Православная миссия в Таиланде в 1999-2014 гг. | страница 16

Анализируя пройденный Представительством за неполные 15 лет его истории путь становления, можно сделать вывод, что Русская Православная Церковь закрепилась на территории Королевства Таиланд, получила государственное и общественное признание, создала свою инфраструктуру, начала активную просветительскую деятельность, распространяя свою миссию, как на русскоязычных жителей страны, так и на тайцев.

Страница из газеты «Таиланд Православный» с изображением географии и фотографий православных храмов Королевства Таиланд.

Page from the newspaper «Orthodox Thailand» with the image of geography and photos of the Orthodox churches of the Kingdom of Thailand.

Chapter 1. The formation and development of the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand in recent times

§ 1. The formation and structuring of Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Kingdom of Thailand, from 1999-2014.

The establishment of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand was connected with many difficulties, one of which was the problem of the legal registration of the status of the Representation.

The Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin ) noted that there were many legal challenges. During the cold war, Thailand entered the zone of influence of the United States, and the attitude to Russia remained wary after the collapse of the USSR for a long time. If, in the early 20th century Siam (so Thailand was called) saw in the Russian Empire a friendly power, and patron, that contact between the two states was unfortunately interrupted after the revolutionary events of 1917. Although the diplomatic relations did resume in 1946, they were not able to fill fully the gap that formed between the USSR atheistic perception of reality, and the Thai worldview, in which the King was the patron of all religions, and all propaganda of the ideology of communism and atheism was a punishable crime.1

1 Oleg (Cherepanin), the Abbot. The mentioned work, p 166, 164.

Historically, Orthodoxy was not represented in the territory of the Kingdom of Thailand, which make it a rather difficult problem for Orthodox missionaries. In this regard, the formation in Bangkok of an Orthodox community and the emergence of a foreign priest were met with suspicion. Even from the legal point of view, the legislation of Thailand on religion has not considered Orthodoxy as a distinctive direction in Christianity.2

2 Oleg (Cherepanin), the Abbot. The mentioned work, p 166.