A historical survey of the non-Russian and foreign mission activity of the Russian Orthodox Church

Abstract

Protestants often think that 1he ROC has no mission just because Orthodoxy pays to more attention to Service life. We tried to understand motives, goals and objectives of the ROC missionary activity. We found out that the ecclesiologic way of thinking was the basis missionary idea of the eastern missionary practice and it showed itself differently in special historical moments. This work divides the whole history of the Orthodox Church in Russia (XI - XX centuries) into 3 periods of mission and makes its brief survey and analysis. In the first period (XI-XVI) only single monks-colonialists realized the Great Commission among Finnish tribes and russifed it Only certain people used the methods of well planned contextualizating mission, like Stephen of Penn. During the second period (1552-middl.XIX) the ROC worked in close combination with the State to the detriment of the deep evangelization of natives. In the third period (the middle of XIX- the beginning of XX) the missionaries of Orthodox Missionary Society used all the achievements of the native and foreign missionary: contextualization, Liturgies in the national languages. enlightenment by schools of all levels, the training of national leaders, social work ets. At the present time, the ROC is renewing its own mission tradition after the sleep of the Soviet period.