The Feast Of The Chinese Martyrs

One of the best-kept secrets in the Orthodox world has to be the existence of  the Chinese Martyrs who celebrate their feast day on June 11th.   Their icon is featured on the cover of this year’s calendar of the Metropolitanate of Hong Kong.  Almost everyone was unaware of the fact that not even one hundred years ago, a group of Chinese Orthodox Christians gave up their lives for Christ and His Church in the great city of Beijing.
The time is the dawn of the 20th century, and the place is one of unrest and rebellion against all foreigners who live in the country.  It was the time of the Boxer Rebellion which held foreigners responsible for every misfortune that took place.  The first to suffer were the Christians, and in 1899 the first English missionary was killed.  On the 10th of June, proclamations were posted on walls all over Beijing, calling on the Chinese to slaughter all Christians and threatening all those Christians who tried to hide with martyrdom.
On the 11th of June, China finally shone in glory as it would offer her share of martyrs for the Church.  This is how Dr. Piperakis of the University of Athens describes the events:

"The executioners’ procession set off triumphantly with burning torches, as the idols of the traditional god of the Chinese were carried aloft.  Censers were held so that the Christians could cense the idols, and thus deny their ‘alien’ faith.  The pressure was unbearable, the martyrdoms most terrible.  The fear was great.  The Orthodox Christians’ homes were surrounded.  Threats and violence were used to force the Orthodox to sacrifice to false gods and deny Christ.
Unfortunately, as with all oppression, many capitulated and burnt incense to save their lives, while others who were stronger in faith boldly confessed Christ.  The latter, the confessors, were led out of the city to the Boxers’ idol worshipping temples.  Here, after indescribable torture, cutting them open and pulling out their entrails and the like, they were finally beheaded or burnt to death.  The martyrs’ houses suffered the same fate as their owners.  Churches and Orthodox institutions were also given over to the flames.  All the church buildings (with the exception of the one in Hankow), the Sino - Russian Library and the print shop with its 30,000 woodcarved  Chinese characters were set alight and burnt to ashes.  The Russian missionaries managed to flee to Chien-Chin and then to Shanghai.  The whole of missionary Innocent Figurofsky’s work was completely destroyed.  Of the 700 Orthodox Chinese believers, 300 were martyred for their faith.  Taking account of its low strength in numbers, the Orthodox Church of China gave up more martyrs than the more populous heterodox Churches."

Included in those who received the crown of martyrdom was the first Chinese heiromartyr, St. Mitrophan Chi-Sung:

  "St. Mitrophan was the first Orthodox Chinese priest.  He was ordained by St. Nicholas of Japan and served the Orthodox mission for fifteen years.  He sat among the ruins of the burnt-out Orthodox Mission, enveloped by the men, women and children of his flock, when they started to hit his chest with fists.  His presbytera Tatiana and his 23-year-old son Isaiah were slaughtered before his very eyes, while they cut off the nose, ears and toes of his younger son John.  Not only did the child martyr refuse to complain of protest but, as if by miracle, he felt no pain.  The executioners taunted him, calling him a "child of demons".  He answered saying, "I am an Orthodox Christian and I believe in Christ, not in demons".  After father Mitrophan’s execution, his future daughter in law, 19-year-old fiancee of now-martyred Isaiah, arrived at the priest’s house.  She wanted to die together with the family of her betrothed.  When the Boxers surrounded the house, Maria helped many of the faithful jump over garden walls.  She faced her executioners with courage and reproached them for the unjust murder of so many innocent souls, who had not been tried by any court.  The executioners pierced her feet and wounded her hands, encouraging her to leave and be saved.  Brave Maria answered them boldly, "I was born here at the Church of the All-Holy Mother of God, I will die here too."  Then the Boxers executed her."

Of the 1,000 people in the Beijing parish, 222 received the crown of martyrdom and constituted  the glorious sacrificial beginning of the 20th century, which would soon turn purple by the river of blood that flowed out of the vast expanses of Russia.  However, the small Church of the Chinese people proclaim through their martyrdom that Orthodoxy has no borders and is above race, nations, and languages.  The Orthodox Church is the Church of all nations, people, languages, and stands before God to offer praise and worship.
 

(We thank Dr. G.E. Piperakis for his booklet on the Orthodox Chinese Martyrs, published by Apostoliki Diakonia.  This booklet is available at the offices of the Metropolitanate offices.)
 
 

Message by Metropolitan Nikitas

For decades, our holy Orthodox Church has celebrated the witness of the holy and glorious Martyrs of China, which offered their lives to Christ during the days of the Boxer revolution.  Our diocese is blessed to have them as models for us and, in their honor, allow me to share some thoughts with you about the concept of martyrdom in the Orthodox Tradition and the Orthodox Martyrs of China.

Let us begin with some words from the Official Journal of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, March 23, 1901 (the translation and copyright belong tot he Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA, USA).

