Orthodoxy in Southeast Asia

The preaching of Christianity in Asia is traditionally associated with the name of the Apostle Thomas, one of the closest disciples of the Saviour of the world.

Having accepted the commandment of Jesus Christ about the worldwide preaching of the Gospel, the Russian Orthodox Church in its missionary service was primarily turned to the East, preaching in Siberia, the Far East, and then in China and Japan, but also in North America.

Many missions were established – in Irkutsk, Altai, Daurskoe, Transbaikal, Semipalatinsk, Yenisei, Kirghizstan, Chukotka, Kamchatka, etc.; and outside Russia – Chinese, Japanese, Korean, American, and Urmian missions.

The Russian Orthodox Church has always seen the goal of its missionary service not in expanding the territory of its pastoral responsibility and not in imposing “Russian” Orthodoxy on local people, but rather in delivering the pure message of our Lord Jesus Christ, in forming church communities, and in developing the fullness of the sacramental life of the Church there so that those who accept the preaching of Russian missionaries – the peoples of different countries – were able to enter into the one Body of Christ and bring their cultural traditions to the Orthodox church.

Examples of such approaches are: the American, or Kodiak, mission, through the labours of which the Orthodox Church in America appeared, which received autocephaly from the Moscow Patriarchate in 1970; the Japanese mission, the fruit of which was the Japanese Orthodox Church, which has had full autonomy from the Russian Orthodox Church since 1970; the Chinese, or Beijing, mission, which gave birth to the Chinese Orthodox Church, independent in the affairs of its internal administration since 1956.

It was mainly the Russian Orthodox mission in China that began preaching in the countries of South-East Asia. The first Orthodox parishes established by Russian clerics from China appeared in the 1930s in the Philippines and Indonesia. The missionary work of Saint John, Archbishop of Shanghai, was particularly important as he visited the Philippines and Vietnam in 1949.

Initially established for the pastoral care of their compatriots, Russian parishes gradually became a spiritual refuge for local residents who met Christ.

After the celebration in 1988 of the Millennium of the Baptism of Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church had the opportunity to fully revive its diverse ministry, including missionary. An active role in this was played by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. As chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, he visited China, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore in the 1990-2000s. The result of his archpastoral visits was the emergence of parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Asian countries.

In 2007, the archpastoral care of the Dormition Parish in Singapore was entrusted to Bishop Sergiy of Ussuri, vicar of the Vladivostok diocese, and since then, Vladyka Sergiy’s ministry has been related to organizing church life in South-East Asia.

In 2016, he became the administrator of the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, North Korea, and the Republic of Korea.

Due to the significant success of the mission carried out under Bishop Sergy’s leadership in the countries of South-East Asia: the growing number of churches and communities, the emergence of clergy from among the local population, the increased interest in Russian Orthodoxy, and also in connection with the increase in the Russian-speaking population permanently or temporarily residing in countries of this region, in 2018 the Patriarchal Exarchate of South-East Asia was formed with the centre in Singapore. The Exarchate became the legal successor of the East-Asian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church that existed from 1946 to 1956.

The head of the newly formed Exarchate became Bishop Sergiy, elevated to the rank of Metropolitan of Singapore and South-East Asia.

Today, the clergy of the Exarchate, serving in 13 countries and five time zones, are united in 4 dioceses – of Singapore, Korea, Thailand, and Philippine-Vietnamese diocese. Today, 72 clerics serve in 80 parishes of the Exarchate, providing pastoral care to tens of thousands of parishioners. Most of the communities consist of local residents, while parishioners from Russia make about 20%.

The Exarchate conducts extensive social work. Thus, over 3,000 families received humanitarian aid last year.

Striving for the formation of local Orthodox communities, Metropolitan Sergiy pays special attention to the training of priests from among the local population, therefore seminarians from South-East Asia study in theological schools in Russia.