Alexy II asks South Korean president help open a Russian church in Seoul

01 October 2008, 17:25

Moscow, October 1, Interfax – Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia asked South Korean president Lee Myung-bak to help open a Russian church in Seoul.

“The time has come. Russian churches in the south and in the north will play a positive role in uniting Korea,” Alexy II said at his meeting with Lee Myung-bak in St. Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow.

The Patriarch stressed the issue was especially important as the construction of the Holy Trinity Church had been launched in Pyongyang. The DPRK leaders supported the idea and the church will come “under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarch.’

Alexy II also said he had received numerous requests to build an Orthodox church both from Russian compatriots living and working in Korea and from Orthodox Koreans.

“I believe it is high time we restored an Orthodox church in South Korea as the Russian-Korean relations are developing and the number of our compatriots in South Korea is growing,” Alexy II said.

He reminded that Orthodoxy had been present in Korea since 1900, when the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission opened. There were Orthodox churches for Russians and Koreans in Seoul. The Moscow Patriarchate cleric Hegumen Feofan (Kim) has worked in Seoul since 2000, though he has to celebrate liturgies in the church of the Constantinople Patriarchate.

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