Metropolitan Kirill to consecrate an Orthodox church in Tokyo

02 September 2008, 14:19

Moscow, September 2, Interfax – A new Russian Orthodox church of St. Alexander of Neva was built in the district of Meguro in Tokyo.

“The church has a new iconostasis and is being prepared for the consecration which is to take place on September 12 on the patronal festival,” the secretariat for inter-Orthodox relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations told Interfax-Religion.

The DECR chair Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad is to conduct a consecration.

The number of the Japanese who identify themselves with Orthodoxy equals to about 30,000 people.

The Japanese Autonomous Church was founded by St. Nikolay (Kasatkin) who came to Japan on 1861 on the decision of the Holy Synod. He founded and headed the Russian Orthodox mission in Japan in 1870. He translated the Holy Scripture and liturgical books into Japanese and built the Resurrection Cathedral in Tokyo. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Archbishop Nikolay in 1970. The Moscow Patriarchate granted autonomy to the Japanese Orthodox Church the same year.

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Japanese Orthodox first hierarch urges to active preaching among Japanese

15 July 2008, 15:01

Moscow, July 15, Interfax - Metropolitan Daniel of Tokyo and All Japan is concerned with Orthodox mission among Japanese and urged to work harder in this field.

When speaking at the recent Japanese Autonomous Church Council in Tokyo, the metropolitan said that since its founder St. Nikolay (Kasatkin) decease in 1912, it hadn't grown in number and it made him "feel ashamed."

"There are 60 bishops in Ukraine, and we have only two hierarchs," Metropolitan Daniel stated and urged the clergy to active preaching among Japanese people."

The Council also cited the research data claiming that the Japanese Orthodox Church had 2 bishops, 23 priests, 12 deacons. There are 67 parishes and 9958 registered members of parochial communities.

The latter number covers only those who regularly participates in sacraments and make donations. This data does not include those who come to pray to Japanese Orthodox churches as their number is much bigger, the Moscow Patriarchate website reports.

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New Orthodox Church Founded in Tokyo

21:08, 04.03.2008 Приморский край The area for the building was devised by a Russian immigrant.

The future Russian Orthodox Church after Alexander Nevsky was founded in the Meguro ward of Tokyo last Sunday, Pravostok.ru reports.

The church will be constructed on the area of land devised by a Russian immigrant S. Krivtsova to the Moscow Patriarchy under condition of erecting a church there after the fall of the soviet power.

The solemn opening ceremony gathered the representatives of Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Japan, the parish and clergy of the Russian and Japanese Orthodox Churches.

The funds for construction of the temple were partly allotted by the Moscow Patriarchate. Another part was collected by the Orthodox believers of Russia.

The entire interior for the future shrine will be brought from Russia and some of them from Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg in particular.

The new Orthodox temple in Tokyo will be the second after the Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) named after a missionary Nikolai Kasatkin founder of the Autonomous Japanese Orthodox Church.

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