Metropolitan Kirill will visit the People’s Republic of China
14.11.2001 · English, Архив 2001
METROPOLITAN KIRILL WILL VISIT THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, will visit a number of countries in the South-East Asia from November 6 to 18, 2001. From November 6 to 9, he will be in the People’s Republic of China.
On his way to Honk Kong on November 6, Metropolitan Kirill will make a brief stop at Beijing to discuss with the Russian Ambassador in China prospects for the development of Russian-Chinese relations in the religious sphere. Among the problems of concern for the Russian Orthodox Church is the situation of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Russian-speaking minority living in Sinzang and Inner Mongolia as well as the spreading of destructive cults of the Chinese origin in Russia and prospects for cooperation in opposing religious extremism.
In Beijing, His Eminence Kirill will visit the Russian Embassy, where, until 1956, there were churches of the Russian Orthodox Mission in China. The churches were destroyed after the territory of the mission was handed over to the USSR Embassy. Today the Russian Embassy is the only place in Beijing where Orthodox divine services are celebrated. At present the possibility for opening a museum-chapel devoted to the history of the Peking Mission is considered. Metropolitan Kirill will celebrate a thanksgiving and a requiem service in the territory of the embassy and will have a meeting with Russian compatriots.
On November 7-9, Metropolitan Kirill will visit the Sangang (Hong Kong) Special Administrative Region in the PRC to meet Russians living there as well as the Russian Consulate and the Parish of St. Luke of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. He will conduct a requiem service at the grave of the last priest of the Peking Mission, Archpriest Dimitry Uspensky (d. 1972) buried at the Colonial Cemetery in Honk Kong.
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