Russian Orthodox Church to preach Gospel to indigenous people of East Timor and Papua New Guinea
MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church has made a decision to spread its pastoral care to countries such as East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
At its meeting on Tuesday, the Holy Synod ruled to include these countries in the Diocese of Singapore of the Russian Orthodox Church's Patriarchal Exarchate in Asia, which was established in late 2018 in response to the activities of the Constantinople Patriarchate in Ukraine, where a parallel church entity was set up in defiance of the stance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church's mission among the indigenous peoples of East Timor and Papua New Guinea will be fallout from the events that began in Ukraine two years ago. Prior to that, it was tacitly agreed in the Orthodox world that the Constantinople Patriarchate holds the right to pastoral care over all Orthodox believers in the community.
East Timor and Papua New Guinea, where the Russian Orthodox Church plans to develop its work, have not been in the spotlight of Orthodox missionaries before. East Timor is one of two Catholic countries in Asia, along with the Philippines. Catholics account for 98% of East Timor's population, Protestants for 1%, and Muslims for 1%.
Meanwhile, a considerable majority of people in Papua New Guinea also identify as Christians: according to the 2000 census, 96% of the country's population is Christian, among them, around one-quarter are Catholics, around one-fifth are Lutherans, as well as small numbers of Adventists, Pentecostalists, and Anglicans. At the same time, a large number of people combine the Christian faith with the traditional faiths of the indigenous peoples.
Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines were earlier added to the Asia Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.