Beijing, November 11, 2004
Through the efforts of the management and employees of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (the Plenipotentiary ambassador of the Russian Federation in the Chinese People's Republic, I.A. Rogachev; counselor-envoy, S.N. Goncharov, an Orthodox Sunday School has been started in the embassy club for Orthodox Russians living and working in Beijing -- reports Dmitri Napara from Beijing.
Thus far only the very youngest study group has been formed -- more than 10 students of the first class of high school at the Russian Federation's Embassy in the PRC; their parents have deemed it necessary to familiarize their children with the Orthodox faith. But, the first step is the hardest. The faithful hope that the number of Sunday School students will soon increase; parents of youth in other high school classes have begun forming several other study groups. Embassy executives directed that the Sunday School premises be equipped with all necessities: school desks, chalkboards, bookcases. Thus far instruction is limited to catechism (Zakon Bozhi), but it is planned that the Beijing Sunday School curriculum will include such subjects as choral singing, old Slavonic language and drawing.
The Beijing Orthodox Sunday School at the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos is the first Sunday school on the territory of the Russian embassy in the Far Abroad.
11/11/2004