"As is known, a severe persecution recently broke out in China against all Christians in general, including those of the Orthodox Mission.  Eyewitnesses in China of the persecution have given us some detail of the atrocities, which are reminiscent of those perpetrated in the times of Nero and Diocletian. . . . We are informed that the recently organized Orthodox community in China has had martyrs and confessors of her own that call to mind the martyric contests of the primitive Christian Church.  A feeling of genuinely sacred emotion is produced in the soul of the reader before such examples of self-sacrifice for the name of Christ in days when- alas! - very little godly zeal and religious fervor is to be seen . . . The blood of martyrs has always been the seed from which flourishing Christian communities have sprung up in pagan lands.  Let us then pray that this terrible persecution, far from bringing discouragement to the Orthodox flock in China, may on the contrary become therein a source of greater zeal and the wider extension of the Kingdom of God, to the glory of him that said, "This Gospel shall be preached in the whole world." (Matt. 26:13)  And again, "Many shall come form the east and west and shall recline with Abraham and Isaac in the Kingdom of the Heavens!"  (The True Vine, Number 8)

Martyrdom has long been a part of the life of the Church.  Even the first days, after the birth of the Lord , are anointed with the blood of infant martyrs.  The first official account, though, we commemorate as a community is found in the Book of Acts.  It is, of course, the testimony, witness and death of St. Stephen.  It is this famous passage that brings us to the true meaning of what of being a martyr really means.  If one were to look at the Greek root of the word (the verb martyrein), one sees that the verb means to bear witness - to give testimony.  And in truth, that is the real essence of martyrdom.  Martyrdom does not imply or mean just giving one’s life for a cause.  People do that all the time.  All we have to do is think about the wars of the world, the Crusades or the suicide-bombings that take place.

Martyrdom, dear sisters and brothers, carries another important characteristic - that is for the Church and for us.  It is the witness and message found in the Book of Acts.  In the witness of the St. Stephen, the Proto-martyr, there is a confession of truth, an act of expressing one’s faith, a declaration and testimony to believing in holiness.  There isn’t an expression of fanaticism or desire to kill others.  There is only the readiness to give one’s life for truth, values, justice.  Violence is absent.  We must remember that Stephen is a Christian, and he must keep his eyes on heaven.  The scriptural account in the Book of Acts verifies this for us, as we read that Stephen’s face "was like that of an angel" and that he was "full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God".  In the final moments of the martyrs we see that there is no pain in sacrificing one’s life.  Rather, the action of giving one’s life is a filled with a type of joy and gladness.  There is only what St. Basil said when he was threatened with death by his tormentors: "you will only send me quicker to my King."  It is this expression of love and longing to be one with Christ that is reflected in the final words of the young martyr John Tsi (the son of St. Mitrophanes, the Martyr) who said, "It is not hard to suffer for Christ".  The witness of Father Mitrophanes demonstrated that in Christ there is no fear, love knows no fear.  With boldness, this great Saint of the Church embraced the flock and cared for the faithful as a good shepherd does his flock.

The Martyrs of China, as all the Martyrs in the history of the Church, did not look to this temporal world, as if it is the end.  Rather, they looked for what is beyond this life: the heavenly, the eternal, the future kingdom.  But the holy ones of God did not keep this vision for themselves.  They wanted it for all people.  That is why their witness was a public confession and invitation to others.  They looked not for citizenship in this world, but in the Kingdom of God.  These true believers of Christ were the sheep that searched for the pasture lands of Paradise, as to be the sheep of the One, True Shepherd.  The hymnographers of the Church put this into proper thought in the Oikos of the feast of the Martyrs: "Now are they truly celestial citizens, and the Angels are their friends, for when the time of trial came upon them, they desired not the day or rest of man, but were faithful to Thee even unto death."  Here, we also recall the words of Origen, who wrote:  All of the devices of men against Christians have been brought to nothing.  For the more that kings, rulers, and peoples have persecuted us, the more we have increased in number and grown in strength."

The blood of the Martyrs is the water that nourishes the seeds of the faith.  It is the challenge of confessing Christ that allows the weak to be cast to the side, while the true and strong remain.  The ancient Christian author Tertullian wrote the following about martyrdom: "Persecution is the fan which cleanses the Lord’s threshing floor - that is, the church. It winnows the mixed heap of believers, separating the wheat of the martyrs from the chaff of the deniers."  There were Martyrs in the days of the Boxer Rebellion, just as there were Confessors (those who were tortured and lived), as not all the faithful were slaughtered.  The words of Origen, once again, come to mind:  On certain occasions, he has restrained those who rose up against Christians and desired to destroy them. However, some individual Christians, who can be easily numbered, have endured death for the sake of Christianity.  God allowed this for the purpose of strengthening the rest: that by seeing a few contending for their faith, the others would be put on guard and would be prepared to scorn death.  But God has not permitted the whole Church to be exterminated.  Rather, He has desired that it should continue and that the whole world should be filled with this beneficial and religious doctrine."
 

While it is important that we commemorate the feast of the Chinese Martyrs and honor their glorious "birth in Christ", we must also reflect for a moment for the relevance and meaning of their witness to us and the people of China, since we are the inheritors of their testimony.

Our calling is to follow the same path of the holy Martyrs - the path of witness and sacrifice.  We are all called to preach and share the message that has been entrusted to us, not only in words but also in actions, deeds and every expression of life.  Let us remember that the term "martyrein" means to bear witness and this is what we are called to do.

