Missional practices of the Orthodox Church

The Japan Missiological Society (JMS) held their 17th National Symposium in Tokyo on June 24, 2023, under the theme of “Considering missions in Japan—developing a Christian identity in our global Japanese society.” JMS is an interdenominational body with members from mainline and evangelical Protestant denominations as well as Catholics.

This year, JMS invited a keynote speaker from the Orthodox Church for the first time. Shigenobu Ono, hieromonk of the metochion in Japan for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave a presentation on the missional practices of the Orthodox Church. He did so by tracing Archbishop St. Nikolai Kasatkin’s ministry in Japan.

Ono began his speech with an overview of Kasatkin’s life (1836–1912). Kasatkin was born the son of a deacon in a village church in Russia. During his last year at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Kasatkin was accepted as bishop in residence at the Russian Consulate in Hakodate City, Hokkaido.

Ono noted that, from the very beginning, Kasatkin envisioned mission work all over Japan, not just in Hakodate. On the way to Japan, Kasatkin was encouraged by the archbishop of Kamchatskaya and Alaska to translate the Bible and prayer books into the local language and to contextualize Orthodoxy for the people. Kasatkin took this advice to heart.

When Kasatkin set foot in Japan in 1861, it was before the Meiji Restoration, and Protestant mission had not started in earnest. While working for the Hakodate Consulate, Kasatkin interacted with Japanese visitors and studied Japanese language and history, Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

In 1868, Kasatkin baptized a group of people in Hakodate who would become the first Japanese members of the Orthodox Church. Among them was Takuma Sawabe, who had been a Shinto priest in Hakodate. During the following year, Kasatkin urged the Russian Orthodox Church to establish a mission in Japan, and the Patriarchal Representation was established in 1870 with Kasatkin as its archimandrite (superior abbot).

Meanwhile, Sawabe and other Japanese believers shared Orthodox teachings with a group of samurai from the Sendai feudal domain who were visiting Hakodate. More than ten people, including some former samurai of Sendai, were baptized by Kasatkin in 1871. Some of them then returned to Sendai and were engaged in mission as catechists (denkyōsha).

What intrigued Ono’s audience was the role played by the catechists. They were not ordained priests but lay leaders who were involved extensively in mission work. While a limited number of priests were qualified to offer common prayers, a number of Japanese believers were trained as catechists and dispatched to various frontlines of mission within Japan.

The audience, both Catholics and Protestants alike, regretted the insufficient mobilization of lay leaders in their own respective churches, even though they have been aware of the potentially great roles that lay believers could fill. Ono’s presentation on the significant role of Japanese catechists in the early years of the Orthodox mission in Japan was surprising and impactful to his listeners.

From Christian Shimbun, July 9, 2023
Translated by Atsuko Tateishi