Altar section of the Church of the Dormition.
On August 21 began a visit to Beijing by Bishop MARK of Egorevsk, deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations. Accompanying Bishop Mark on this visit is DECR member Dmitry Petrovsky, a member of the research team on problems of the Orthodox Church in China.
During the visit, Bishop Mark, who is in Beijing at the invitation of the Russian Embassy, will discuss with Russian diplomats and Chinese officials matters relating to situation of Orthodox compatriots in Chinese People's Republic and problems of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church. A number of meetings is planned for Bishop Mark with religious leaders of Chinese People's Republic, Beijing Orthodox, and also compatriots living in the Chinese capital.
After the destruction of Orthodox church buildings in 1954 on the territory of USSR Embassy and the closing of the city's Orthodox church in 1962, Orthodox believers as well as Chinese Orthodox have been deprived of possibility of praying at divine services in the Chinese capital, which remains until now one of the few world capitals in which there are no Orthodox temples.