The witness of the early missionaries in China and the glorious deaths of the Chinese Martyrs have been entrusted to us and our community, and we cannot allow these to fade and be lost in the pages of time.  The holy labors and prayers of these blessed ones are a "light that is not to put under a bushel".   Let us act and do what the Dismissal Hymn of the Martyrs instructs us to do: "Let us the flock of Christ with love and piety now glorify with hymns and truly joyous odes the faithful Martyrs of the truth who suffered for Christ in China.  For having confessed the Faith, they all bravely went unto death as lambs which were sacrificed for our Shepherd and master Christ.  And therefore to the Martyrs we cry out: Remember us all, who sing your praises."   Let us praise and honor of the Martyrs and not just be limited to words and hymns.  Rather, let us give more so that we might be found worthy inheritors of their noble offering to Christ.

+Metropolitan Nikitas
 

Orthodoxy in China
by Avgerinos

Orthodoxy arrived in China in 1685, more than a century earlier than the first Protestant missionaries.  Intermittent border skirmishes in the Amur River area between troops of the Qing Emperor and the Czar resulted in some Russians being taken prisoner.  A priest by the name of Maxim Leontiev was among the prisoners taken in 1685 to Beijing.  The Russo-Chinese accord of Nerchinsk in 1690 settled disputes but some of the released prisoners decided to stay in China as naturalized citizens.  The Kangxi (Kang Hsi) Emperor gave a Guandi (Kwan Ti, the god of war) temple to them as a temporary place of  worship in Beijing, and the Orthodox named it the Hagia Sophia Church.  An icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker was placed in the church, which was subsequently renamed the Church of the Dormition.  The Emperor also gave Father Leontiev the title of an imperial official of the seventh rank.

The Russian Government and Russian Church took notice of the Kangxi Emperor’s consideration.  In 1695 the Metropolitan of Tobolsk issued documentation recognising the consecration of the Hagia Sophia Church and encouraged Father Leontiev to work for the spread of Orthodoxy, and to "pray not only for the Czar, but also for the Chinese Emperor".  Czar Peter I ("the Great") was from the beginning an enthusiastic supporter of the Orthodox Church’s work in China.  When Father Leontiev died, Peter the Great obtained the Kangxi Emperor’s consent for Archimandrite Ilarion Lezhaisky to take over in Beijing.  The Archimandrite arrived in Beijing in 1715 with a priest, a deacon and other staff.  This was the first Spiritual Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Beijing.

There were to be 20 tours, or delegations, of the Spiritual Mission in Beijing, from 1715 through 1956, when Archbishop Viktor returned to Russia following agreements reached between Nikita Khruschev and Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).  Throughout the period of the Czars, the Spiritual Mission worked closely with the Russian Government, often seeing a close relationship between the furtherance of Russian interests and Orthodox interests.

In the first century-and-a-half of its presence in China, the Spiritual Mission did not attract a large following.  It is said that in 1860 there were not more than 200 Orthodox in Beijing, including the descendants of naturalized Russians.

In the second half of the 19th century, however, the Orthodox Church made bigger strides.  The Spiritual Mission was blessed with scholarly and religious clergy.  Numerous translations into Chinese of religious publications were made.  By 1902 there were 32 Orthodox churches in China with close to 6,000 adherents.  The church also ran schools and orphanages.

The Boxer Rebellion of 1898 - 1900, an anti-Western and anti-missionary uprising in China, saw violent attacks on Chinese converts to Christianity.  The Orthodox Chinese were among those put to the sword, and in June every year we commemorate the 222 Chinese Orthodox, including Father Mitrophan, who died for their faith in 1900 during the upheavals.
 
After the Russian Revolution of 1917 the Orthodox Church in China lost its traditional support base and had to fend for itself.  Any investments it made in the Czar’s bonds became valueless.  However it became the spiritual home of large numbers of anti-Bolshevik Russians who left Russia for China, and the numbers of Orthodox in China swelled. By around 1930 there were more than 50,000 Orthodox in China, mostly Russians.  Dioceses were established in Shanghai and Tianjin in addition to Harbin and Beijing.

After the October Revolution the Orthodox bishops in China came under the jurisdiction of the Synod of Russian Bishops Outside Russia, convening in Karlovci, Yugoslavia, and subsequently in Munich and New York. The surrender of the Axis powers at the end of World War II gave rise to a change in the situation in the Far East, and the Moscow Patriarchate resumed jurisdiction over the episcopate in China in the late 1940’s.
 
The Chinese People’s Republic was established in 1949 under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, which had close relations with the Soviet Communist Party in the 1950’s.  Treaties were signed between the Chinese and Soviet governments which provided for the turning over of Russian churches to Chinese control.  Archbishop Viktor, the last Russian bishop and leader of the 20th Spiritual Mission, returned to the Soviet Union in 1956, drawing to a close a variegated chapter in the history of Orthodoxy in China.

After the communists came to power in China most of the Russians left for Australia, the United States and other places.  Now there are very few Russians left in China, and the numbers of the Orthodox from the old Russian-organised dioceses have dwindled drastically.  There is only one functioning Orthodox church on the Mainland - the Pokrov church (the church of the Protection of the Theotokos) in Harbin.  The resident priest, Father Grigori Zhu, is 75.  There are about 18 parishioners who attend Sunday services, most of them elderly.  The youngest is 65.  Yet on the great feast of Easter this year, about 400 people filled the church - many who have settled overseas, and their children, returned to the mother church in Harbin for Pascha.

Pascha is the central message of Christianity.  God brings life out of death.  What man or human organizations plan could never get around or defeat God’s plan.  Perhaps there were people who expected, or even wanted, to see a dying Orthodox church in China.  After 1997 this has totally changed.
 
