Orthodox Missionaries Start Working With Moscow Chinese
Moscow, 13 April 2010, Interfax - Prophet Daniel Orthodox missionary movement carried out a guided tour to the Holy Trinity - St. Sergius Laura for Chinese living in Moscow.
"We believe the Lord has brought foreign guests to our city not only to work or to study here, but to learn more about Orthodoxy," the movement leader, renowned theologian Yury Maximov told Interfax-Religion on Tuesday.
"Thus, we searched for possible ways to carry out missionary work among foreigners living in Russia and finally we decided that they can get acquainted with Orthodoxy in trips to our monasteries with guided tours in their native language," the interviewee of the agency further said.
The initiative was once approved by the movement's founder Fr. Daniel Sysoyev who was shot dead by unidentified criminals in St. Thomas Church in south Moscow late on November 19, 2009.
"We were preparing it for almost a year. It's a great pleasure that the initiative was welcomed by Chinese. Though we first thought to attract a small group of six people, we finally have got a group of fourteen Chinese students," Maximov noted.
According to Maximov, Chinese students showed such a "deep and lively interest in Orthodox shrines that we hope many of them will continue studying Orthodoxy in frames of Chinese Orthodox lectures, which will be soon organized by Prophet Daniel missionary movement."
THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IN MOSCOW
Video: The Life of Chinese Merchants in Moscow