing the border between serving the spiritual needs of the Orthodox Faithful in Xinjiang in the western frontiers of China in December 2003.

The Chinese government is usually flexible with small group prayers in private homes, but they will start noticing if there are more than a handful gathering together. Visiting priests usually have to work within the supervision of the State Administration of Religious Affairs if they do not wish to encounter any obstacles, and for the most are only allowed to hold services for foreign compatriots working or residing in China. Such services are normally held in an embassy and are off limit to Chinese believers.

Religioscope: The major step to be taken seems to be the registration of the Church. Are there indications that this might take place in a foreseeable future? And what about those Chinese priests now in training in Russian seminaries?

Mitrophan Chin: The Chinese seminarians in the Russian seminaries do hope to return back to China to serve the Orthodox faithful there. This is a sensitive issue and requires the blessing of the Chinese government and their future is uncertain.

Russian President Putin has visited China, and has promised the Bishops Council of the Moscow Patriarchate that he will bring up with the Chinese authorities during his visit to allow an iconostasis which has been held up in customs for four years, to finally enter China to be installed in a church temple built by the Chinese goverment in 1999 in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The Chinese government has been seen as more accommodating in recent years including allowing a hieromonk from Russia to visit the Pokrov Church in Harbin to hear confessions in both Russian and Chinese in July 2004, and also the August 2004 visit by Russian Bishop Mark to Beijing at the official invitation of local religious leaders and the State Administration of Religious Affairs.

Religioscope: I understand that there are also efforts for reaching diaspora Chinese. For instance, a few months ago, the Russian Orthodox Church has decided to celebrate liturgies in Chinese in Vladivostok and other places of the Russian Far East. Are there already small groups of Chinese-speaking Orthodox outside of mainland China?

Mitrophan Chin: Vladivostok Diocese has a creative missionary endeavor by actually allowing its church to serve as a one of the tourist sites for Chinese tourists visiting the city. The church has prepared an explanation of the Orthodox Church and its divine services in Chinese which is given to the tour guides to explain to the visitors, and at the end of the tour, the tourists actually get to light a candle in front of an icon of the Chinese Martyrs.

Not only tourism but Chinese immigrants outside the Chinese border in Russia have swelled tremendously. They have been seen as a rival economic force in Russia, as evident when the recent Bishop Council of the Russian Orthodox Church brought up this demographic issue with President Vladimir Putin. Putin turned the table around and asked the bishops about the conversion of the Chinese to Orthodoxy, since Orthodoxy has always been universal or catholic, and, furthermore, Putin emphasized that each person’s spiritual state is important.

Religioscope: Let’s now come to your website. Orthodoxy in China – http://orthodox.cn – seems to be on its way to become a major resource for Orthodox material in Chinese as well as for information on Orthodoxy in China. Could you tell us more about the content and purpose of this website?

Mitrophan Chin: Orthodox.cn is created to be the portal of everything you will ever want to know concerning Orthodoxy as it developed in China and its environs, and especially where it is today and where it will be tomorrow. Catechetical literature and liturgical texts in classical and modern Chinese are gathered here for easy access for anyone interested in learning more of what Orthodoxy have to offer.

Links to various Internet resources and Chinese Orthodox discussion boards are also provided to take advantage of the strength of the Internet in providing a wealth of information and exchange of ideas which no one site can provide.

News articles related to Chinese Orthodoxy from Russian language media are translated into English and disseminated to keep the international English-speaking community in the loop concerning missionary activity made from the Russian Orthodox part of the world.

Religioscope: You intend also to make liturgical and devotional material available in Chinese. Are most Orthodox liturgical texts already available in Chinese? Are they being reprinted, or is the Web currently the best solution to make them available again?

Mitrophan Chin: Currently, an online library of most of the extant classical Chinese Orthodox text that were produced in the 19th and early 20th century Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China have been scanned in and being made available for free distribution via the web, which is the most economical and quickest way for those in China to get a personal copy of these rare historical texts. More recent Chinese translations suitable for the younger Chinese generation have also been made available online for the daily prayers with various canons and akathist plus the divine liturgy of St John Chrysostom. Most of this freely distributable material can be burned onto CD upon request for those in China without convenient Internet access, and they are encouraged to copy and share with family and friends.

Religioscope: An ambitious project which you have is the Chinese translation of the Prologue of Ohrid, a collection of lives of the saints for every day of the year…

Mitrophan Chin: This project has been spurred by a Hong Kong Protestant who did preliminary translation of half a year’s readings of the the lives of saints section of the Prologue of Ohrid. He has passed the torch to a Chinese Orthodox convert currently living in Romania to revise and complete translating the rest of the readings including hymns, contemplation, reflections and homilies. The fruits of this project will greatly enrich the daily devotional life of the Orthodox faithful in China and also to introduce the riches of Eastern Orthodoxy to our non-Orthodox readers.