 
 
 

RELIGION AND THE CHINESE
by Avgerinos

It is a common observation that, alone among the major civilizations of the world, the Chinese (with their cultural cousins in Vietnam, Korea and Japan) have an eclectic attitude towards religion.  This means Chinese are seen to be able to embrace several religions at once.  In the Indian subcontinent, a person who converts to Islam gives up any previous religious identity, while a Hindu would not harbor any Muslim beliefs.  When Zoroastrian Iran was overwhelmed by Islam, Persians who rejected the new Muslim religion left the country rather than accept new beliefs, and came to be known as Parsees (Farsis - Persians who have remained Zoroastrian) abroad.

It is not unusual for a Chinese, however, who leads his daily life according to the traditional Confucianist norms and virtues of practicality, modesty, filial piety and propriety, to worship at a Taoist shrine during Lunar New Year and also to engage in Buddhist prayers and services on other important occasions.  Aristocrats in Qing China (1644 - 1911) were often Confucianist scholars who when they died had elaborate funerals featuring three chapels with three groups of clergy - Buddhist monks, Taoist priests and tantric Buddhist lamas.  In the Chinese pantheon the gods are not jealous gods.

One might be surprised, therefore, to learn that the standard Confucianist attitude towards the supernatural is a dismissive one.  Confucius (551 B. C. - 479 B. C.) never rejected the existence of a super nature; he did not have much time for it.  He advised his followers to accord due respect to the gods but also to distance themselves from them, making the point that before the problems of this life are solved it would be impossible to solve those of the next one.

During the reign of Emperor Wu (155 B. C. - 101 B. C.) of the Han Dynasty Confucianism became the state ideology.  Buddhism spread to China a few decades later but did not become widespread till 200 - 300 years afterwards.  Taoism, which claims nominal lineage to Lao Tzu, took its first forms shortly thereafter but only became widespread several centuries later, during the Tang dynasty (618 A. D. - 906 A. D.).  Much of Taoism’s liturgical practices and ecclesiastical order were modeled on those of Buddhism.

In acknowledging the existence of the supernatural but focusing man’s attention on the practical matters of this world, Confucius probably both encapsulated and molded the essential Chinese psyche in a manner no one has been able to do before or since.  This orientation also explains the "eclectic" attitude towards religion that Chinese have to this day: China’s mainstream ideology did not initially seek to address a spiritual dimension, and many Chinese people looked elsewhere for fulfillment on that level.  Buddhism was the first and so far the most significant answer that they found.  In fact, Buddhism is the only imported belief system to ever become an integral part of Chinese civilization in China’s 5,000-year history.  (A 20th-century contender, Marxism with Chinese characteristics, seems to be doing rather poorly at this stage.)

The Christian religion, as a relatively recent entrant on the Chinese stage, has always enjoyed rather bright prospects among China’s educated, and now increasingly urban, population.  It is found by many to meet the needs of the spiritual void of the teeming cities of modern-day East Asia. The Judaeo-Christian God, however, is not one Who expects to be added to the Taoist or Buddhist pantheon.  The Gospel brings a new outlook and a new perspective on life, with a different emphasis - a life constructed around love, not just propriety.   Yet Christians are not here to tell Chinese to throw away all their traditional culture.  A modus vivendi has to be found.  This brings us back to the issue of inculturation, whose importance cannot be underestimated in any missionary land.  Once it is understood that Chinese have spiritual needs like any other people, and that the Christian religion - and especially Orthodox spirituality - are particularly well-suited to meet those needs without necessarily invading the practical and social mores of the Confucianist tradition, the way forward will become ever clearer.
 

HOW THE CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS
CAME TO IN CHINA
by Avgerinos

In the Ninth Year of Jingguan (635 A. D.) during the reign of the Taizhong Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, a hieromonk from the Persian Empire by the name of Alopen, bearing scriptural texts (probably in Syriac), arrived at the imperial capital of Chang-An (Xian).  He was received favorably by the Tang authorities, who granted facilities for a place of worship to be erected for him and his co-religionists.  The Tang was one of the most open of Chinese dynasties, and Buddhist records state three temples were built in the imperial capital at that time for three different religions of Persian origin.  Alopen’s temple, however, was later renamed the temple of "Roman" origin because, it is believed, his religion, which spoke of a virgin giving birth to the Holy One in the Roman Empire, came originally not from the empire of the Persians, but from a province of Rome.

From a historical perspective, Alopen’s arrival in China in 635 was in the nick of time.  Mohammed’s Hegira to Medina took place in 622, marking the beginning of Islam’s expansion, and in 642 the Persian Empire fell to Muslims.  Adherents of Nestorian Christianity, who traditionally practiced their religion in lands east of the Byzantine Empire, were no longer to find Persia a safe haven or power base thereafter.

And yet Nestorian Christianity survived in China for at least two more centuries, and made a brief comeback under the Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty (1277 - 1368) because some Mongols at the time of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan were Nestorians.  We know Alopen’s religion was Nestorian Christianity because of the famous "Nestorian Tablet" unearthed in Xian in 1625 (now in the Xian Museum), giving an account of the earlier years of the religion, and from the 1909 discovery of Nestorian Chinese-language scriptural texts sealed in the Dunhuang caves in northwest China.  The tablet unearthed in 1625 gives the Second Year of Jianzhong (781 A. D.) as the year of its erection and bears some Syriac writing in addition to its Chinese script.

