Religious Activities of Orthodox Communities in China

The article presents the study of religious activity of Orthodox communities in China, which is associated with a number of legal restrictions. Often, Chinese authorities start to openly violate the human rights to freedom of religion. The life of Orthodox communities in China is diverse: from restoring churches to teaching and upbringing of new generations of believers, but quite often, this has to be done secretly or with many efforts for decades. As a result, the Orthodox community in China has been practically deprived of the opportunity to worship, provide spiritual education for children, bring them up in the Orthodox tradition, etc. In addition, a virtually unique situation is considered: upon gaining autonomy, the Chinese Orthodox Church almost immediately ceased religious activity in China instead of developing. This demonstrates a change in the attitude of the Chinese authorities towards Orthodox believers and calls for seeking new avenues for further dialogue and analysis of the problems of Orthodox Christians in China. To date, the life of religious communities in China has been at risk of persecution and oppression for their faith through censorship, restrictions on religious freedom, etc. The scientific novelty of this study relies on the systematization of information about the aspects of the life of the Orthodox community in Dalian, which are little- known, as well as on the analysis of interaction with the state structures of China. The article presents the development of the religious life of Russian Orthodox believers outside Russia. This makes the research relevant for the study of issues of religion, culture and history within the framework of modern socio- cultural processes.