On May 26, Romanians in Shanghai participated in the first Divine Liturgy celebrated in their native language on Chinese soil, held at the General Consulate of Romania in Shanghai.
The service was officiated by Fr. Constantin Prihoancă, a cleric of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Germany, Central and Northern Europe, who was on a missionary visit to the People’s Republic of China from May 18 to May 31.
“Young Orthodox Christians in Shanghai had the opportunity to actively participate in several catechetical meetings and receive answers to the issues that the current generation of Orthodox Christians face being so far from home,” said Fr. Constantin Prihoancă.
“Many Romanians in this part of the world had the chance to confess and receive Holy Communion, commemorate the departed, and also hear the Divine Liturgy in Romanian for the first time in this part of the world,” added the cleric.
During the catechetical meetings, the necessity of establishing a Romanian Orthodox parish for the nearly 300 Romanians and Moldovans living in the area was discussed. The closest Romanian parish is 1,750 km away, in Tokyo, Japan.
During the visit, Fr. Constantin Prihoancă presented the community with a Holy Gospel, a set of liturgical vessels, icons, and a censer to be used in liturgical settings, and the Romanian Consul in Shanghai, Ovidiu Simina commissioned four royal icons.
Photo: Metropolis of Germany
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