Religioscope: While your website is a useful resource for people who would like to know more about Orthodoxy in China, it is also meant as a service to Orthodox faithful living in mainland China, a country where there are already several dozens of millions people online. Do Orthodox believers in China use the Web and write to you for material?

Mitrophan Chin: Most Orthodox believers that are online are mostly converts and are usually self-motivated in seeking out the truth. They usually post anonymously to various online religious message boards to ask questions about the Orthodox faith. In the physical world, many times they would be drawn by the beauty of some of the restored Orthodox churches in China and would travel to visit such former churches like the St Sophia in Harbin or they may be curious and go seek out the existence of any former Orthodox church buildings that may have survived the destruction caused by the Cultural Revolution and ask around if there are any cradle Orthodox believers in the vicinity. Since mainstream Chinese media lacks coverage of Orthodox concerns, the web site also provides a much needed international and domestic Orthodox newsfeed in Chinese.

Religioscope: Are there also other Orthodox websites in Chinese?

Mitrophan Chin: The Parish website of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Taiwan is also in Chinese, but uses traditional Chinese characters which are different from what is taught in mainland China which uses simplified characters, introduced by the Communist government to combat illiteracy among the vast Chinese population. The Holy Trinity parish is under the pastoral care of the Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and South East Asia, and His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas has given his blessing to allow the use of their Chinese Orthodox material from their site to be hosted on Orthodox.cn in Simplified Chinese catered to the mainland Chinese audience.

Source: http://journeytoorthodoxy.com/2013/05/rebirth-of-the-orthodox-church-in-china-an-interview-with-mitrophan-chin/

You can better help your priest and bishop by understanding this one thing: parish priests feel pressures that are found in no other profession. The type of man that generally is drawn into the holy priesthood is one who has a heart for serving others. Bishops and priests are often expected to do far more than is humanly possible. Bishops, as fathers to their people, are expected to be superhuman, judged if they are not.

Over the years I’ve heard terrible stories of parish priests having to cancel vacations at the last minute because of sudden deaths in their parishes, requiring them to cancel airline tickets, leaving both they and their families without the much-needed time away. One priest told me how his young son had been looking forward to a camping trip and cried when his dad had to tell him they couldn’t go because an important member of a family in a parish had died and he was required to be there. The family rejected having another priest step in.

Countless priests have put in long hours missing dinner with their families because of wedding rehearsals, hospital calls, counseling sessions. The average priest gets Monday off, yet is expected to forego his only day off if someone needs to see him or the parish council decides to have a meeting that evening. They demand their priest be available whenever they need him, regardless of the time of day or the needs of his family.

One priest told me about having performed a baptism of a child of a family that rarely came to church, only to have them walk out immediately following the service, leaving him to mop-up the spilled water while they and their friends ran off to celebrate at a restaurant. He was given a pitiful stipend for his services, and he just dropped it into the poor box. They didn’t even invite him to join them at the restaurant. He said he wouldn’t have had time to join them anyway, but the invitation to do so would have been nice.

Most clergy receive a very small salary and are expected by their parishioners to be happy with what they have. The stipend is thus very important to the priest, yet I know of countless clergy who travel many miles from their rectory, bless the home, and receive nothing for their services.

The normal stipend for most jurisdictions for extra services like this is $100. This is not payment for the services of a priest. The priest doesn’t charge you for these things. These are simply gift-offerings to show the priest that you love and care for him and sometimes this is the only money that he has to get that little extra something for his wife or children.

Like all children, priests’ kids need time with their father. Normal jobs allow dads to leave their work and go home, giving themselves plenty of time to meet the needs of their children, but not in the case of clergy. Being on call 24/7, the families of priests often forgo planned meals, outings, and family affairs because of the demands of the people, placing them upon their father or husband. Most priests have such a strong desire to be in service, they simply cannot say no.

The children of priests, as well as their wives, also must suffer the undo scrutiny of parishioners, expected as they are to be perfect. Given all of this, is it any wonder that children of priests often wouldn’t think of becoming priests themselves? Please, whatever you do, don’t criticize your priest in front of his family.

How often I’ve heard priests’ wives and children lament, having to put up with the tax on their husbands/fathers by people who don’t think he’s doing enough. People airing their grievances at parish meetings with the children and wives having to hear it all is unfair.

I share all this with my listeners because most of you are unaware of how difficult a job your priest has and how much is demanded of his time. Most of you love your priest, but are just unaware that he rarely gets his own needs met. I remember one priest in Detroit who lived in sub-standard housing while all of his parishioners lived in nice homes. No one made any effort to make sure their priest, single in this case, was living in medium-income housing, somewhere in the middle of all his people, the norm of most Protestant churches.

How can a priest take care of the education of his children, when his salary is the poverty line? One horror story I remember hearing was of a priest whose parish council gave him an increase in salary that put him just over the line so that he’d no longer qualify for food stamps, since this made the parish look bad. The priest and his family ended up with less rather than more.

