6 Oleg (Cherepanin), the Abbot, the mentioned work. p. 166-168.
It was possible only with time to explain the features of the canonical system of the Orthodox Church to the authorities of the Kingdom Thailand. One decisive role was played during the visit of Thailand by the Chairman of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill. However, after this visit of the Metropolitan Kirill, the concept of autocephaly demanded explanations for the officials of the Kingdom. The head of the Buddhist traditional Singha of Russia Pandito Hambo Lama Damba Ajusheev wrote in his letter to the King of Thailand on February 25, 2002: “The laws of the Kingdom of Thailand provide in Christianity only two branches – the Roman Catholic and Protestant, which are registered by the authorities of the Kingdom, and 5000 followers of the local population are required from all new religious groups. However, the world Christianity is historically divided into three branches, Orthodoxy is the oldest. And the internal laws of the Orthodox Church do not allow its followers to obtain the registration from the civil authorities under the auspices of any other Christian Church.
All this leads to the fact that the law of Thailand about religions that helps the legalization of various Protestant denominations, hinders the registration of the Orthodox Church exceedingly. Another feature of the Orthodox Church is that Orthodoxy in the modern world is divided into 15 Autocephalous (self-governing) of the Orthodox Churches and the Russian is the largest. In addition, as independent countries cannot represent the interests of each other, the self-governing Autocephalous Churches, having the General rules of faith, cannot, however, be represented by one another. The lack of the state registration of the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand as the Representation creates a lot of difficulties, ranging from the provision of certain visas for the priest and construction of the Church to the impossibility of buying a car and opening a Bank account”.7
7 The archive of the Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Thailand. A copy of the letter of the head of the Buddhist traditional Singha of Russia to the King of Thailand.
However, in spite of all difficulties, Orthodoxy in Thailand began to strengthen. The Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin) noted in an interview in 2009: “The question has moved from a dead point only after the official visit in 2001 in Bangkok of Metropolitan Kirill and his meeting with the Chairman of the Privy Council of the King, with the guidance of the Department for religious Affairs of the Ministry of education, with a number of other senior officials, after reviewing of the Thai authorities with the real situation, what the Orthodox Church is.