Nestorian Christianity did not survive in China and Mongolia.  The general perception in China was that it was a foreigners’ religion.  It  was a minority religion among Mongols, all of whom eventually embraced tantric Buddhism.
It was during the Yuan Dynasty - a period of substantial territorial expansion spearheaded by Mongol horsemen - that Roman Catholic missionaries first made contact with China.  The earliest missionaries were Franciscans.  Pope Nicholas IV sent John of Monte Corvino as the head of a missionary delegation which arrived in Beijing in 1289, where he died in 1328.  The Franciscan efforts continued through 1346, with the departure of John of Marignolli for Avignon.  Despite the fact that there were Chinese converts, Roman Catholicism died out in China until the return of Jesuit missionaries during the Ming Dynasty, under the leadership of Matteo Ricci who arrived in Macao in 1580.  Thereafter, Roman Catholicism slowly began to take root.

Roman Catholic missionary priests were often valued calendrists, astronomers, cartographers and engineers in the imperial court.  One achievement of four centuries of Roman Catholic missionary experience in China was the resolution of the Chinese traditions and rites controversy.  The Jesuits made substantial headway initially in accommodating the Chinese veneration for ancestors and Confucius. The Dominicans and Franciscans who arrived in the 17th century questioned the accommodations reached.

The disputes embroiled numerous Popes who were asked to rule on practices in China: could Catholics take part in rituals honoring Confucius?  Could they burn incense before wooden tablets bearing the names of their ancestors to show veneration?  Pope Clement XI’s 1704 decision against the Jesuits, formalized in his 1715 encyclical "Ex Illa Die" and reinforced by Pope Benedict XIV’s decision in 1742 to ban further discussions, brought the matter to a head.  The Kangxi (Kang Hsi) Emperor, one of Qing China’s greatest emperors, ordered the expulsion of Catholic missionaries in 1721.  He made clear in a written edict copied to the Pope that practices flowing from those instituted by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci were acceptable, but that subsequent hierarchs who challenged Chinese tradition were ignorant of the Chinese language and classics.  The ban imposed by Rome was not lifted till 1939, when Pope Pius XII authorized Chinese Catholics to venerate their ancestors and Confucius in public ceremonies.

Protestantism arrived much later, but achieved impressive successes because of the evangelical zeal of a number of major denominations.  The first arrival was the Rev. Dr. Robert Morrison, who was sent by the London Missionary Society.  He arrived in Macao in 1807 and devoted his life to work among the Chinese.  He and his assistant William Milne are remembered for their leadership and work in rendering the Old and New Testaments into Chinese, a project completed in 1819.  Dr. Morrison died in Guangdong in 1834 and was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Macao.

On the heels of Dr. Morrison, Protestant missionaries from many denominations started arriving in China in the first half of the 19th century.  They came from Britain, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Scandinavia, and included Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, Seventh Day Adventists, Lutherans, Quakers, German and Swiss Evangelicals (the Basel and Rhenish mission societies), as well as many others.  There were (and are) missions set up and based in Western countries whose main purpose was to evangelize China.  The Bible Societies and the YMCA and YWCA also became established in China.  The Anglican church set up dioceses in Hong Kong and Shanghai which became bases of mission work..

Long years of missionary work by both Roman Catholics and Protestants bore fruit in that, unlike Nestorianism, they did not die out.  When the Communist Party took control of mainland China in 1949 it found that both religions were well entrenched in China, particularly among the better-educated Chinese.  In accordance with communist practice, the state extended recognition to them by legally registering them as valid religions and putting them under the supervision of the religious affairs bureau.  This entailed the severance of the Roman Catholic Church in China from leadership and administration by the See of Rome, and the state-guided merger of all Protestants into a "Three-Self" Patriotic church movement.  Nevertheless Christian faith and practice continued, even through the most difficult days of the Cultural Revolution, and the churches have today re-emerged with renewed vigor as China develops into a more open society.  They now constitute two of the five "religions" recognized by the Chinese state (the other three are Buddhism, Taoism and Islam).

Recent official documents in the Mainland are said to assess the number of Protestants at close to 30 million - many more than in 1949 - and the number of Catholics at more than eight million (the Church of Rome puts the figure at about 10 million, including both "underground" and "open" church Catholics).  The documents further point out that even Communist Party members are known to take part in religious services - it is estimated that more than one million party members have joined religious groups.  This proves that man’s spiritual dimension requires fulfillment, and may not be suppressed.
 

Journey to Harbin
by Josef Kollar

When we arrived in Harbin, we asked where we could find an active Orthodox Church only to learn that people only knew St. Sofia, now the museum of Architectural Art.  Had Metropolitan Nikitas not given us the approximate address of the Church and Fr. Gregory’s name we probably would not have located either.
The Holy Protection of the Virgin Church stands in the heart of the city at 270 Bolshoi Prospect, about a ten minute walk from the famous square with the figure of a snowflake.  As we approached it we saw what appeared to be an administration building behind a small structure with a Russian three barred cross (picture).  The administration building now houses a school for beauticians, a beauty parlor and barber shop.  The church itself had workmen repairing the exterior.  The gate to the street was locked.  There were no announcements or signs to indicate that this indeed was an active church - very much in contrast to the Protestant church which was 150 meters away and was full of parishioners and had signs in Chinese and English announcing services.  We walked a little further, but seeing no more churches in the vicinity we decided to return to the one under repair.