All of the above could be said for bishops as well. We really need to start taking care of our bishops, making sure they have adequate compensation, days off for restoration of soul, and proper rest. And a whole lot less criticism from their people. Love your priests and bishops, just as they love you. Give them support, show them you care by sending them a little gift on their name’s day or e-mailing them on occasion, letting them know you care about them. Tell them when you’ve liked their homily. Invite [them] and their family to dinner on occasion. Let them know you care. Remember your bishop and priest with a thoughtful little gift or a check on Christmas and Pascha. Let them know you care about them.

Make sure the parish council knows you think your priest should receive a proper salary. You’d be shocked at the average income of most Protestant clergy compared to what most Orthodox priests receive. The life of your priest can be greatly extended if you don’t allow him to work himself to death. Make sure he does take at least one day off. Tell him to turn off his cell phone on those days. Call the rectory before knocking at the door. You have no idea how many priests’ evening plans with their families are derailed with a knock at the door.

I’m sharing this with all of you because I know your priest will not tell you this. He loves you, and he loves Christ, whom he serves. Make him pace himself, and you’ll have him around to baptize your grandchildren. Don’t expect him to be perfect. Most importantly, pray for your bishop and your priest. Honor and love them and refrain from judging them.

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/morningoffering/2014/01/how-to-support-your-priest-you-can/

At the end of the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks were a yard away from victory when, to the surprise of everyone, a rookie named Malcolm Butler intercepts a (very ill-advised) pass and the game ends with a New England Patriots victory. What many may not have noticed is how Butler reacted on the sideline after the play was over. As he is being congratulated by teammates, an extremely emotional Butler continued to shake his head in disbelief and then points up, towards the heavens, apparently to either give credit to or thank God for the victory. Later on Butler gave an interview and said this:

I just had a vision that I was going to make a big play, and it came true. And I’m just blessed. … I don’t know how I knew what was going to happen, but I did … I just read the play and made a play.”

How many times do we see players thanking God in some form or fashion for winning a game, or asking that He make them victors? Or how about when a pastor prays for a particular sports team to be victorious, or when a team gathers before a game to pray? What is the purpose, and should we be involving God in this way? More importantly, should we believe He involves Himself in this way?

“When did God become a sports fan?” is the title of blog article that appeared on CNN about 5 years ago, written by John Blake, and I’ve never forgotten about it. He makes some very interesting remarks that are worth thinking about:

Thanking God from the winner’s circle has become so common that one British newspaper published a letter to the editor entitled: “Leave me out of your petty games—Love, God.”

The British letter raised a question: Does God care who wins on game day? And, if so, do losers somehow have less faith?

The article goes on to ask whether this is about praising God for victory or actually simply serves to make the athlete appear godly:

Athletes who publicly thank God for victory are often calling more attention to themselves than their faith, says William J. Baker, author of “Playing with God.”

They are selling their goodness, and their brand of faith, to a captive audience, says Baker, who describes himself as a Christian….

What many of these pious athletes are also selling is an evangelical, winner-take-all gospel, Baker says.

“There are many similarities between the athletic and the evangelical take on life,” Baker says. “Both are competitive, capitalistic. It’s good guys versus bad guys. You have winners—people who are saved—and losers—people who are going to hell.”

The question I find myself asking is whether God really cares about who wins, and whether the prayers actually achieve what is intended. This question is closely linked to one’s outlook on how much God involves Himself in our daily affairs. That parking spot I found right when I needed it, is that God? What about the elevator that was waiting opened for me and saved me from being late to a meeting, was that God? How intimately involved is God? Does He direct things and people in a manner to conform to my prayer requests? Some people, as did many Church Fathers, believe that God is so involved that He directs the weather Himself (this cloud goes there, rain fall on this city and not that one, tornado follow this path, etc.); for those people I can see why asking God to direct the outcome of a game makes sense. But for others, trivial things—and sports I think arguably should be counted among the trivial—are often not directed by God but rather by free will and natural order. If God cares about sports outcomes, what does it say about Him when there are two equally devout teams who both equally invoke His power to lead them to victory, and only one team wins?

Personally, I think being grateful to God for all things is due Him, but attributing a sports victory to God, or seeking God’s help to be victorious is misplaced. Wouldn’t it be better if we prayed that God keep both teams safe, that He keeps all athletes from sinning by anger or hatred, and that He helps us compete yet maintain a spirit of love and good sportsmanship? I say that a game’s outcome doesn’t and shouldn’t have anything to do with God, but seeking Him to help us maintain good Christian mindsets during and after the game is far better. Oh how many times we Christians play a sport and forget Christian virtues (I speak of myself too). Maybe if this was what the two teams prayed for at the Super Bowl in 2015, then it would not have ended up in one big brawl in the last few seconds of the game.

Just some food for thought…

Source: https://johnbelovedhabib.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/god-and-sports-does-he-determine-who-wins/