Wow. Where to start. Forgive me because I consider you a brother in Christ, but you sound like a throughly indoctrinated young man who has not truly ventured out of your circle to confirm what your teachers have told you. Calvin, Jewel, Luther, and Bucer all drew heavily from Augustine but they all saw themselves as Nicene Christians who were just as entrenched in the fathers as any Orthodox monk. You act like Gnostics who have some hidden knowledge. The Fathers are there for all to read.

I forgot also to mention the mission in Haiti, which was deeply affected by the recent earthquake there. They also are in need in much prayer and support right now.

May God bless their efforts to revive the Chinese Orthodox Church. One of the saddest, and most overlooked, stories in Orthodox Christian history, I think — in fact, in Christian history in general, as the Nestorian Church was once a major religion in China, but was wiped out in the Middle Ages.

Have you heard also of the OCA’s and the ROCOR’s efforts amongst natives in southern Mexico and Guatemala? Apparently, there is a rather large group of Mayans in Mexico studying to be accepted into

@Christisms If you are interested there is a great documentary about different Orthodox Churches in the world it is called Planet Orthodox and you can find parts of it with English subtitles here on YT. Our Father (Swahili) hart is with subtitles on YT but others are here in Russian only for the moment.

Two former Orthodox churches in Shanghai, until recently, were being used as restaurants and nightclubs.
Meanwhile, as of the early 21st century, the church operates freely in Hong Kong (where the Ecumenical Patriarchate has sent Metr. Nikitas (Lulias)) and Taiwan (where Hieromonk Jonah (Mourtos) leads a mission church) under the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

With The Chinese Orthodox Church it is all so complicated now…The government of the People’s Republic of China extends official recognition to five religions communities: Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, and Taoism, but not to Orthodox Christianity. The major political obstacle is the government’s fear that external political forces from outside nations — in this case, primarily Russia — could achieve influence within China.

@davidpwithun Thanks for the info also now in the present time The Church of Ukraine is an autonomous Orthodox church whose primate is confirmed by the Church of Russia. And The Church of Japan is an autonomous Orthodox church, whose primate is confirmed by the Church of Russia. And for example my Church The Orthodox Church of Latvia is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church with canonical jurisdiction in Latvia.

Japan, and the Ukraine.

These two used to? be autonomous Orthodox Churches, but have been entirely wiped out: Nubia (destroyed approx. 800 by Muslims) and China (destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion in the early 20th century and Cultural Revolution of 1966).

@Christisms The Eastern Orthodox Churches of today consist of fourteen or fifteen autocephalous churches and five autonomous churches, sometimes referred to as jurisdictions.

How many churches are there in that are categorized under the umbrella of Eastern Orthodoxy?