When we asked for the priest, the workmen directed us to the school for beauticians.  We thought this strange, but when we asked to speak with Fr. Gregory, we were pointed to the only door with no signs or advertisements.  This is where Fr. Gregory lives and has his office.  Fr. Gregory told us that he is 75, has family in Beijing, received his seminary training at the Russian Ecclesiastical Academy in Shanghai and began his priestly duties in Harbin in 1951.

He stated that 140,000 Russians used to live in Harbin until the Communist takeover.  Now his parish consists of 144 souls ranging in age from 68 to 92.  On average, 18 come to liturgy on Sundays.   On Pascha, over 400 people, mostly from towns accross the Russian border, attended services which are conducted in Church Slavonic.  When asked about young parishioners or Chinese faithful he said that a young Chinese man, a student of Slavonic languages and a non-believer helps by reading the Psalms on Sundays.

Because his church is undergoing capital repairs, Fr. Gregory indicated that his biggest need is money to pay for the church’s restoration.  He has books and materials for church services, but money is the most difficult to raise.  Former residents of Harbin, their children and grandchildren, come to visit from the USA and Australia.  They appear to be the source of most donations.  A former priest from Harbin, now a retired dentist in the USA comes to visit and has helped considerably.

We hoped to attend Liturgy on Ascension Thursday, but Fr. Gregory said the next service would take place upon the re-opening of the church on June 20th.  We asked whether one could go to another church.  He answered that this was the only active Orthodox Church within the city’s limits.  However, several years ago, the Chinese government built a church 1 ½ hours outside the city by taxi, but this was too far and inconvenient for the parishioners.  Originally, a cemetery adjoined the church, but since it was located so close to the city’s centre, the government removed it to its present location and built the new church there.

(Note of gratitude from the editor to Mr. & Mrs. Kollar for their account of their trip to the Orthodox Church in Harbin.  We wish all the best and God’s blessings for them and their family)
 
 
 

Marriage in the Orthodox Church

In the May issue of the Censer, the sacrament of marriage was presented as one way of traveling through the journey of life where the significance and purpose lies in the Kingdom of God.  The start of this new way of life for two people begins at the altar, where they do more than just promise to love each other in sickness and in health, and so on.  Even though that promise is there to one another, the real promise is that they should live a life according to God’s will which sanctified them and blessed them on the day of their marriage.  Thus marriage becomes a triangle of love and self-sacrifice between two people and God.  And the closer the two draw to God through their love and obedience, the closer they come to each other.  This teaching of the Church is contained in the service itself which so often gets lost in the havoc of preparation and emotions.  This is why in the next few words we will examine some of the symbolism and content of the marriage service.

Betrothal Rings:  The betrothal rings are a symbol adopted by many peoples as a sign of power and authority.  In Christianity they are a sign of self-sacrifice and mutual commitment in terms of a positive acceptance of the other person.  In other Orthodox traditions, like the Armenians and the Syrians, the couple exchanges baptismal crosses as a sign of accepting the other person’s "cross".  In the Byzantine and Coptic rites the rings are given by the priest who acts as a representative of the Church. The best man or woman then exchanges rings three times, which signifies that in married life the weakness of the one person will be compensated for by the strengths of the other.  This exchange of rings, as does the exchange of the crowns and the drinking from the common cup, gives expression to the fact that spouses in marriage will constantly complement each other.  Furthermore, the rings symbolize God’s personal commitment to protect and glorify His faithful servants.  The subjection to God and to each other is "out of reverence for Christ".  The reference to fear in the Epistle reading thus becomes a feeling of awe before the divine presence that is concealed in the other person, whether husband or wife.
The Crowns: This is the climax of the wedding service, where the crowns are the signs of glory and honor.  The husband and wife are crowned as king and queen of their own little kingdom which is their home.  However, the most significant symbolism of the crowns is the that they stand as the crowns of martyrdom.  One recalls in the life of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia, that as the Roman guards watched them die on the frozen lake for not denying Christ, forty crowns of light descended upon them as they gained eternal life.  The same crowns of martyrdom are placed on the heads of the couple, since true marriage involves immeasurable self-sacrifice on both sides.  Those crowns will be waiting for them in the next life, for the couple to be crowned in the kingdom of Heaven.  In many traditions, the crowns are placed at a special place in the home where the icons are also placed, as a reminder of the glory of the marriage and the greater glory of martryrdom which is simply the struggle of the two spouses to gain the Kingdom of Heaven.
 The Common Cup:  Wine is given to the couple as a remembrance of the miracle at Cana of Galilee which took place at a wedding celebration attended and blessed by Christ Who changed the water into wined.  The sharing of the cup signifies that from that moment the couple shares everything in life, joys and sorrows, wealth and poverty, and that they will bear one another’s burdens.  Originally, what was given to the couple was Holy Communion, thus drawing the very presence of God in the sacrament of marriage.  For the Church Fathers, Christ is the only and unique fiance at every wedding service, for marriage is a mysterious icon of the Church.  That is why the marriage ceremony is to be held in a Church, at the presence of a bishop or priest, and not in some worldly setting.  A wedding is not a private affair but an event that involves the entire Church communion.
The Dance of Isaiah:  The service is concluded with the dance of Isaiah, where the couple is led by the priest around the table which holds a Cross and symbolizes the altar.  The husband and wife are here taking their first steps as husband and wife, and the Church in the person of the priest who usually hold the gospel is showing them how to walk.  The center of life is the Christ; the way of  life is that of the Gospel and the salvation contained within it and in the Church.
Three hymns are sung during this procession.  In these are recalled the Prophet Isaiah & the holy martyrs.  Isaiah in as much as he prophesied the birth of Christ on earth.  The married couple constitutes a little Church thus bringing the presence of Christ into the Church.  The martyrs who "struggled and were crowned" are a permanent reminder of the need for self-sacrifice.  The martyrdom of marriage is not simply the sign of the "hardships" that are to be faced together.  It is rather the symbol of the Cross and of the ascetic struggle of dying constantly for the other person.  It is a misconception that Christianity is all pain and sacrifice.  That is foreign to our Church.  The Church accepts both joy and sorrow, but prays for happiness and pleasure in life which is given to humanity to enjoy.  The sacrament serves to sanctify the life of the couple to be long and prosperous, and to lead to the ultimate joy of the Kingdom of Heaven in this life and in the next.
 
