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Submitted July 29, 2005
Orthodox high
school students from all over the US learn about
Orthodoxy in China |
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by Nelson Mitrophan Chin
On June 25th, 30 Orthodox high school students
from all over the United States, from various
jurisdictions, came to the Greater Boston area
for a ten days program called CrossRoad. This
program is led by the Office of Vocation and
Ministry at Hellenic College in Brookline,
Massachusetts.
CrossRoad, an innovative program designed to
lead high school juniors through a personal
exploration of vocation, is part of a five-year
program sponsored by the Lilly Endowment Inc.
The goal of the CrossRoad program is to help
students discern how their faith in Christ can
inform their life calling to match their
personal gifts with the needs of the world.
Members of the St. Mary's community, Ann
Bezzerides and Natasha Smith coordinated this
year's successful CrossRoad program.
On Friday, July 1, they visited our parish of St
Mary in Cambridge MA for Vespers, and afterwards
our parish priest Fr Antony Hughes gave an
informal homily on what should be our life-long
vocation as Orthodox Christians, namely union
with God. God became man so that we may become
God, as St Athanasius best summarized it.
Afterwards, the students went downstairs to the
church hall and enjoyed Chinese food. While they
were eating, I was given an opportunity to share
with them about the Chinese Orthodox Translation
Project, the current state of Orthodoxy in China
and my own journey to Orthodoxy. See photo at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crossroad/sets/559192/
.
I shared of how Chinese traditions are
incorporated or found parallel in the various
sacraments of the Orthodox Church, such as the
theme of royalty found in both Chinese and
Orthodox weddings, or the concept of celebrating
the birth of a child a month or so after birth
whether in
the Chinese community or churching and baptism
in the Church community.
We also went over briefly on how the Russian
Mission entered China by the way of the Chinese
capturing the fortress of Albazin in Siberia and
bringing the prisoners back to Beijing. They
were incorporated into the imperial banner
guards and allowed to convert one of the
Buddhist temple into an Orthodox chapel, and
thus Orthodoxy was implanted on Chinese soil. I
also passed around an icon of the Chinese
Martyrs and shared of how they, like the little
boy St John, who died for their faith in Christ
during the Boxer uprising. Also, many white
Russians fled the Bolsheviks and swelled
the Orthodox population in China in 20th
century. St John who was bishop of Shanghai and
whose relic (a lock of hair) is encased at the
solea of our church, is available for
veneration. The Chinese Church was eventually
granted autonomy with the elevation of a Chinese
Bishop, as was required when the Communist took
power in 1949, demanding that indigenous clergy
be the head of the Church in China.
Also addressed was the current state of
Orthodoxy in China with active participation
from both the Moscow Patriarchate and the
Ecumenical Patriarchate via the Metropolitanate
(OMHKSEA) based in Hong Kong. I passed around
sample copies of the Censer, the English
publication of OMHKSEA covering Orthodox
activity in Asia and South East Asia in
particular. I also made mentioned of the current
efforts of the Chinese Translation Project that
I am coordinating in making possible to have
lives of saints and liturgical material
available in modern Chinese via the website
www.orthodox.cn and via postal mail upon
request. The students participated in an
engaging discussion after the presentation with
questions about religious freedom and how to go
about officially allowing and planting new
Orthodox communities in China. I made mentioned
of the newly enacted Chinese regulation which
for first time do not name the official
religions, thus making it possible for Orthodoxy
to have an equal-footing with other religions in
gaining recognition in China.
For more information on the CrossRoad program
please visit www.crossroad.hchc.edu.
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