Православная миссия в Таиланде в 1999-2014 гг. - стр. 4
The approaching fifteenth anniversary of this event is the basis for the analysis of the history of the mission, having grown up from the parish level – to the level of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church. The carrying by the author of the ecclesiastical obedience at the Representation as an acting rector of the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in the vicinity of Pattaya, and of the Assumption monastery in Ratchaburi as the Confessor of the Representation, gives the present study not only theoretical but also practical sense. The Church importance of the development of this theme stems from the fact that Thailand attracts a large number of Russian tourists; in addition to this, many Russian citizens choose this country as their permanent residence.
Among them there are those who are here, away from their historic homeland, who for the first time are discovering the spiritual Treasury of Orthodoxy. But also among Thais there are those who become Orthodox; due to the peculiarities of the national mentality, this process does not have a mass character, but the soul of each person is precious in the eyes of God, therefore, quantitative indicators are not the main criterion for evaluation of the peculiarities of the development of the Orthodox mission in Thailand. Sometimes you have to wait for the fruits of the mission many years. In this regard, we can mention the translation of “The Law of God” in Thai by the Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy.
The translation will allow more Thais to get acquainted with the teachings and the history of the Orthodox Church.
The degree of knowledge regarding the modern history of Orthodoxy in Thailand is insufficient for the present. Nevertheless, it must be mentioned from the available research, the work of the Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin) “The History of Christianity in Thailand”2 . In the introduction to this monograph, containing in addition to the research publications of archival documents of the Representation and photos, J.V. Maximov3 noted:
2 Oleg ( Cherepanin ), the Abbot, History of Christianity in Thailand. Bangkok, 2008. 238 p.
3 Yrii ( Georgii ) Valeryevich Maximov – the orthodox Deacon, the candidate of theology, the writer, the theologian and the publicist, the missionary, the lecturer of the Moscow theological Academy.
“Coming to Thailand, the Father Oleg sincerely loved Thais, so it is no surprise the desire, emerged by him, to share his faith with them. <…> But it was necessary that the witness of the Orthodoxy was adequate, and for this purpose it was necessary to find out how the former Christians of other denominations, Catholics and Protestants, were talking about the name of Christ in Thailand, what difficulties they faced, and how they had decided in what they succeeded and in what was their failure, and, most importantly, how did Thais accept the Gospel over the past three centuries”4. Thus, the recent history of the mission is discussed in the book only to a small extent. In addition, the very year of its publication (2008) shows that developments in recent years could not be taken into account. The book and materials of the Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin) became the basis for two dissertations on the history of Thailand: one of the Archpriest Daniel Vanna “History of Christianity in Thailand”, protected by him after graduation from the faculty of foreign students at the St. Petersburg`s theological seminary5, and one of Yevgeny Petrov, “The History of Orthodoxy in Thailand”, defended in 2011 at the theological Seminary6 in Tomsk.