Additional
Notes
by Seraphim Lim
I found
a section of a newly-published Chinese book on Eastern Orthodoxy that may
relate to the persons and churches mentioned in the “Christmas Sermon”
document:
“1917年俄國十月革命后，有一批白俄流亡分子逃到天津，這些人都信仰東正教。隨著俄國流亡教徒人數的驟增，1929年在天津又建造了“聖母帡幪”教堂。之後，又陸續建成了“聖英諾肯提乙”教堂，“聖尼古拉”教堂，“聖謝拉菲姆”教堂，“聖眾”教堂等。天津東正教會從1920－1939年共建教堂8座。先後主持教堂工作的有巴維爾大司祭，維克托爾修士大司祭，戛烏利伊勒修士司祭，米哈依爾。羅國仁大司祭，西奈斯基大司祭，奧西波夫大司祭，中國人常福大司祭，芮憲章司祭，杜潤臣司祭，杜立崑司祭等。 。。。
。。。1956年后，天津的俄國僑民紛紛離華，部分僑民回到蘇聯，多數僑民去往資本主義國家，教徒人數大量減少。此後，天津的几個教堂進行了合并，并受中華東正教會領導。1966 年“文化大革命”開始，宗教活動完全停止，教會也不復存在。”
“After the October 1917
Revolution in Russia, a number of White Russian refugees fled to Tianjin; these
refugees are all Eastern Orthodox believers. With the sudden increase in the
number of Russian refugee church members, the Protection of the Theotokos
church was built in Tianjin in 1929.
After that, additional churches were built: St Innokentiy church, St
Nikolai church, St Seraphim church, All Saints church etc. The Tianjin Diocese
built a total of 8 churches between 1920 and 1939. Clergy looking after these
churches are, in chronological order, Protopriest Pavle, Archimandrite Viktor,
Hieromonk Javolie, Protopriest Michael Luo Guo-Ren, Protopriest
Sinaiski, Protopriest Osipov, Chinese: Protopriest Chang Fu, Priest Rui Xian-Zhang,
Priest Du Run-Chen, Priest Du Li-Kun etc . . . .
. . .After 1956,
many Russian nationals in Tianjin left China one after another, of which some
of them returned to Soviet Union, but most of these Russians left for
Capitalist countries. As a result, the church membership greatly declined. After
this, a few churches in Tianjin were merged, and came under the spiritual
direction of the Chinese Orthodox Church (Zhonghua Dongzhengjiaohui). In 1966,
the Cultural Revolution began and religious activities were stopped and the
Church was closed till today.”
We know from the modern Chinese writing style that the Christmas sermon
in Chinese language cannot possibly be dated earlier than May 4, 1921, assuming
it is a copy of the original text. From the book except above, we read of a
Protopriest Michael Luo, could he have been the Protopriest Luo and also the
Protopriest Michael Min? The only item I cannot explain is who is Protopriest
Min? Protopriest Luo is definitely not Chinese, so could he have been known by
another name?
If we assume that the sermon was delivered in the Tianjin diocese as
above, then we can match the earliest date to some time after 1929. And the
latest date of 1956 might possibly be dated as late as 1966. In short, the
dating period for the Chinese text might have been 1929-1966.
In the Christmas sermon text we also know that the sermon was delivered
in a St Innokentiy – Holy Cross church, which could possibly have dual patron
saints or dual altars within the same church. In the above book except, we know
that due to the rapid decline in church memberships, some of the churches were
combined, which could resulted in the merger bearing both the names of the
original churches. If that is the case, the dating of this sermon will be in
the favor of the last decade 1956-1966.
Bibliography:
樂峰著：《東正教史》，中國社會科學出版社，1999年。
ISBN： 7－5004－2438－8
Dongzhengjiao-shi, Le Feng, China Social Sciences
Publisher, 1999.