 
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

FEAST DAY OF OUR ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW
On June 11th, our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrates the feast day of his patron saint.  We all rejoice on this festive occasion and pray to almighty God that He grants our Ecumenical Patriarch many years.
 
CELEBRATION IN INDONESIA
The country of Indonesia has been at the forefront of world news ever since the riots began in all the major cities as the people protested in the streets against the rule of then-President Suharto.  Although the majority of violence and the looting were mostly directed to the ethnic Chinese population and the businesses owned by Suharto’s family and friends, our priests and faithful went into hiding because of fear they might be the mob’s next target.  By God’s grave however, all our people and the churches remained unharmed and the situation has since subsided, at least for the time being.  The Metropolis of Hong Kong kept in contact with the communities through Fr. Daniel and sent financial help to Indonesia in order for the parishes to face the hardship of rising prices and civil unrest.
In the meantime, the life of the Orthodox Church in Indonesia is thriving.  First, we would like to congratulate Fr. Daniel Byantoro on the occasion of his tenth anniversary of his arrival to Indonesia as an Orthodox missionary.  Furthermore, we extent our warmest greetings to the parish of Sts. Cyril & Methodios, in Grasak Indonesia, on the occasion of the feast day of their patron-saint.  We also wish health and prosperity to the parish priest, Fr. Methodios, on the occasion of his feast day.  However, there are even more reasons to celebrate in Indonesia, as His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas will ordain two men in Solo, Indonesia, on June 10th & 11th.  We pray that the grace of the Holy Spirit will enlighten them in their ministry.

METROPOLITANATE COOKBOOK
As a fund-raising project, the ladies of St. Sophia’s Sisterhood are putting together a cookbook with recipes from the around the world and especially from Southeast Asia.  Contributions may be sent by fax or e-mail to Georgia Alikakos at c/o Orthodox Metropolitanate offices.  Our e-mail address is OMHKSEA@ netvigator.com.

ORDINATION OF GEORGE VLADIMIROU
His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas will ordain Mr. George Vladimirou to the diaconate on June 30th and to the priesthood on July 5th.  Mr. Vladimirou will then be coming to Hong Kong in order to serve the parish of St. Luke.  He is a Greek Cypriot and has studied law at the Aristoteleio University of Thessaloniki and theology at the University of Athens.  The arrival of the new parish priest should take place at the beginning of this August.  All parishioners of St. Luke’s and the faithful of the Metropolitanate of Hong Kong look forward to the new worker of Christ’s Church.

SUMMER INTERN
We welcome our Summer Intern, Mr. Athan Stephanopoulos, who will be working at the Metropolitanate offices June through August.  Besides the office work, Mr. Stephanopoulos will also travel to Indonesia and possibly India in order to do seminars for the youth groups.

FR. IGNATIOS SENNIS TO VISIT HONG KONG
While His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas is visiting Greece for the ordination of Mr. George Vladimirou, Fr. Ignatios Sennis, from Calcutta, India, will be visiting the parish of St. Luke, in Hong Kong.  He will be conducting the Divine Liturgy on June 30th & July 5th.

BABY BOOM IN HONG KONG
Over the past six months, the parish of St. Luke in Hong Kong has been blessed with a baby boom.  The new arrivals have taken place in the  Papageorge, Vassiliadis, Hellman, Jost, Damianides, & Stamatis families, two boys and four girls overall, while one more baby is due in October.  In this joyful way the parish is growing, and God willing it will continue to grow in months and years to come.
 
 

A NOTE OF GRATITUDE
In the May issue of the CENSER, a special appeal was issued for funding that will keep this publication running.  In response, we received a very nice letter and a donation from a reader in Macau.  Even though many people support the Metropolis in many different ways, and we thank all of them for the love and prayers, I would like to especially thank our Macau parishioner for hers was the only letter we received all month.   It was a great moral boost, and we hope God’s grace be with her and with all our faithful readers and supporters of the Orthodox mission in Hong Kong & Southeast Asia.
 

