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The vision of Anna Garavini, a teacher of the history of Russia and the Church is largely similar: "A Sunday school is designed to be the bearer of Russian culture, the best of its traditions. It must be not just an educational center, but first of all it must be a moral rod for the whole family. I think the Sunday schools in Thailand and Russia differ primarily in the fact that a Sunday school abroad solves not only the educational problems and it is not only a center of spiritual and moral development, but primarily it is a joining center for people of one culture, helping to keep by children the competent speech in their native language, to instill love for Russian literature, to develop national consciousness".5
5 The same source.
The Abbot of the temple on the island Samui, the priest Alexey Golovin, did not even know several years ago that Providence would send him to this distant place: he served as a deacon in a town in the Tomsk region.
"I was ordained a priest, and I was offered to go to serve in Thailand," he says. – Southeast Asia is a specific region, the Church leadership takes into account the voluntary desire of the priests. I consulted with my wife and decided that we should go. The first year I served in the temple in Phuket, and now – on Samui".
According to the words of the priest, the parish of Samui is more domestic than in Russia. All parishioners are familiar with each other, and actively respond to requests for assistance – for example, to clean the territory of the temple for the feast:
"I communicate with everyone whom I have baptized or married," says the father Alexey. Even if these people had left Samui, we correspond by e-mail, they ask me as their spiritual father. Although I don’t really know how many people will assemble in the Church for Sunday service. In the middle of the season, the Church is full, because tourists also come, and in November, when it rains hardly and it is impossible to go out of the house, only a few people sometimes attend the service…"
Surprisingly, most of the parishioners came to faith on the island of Samui; when living in Russia, these people did not go to the Church.
Far from home the sense of "Russianness" intensifies, one would like to have own identity, the Russian can`t be dissolved in the Thai environment, even if he tries," – explains the priest. "Russianness" and Russian culture are inextricably linked with Orthodoxy. And here, strangely enough, people have an opportunity to find themselves in the native culture and faith. Moreover, the temple is the centre of the Russian community; many people find new friends and like-minded people".6
6 L. Rumyantseva. Escape to Paradise. Russian world.ру. http:www.orthodox.or.th./ru/pdf/Escape to Paradise Ru.pdf (date of access: 03.09.2014).
The priest Roman Bychkov, the acting rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Phuket, began to work with children in 2011 – even before his ordination to the sacred dignity. The children came and studied the Bible and also learned drawingdrawing.
When in May-June 2012 Elena Milashina began to go to the temple with her daughter Anastasia, she asked the priest whether he will be able to engage with a group of children if she brought them, and he agreed. The result was that they organized the first class in the Sunday school; at first it was visited by five children, then by one; then in 2013 it was up to fifteen people. Because of that, together with the children their parents began to come and become parishioners and active participants in the Sunday school. Thanks to the efforts of the parents there were baby mini-performances, in honor of the Nativity of Christ, Victory Day; organized as a theater of shadows. In the early days of the great Patriotic war on June 22, 2013 parents organized and taught a lesson of military history, and on the eve of the feast of the Church – Day of the Holy Trinity – they organized workshops for children and adults for making gifts.7
7 The Sunday schools // Orthodox Thailand. 2013. November. №5.
Not all Russians in Thailand are well-disposed to the Orthodox Church. As Leonid Borisov rightly noted in his article, "the most surprising thing for me is the speed with which former Soviets, in the past almost all atheists, were divided into Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists overnight. In fairness I must say that there is a category of the Russian people, who after some time began to treat the Russian Orthodox Church almost like once the dissidents treated the Communists, sometimes seeking refuge in other religions, including Buddhism, if we talk about the Russian Diaspora in Thailand. They criticize Orthodoxy so that an atheist would like to intercede for it. While the temple in Pattaya was being built, many of our citizens discussed hotly on one Russian forum television appeals of the father Oleg to sacrifice for its construction. The main subject of discussion was the question – if the ROC (РПЦ) steals the collected money? The impression from this discussion was so that the detractors of the Orthodox Church were not less than the helpers. Meanwhile, on one fine December day in 2009, when debate on the subject "Is ROC a righteous man or a thief?" has not subsided, it became clear that the most beautiful temple in Pattaya was already built and ready for consecration".8
8 Borisov Daniel L. – a Thai priest Pattaya Daily (date of access: 28.07.2014)
The Representative’s activity is evaluated by the hierarchy positively. After reviewing the summary information of the Assembly of the Orthodox Church in Thailand, held on the 24th – 26th of March 2013 in Bangkok, the Archbishop Mark of Yegorievsk, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s foreign institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church, sent a letter to the Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand the Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin), to whose spiritual care also the Orthodox parishes in Cambodia and Laos belong. The letter contains a high evaluation of the regional Church`s Representation in 2013 and, in particular, says: "I note with satisfaction a serious work on the development of the Church’s presence in the region that was carried out in the past year. The results of these works are clearly visible and attest a zealous and fervent attitude of all workers of the Representation for their ministry… I dare hope that the taks delivered for the year 2014, will be carried out timely and well".9
9 A high evaluation of the activity of the Representation of the ROC in Thailand is received. The 2nd of April www.orthodox.or.th/index.php?content=news (date of access: 24.07 2014).
§ 2. Миссия среди тайцев
Хотя храм в Бангкоке создавался по большей части для русских эмигрантов, постепенно среди прихожан стали появляться и тайцы. Кто-то просто ходил из любопытства, а кто-то всерьез проникался православной верой и принимал крещение.1
1 Сложно ли молиться в тропическом раю.
В Азии вообще и в Таиланде в частности распространено мнение, что "все религии являются теми же самыми", и только каждый выражает это различными, специфическими способами, исходя из культурных и исторических традиций. Это понимание религии начинают прививать тайцам с самого начала обучения в школе. Следствием такого воспитания является сильное убеждение, что человек должен быть предан традиционной религии, в которой он рожден. Переход в другую религию рассматривается как предательство. Кроме того, тайцы действительно убеждены, что буддизм – одна истинная, универсальная и вечная религия. Буддисты легко готовы согласиться, что можно обучаться и принимать христианство, но лишь в пределах этой универсальной религии.
Большим соблазном для местного населения является разделение в самой христианской среде. Указывая на множество конфессий, на отсутствие между ними согласия, буддисты говорят: "Следование за Христом не приносит мир, любовь и единство". Это противоречие в самой христианской среде ощущается тайцами весьма остро. Разделение в среде христиан – тот камень, о который спотыкаются многие из тайцев, традиционно высоко ценящих мир и гармонию.2
2 Олег (Черепанин), игум. Указ. соч. С. 226.
Как писал в 2008 году в своей статье диакон Георгий Максимов: "Тайцы – народ приветливый и дружелюбный, они ценят вежливость, гармонию человеческих отношений, стремятся во что бы то ни стало не обидеть собеседника (из-за чего у них в языке почти не употребляется слово "нет"). Но вместе с тем это народ, в подавляющем большинстве живущий в язычестве, – на улицах постоянно видны миниатюрные капища – "домики духов", на которые вешаются венки-жертвоприношения, в культовых местах (буддийских монастырях) стоят идолы, перед которыми курятся благовония и кладут те же венки. Когда я находился там, видел жизнь тайцев, общался с ними, слышал истории о них, то невольно ловил себя на ощущении, что будто бы угодил в эпоху Деяний Апостольских. Языческая жизнь охватывает не только материальные проявления, она имеет свои выражения и в представлениях о нравственности, и в религиозных понятиях.