The Moscow Patriarchate has
launched a collection for donations to help the Orthodox affected by the
earthquake in Japan.
"We started aid collections at the monastery of
Saints Martha and Mary in Moscow to help the Orthodox community in that
country," announced the head of the social work and charity department
of the Patriarchate, Bishop Panteleimon of Orekhovo-Zuyevo.
Currently, there are no detailed reports on the damage suffered
by the autonomous Orthodox Church of Japan.
The most affected were the
parishes of the diocese of Sendai.
According to reports from the site
diaconia.ru, the earthquake has destroyed the Church of the Annunciation
in the town of Yamada (see photo), in Iwate prefecture, northeast of
Miyagi.
It would seem, however, that the four monasteries in the country
are still intact.
In a letter to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill,
Bishop Seraphim of Sendai writes: "By the grace of God the church in
Sendai was not seriously damaged and life begins to returned to normal,
but parishes on the Pacific coast have been destroyed and we have lost
all communication with them. "
"Aid for the victims is pouring in from
all over the country - he added - but we do not have the complete
picture of the extent of damage because roads and
communications are down”.
News filtering through from some faithful is
disheartening, who speak a "significant" number of victims according to
the bishop.
"Now we survivors - Seraphim assuresthe Patriarch - will do
everything possible to meet these needs."
In Japan the number of Orthodox is about 30 thousand, according
to the Patriarchate.
The Japanese autonomous Church was founded in 1870
by St. Nikolai (Kasatkin), who arrived in Japan in 1861 on the mandate
of the Holy Synod.
It was he who translated the Holy Scriptures and
liturgy books into Japanese and built the Resurrection Cathedral in
Tokyo. Nikolay was canonized in 1970.
That same year, the Patriarchate
of Moscow recognized the autonomy of the Japanese Orthodox Church,
composed of three eparchies: Kyoto and western Japan, Sendai and Tokyo
and eastern Japan, it encompasses 150 parishes and 40 priests.
The
primate of the Church in Japan, which falls under the canonical
jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow, is the Metropolitan Tokyo
and all Japan Danil.