The Orthodox Family

by Georgia Alikakos

The Importance of Prayer Centers in the Home

Our Church Fathers teach us that prayer is essential for Orthodox Christians, for even Christ Himself prayed to His Father while on Earth, and set the example for us.  We see Christ praying in the Temple, in the garden of Gesthemani, and even on the Cross.  He did not hesitate to call His Father, and as such neither should we.  We should call upon the name of our Lord in times of happiness, as well as times of distress, in the Church, in the car, on the road and especially in our homes.

Although, it is difficult for many families to enjoy dinner together, there is something more important that they should be sharing – family prayer time.  This is not as difficult as it sounds, and when a place is established within the home to serve this purpose, it makes it not only a devotional, but also and enjoyable experience.  There are some basic elements needed to establish an area for devotional purposes.  These include:  an Icon/or icons, a vigil light, a censer, and a bible.

Icons represent Christ and the Saints in their transfigured state, in other words their supernatural form as the Glory of God shines upon them.  It is important, if possible, to accustom your family to Byzantine style iconography, because only they depict the Christ and the Saints in this manner.  The individual on the icon is to be venerated and not worshipped, for only the Lord is worshipped.  They serve as windows to the Kingdom and keep us focused on prayer, the Godly life and those who came before us.
Vigil lights near icons are there to symbolize how Christ is the Light of the World, and that we should always be vigilant in our Faith, because we do not know the time or the day of the second coming.  They remind us to keep Orthodoxy in our hearts like a flame and to tend to that flame always, keeping it alive.

The cencer, along with incense represents  our prayers as they ascend to heaven.  The sweet smell of the incense not only reminds us of church, but also of the sweetness of life, a gift given to us by our Lord in heaven.

Finally, the most important of the elements for prayer, the Bible.  For if we do not read what is written, and what our Lord said, there is really no basis to our prayer.  Lectionaries are prepared, and are included in The Censer for this purpose.

Of course, other thing may be added to your prayer corners:  married couples very often put the crowns from their marriage, holy water from Epiphany is commonly kept in this area, as well as the palms from Palm Sunday , the eggs from Pascha that are received at church and  those who bake Prosforon, keep their stamps along with these other holy things.

Many people during the summer months are not able to attend Liturgy, and for this reason I implore you to establish a prayer corner in your homes so that although Liturgy is missed, nightly and morning prayers are not missed also.  It will serve as a gathering place for your families, and a center of worship for God.
 
 

THE HYMNOGRAPHY OF THE
ORTHODOX CHURCH

 " I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being."
Psalms 104:33

If one wishes to know the theology of the Church, he or she has only to read the hymns.  This column is an attempt to look into some of the hymns of the Church and witness the teaching of the Church preserved through centuries in these magnificent hymns.  The following two hymns are taken from the canon sung in the matins of Pentecost.
 

You told Your disciples, O Christ:  Stay in Jerusalem until you are clothed with the power from on high.  For I will send you another Comforter, such as I, Both My Spirit and of the Father, in which you will be strengthened.

It was the spoken promise of Christ that the Holy Spirit would be sent to the disciples.  Jesus said at the Last Supper: "And I will pray the Father,  and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever." (Jn. 14:16)  This promise is repeated after the Resurrection: "And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high." (Jn. 24:49)  St. Kosmas writes the above ode based on this promise.  He writes this after the great theological debates over the nature of the Holy Spirit and expresses the faith of the Church.  The word "another" reveals the Spirit is separate from the Son.   But because many claimed that the Holy Spirit was not of the same essence, the hymnographer adds the phrase "such as I", in order to express the Orthodox teaching of the Holy Spirit being of the same essence as the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, since Christ even was called the Comforter : "…but if any one does sin, we have a comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 Jn. 2:1)  The Holy Spirit is called Comforter because He brings us comfort in our sadness and our temptations.  The Greek word for Comforter is Paraclete, for the Holy Spirit accepts our paraklesis, our supplications and our prayers.   The Holy Spirit is the One Who consoles us and understands our weaknesses and tribulations.

O illumined children of the Church, receive the fiery refreshment of the Spirit, the delivering purification of sin.  Now a law has come forth from Zion, the Grace of the Spirit as tongues of fire.

All of us Orthodox Christians are the children of God.  At the same time we are the children of the Church, because according the teaching of the Church, no one can have God as a Father if he or she does not have the Church for a mother.  St. John of Damascus calls Christians the illumined children of the Church.  He calls them that because on the day of Pentecost, many of the catechumens were baptized, and as they came out of the baptismal waters, wearing the white baptismal garments, they shone forth the light of Christ which the had just received, thus truly becoming illumined.
The poet-hymnographer calls for these illumined children to receive the fiery refreshment of the Spirit.  This fiery refreshment is the grace of the Holy Spirit which acts during baptism.  The refreshment is in the baptismal waters and the fieriness in the life-giving power of the Spirit.  The first fruit of this fiery refreshment is the purification of sin.  In Baptism we receive the complete purification from every sin, original sin and our personal sins.
The descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was prophesied by Isaiah: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples." (Is. 2:3-4)   Even though the "law" and the "word" of the prophecy refer to the Gospel, it is also related to the descent of the Spirit which enabled and illumined the Apostles to preach the Gospel of Christ.   It is in this sense that St. John of Damascus uses the prophecy in this hymn, that the "law" and the "word" poured out of the upper chamber in Jerusalem where the Apostles received the Holy Spirit in the form of the fiery tongues.