Orthodox Efforts to Reach Muslims
The Orthodox Church hierarchy has denounced nationalist and anti-Islamic statements. Orthodox patriarch Alexey II stated, “Orthodox Christians, Muslims and members of other traditional churches have lived in Russia side by side for centuries. Russia has never had religious wars and, I hope, it never will.”
There is another side to the story. According to Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council in Russia, “2.5 million Muslims have converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity in Russia, while only 2,500 Orthodox have converted to Islam.” He said that most of the converts to the Russian Orthodox Church are non-practicing Muslims. Many of these are young and have married non-Muslims. Muslims who regularly attend mosque rarely convert. He went on to say that the conversions happen not so much due to evangelism, which is mainly done by Protestants, but it was because of Russia’s roots in Orthodox Christianity. He further explained that after the Beslan School Massacre in North Ossetia, where Muslim gunmen killed hundreds of children, the number of Muslims dropped by 50 percent. It appears that tens of thousands of Muslims may have accepted baptism after this 2004 tragedy. Muslim sources acknowledged that after each major Muslim terrorist incident in Russia, thousands of Muslims have converted to Christianity.
Let’s Pray!
Pray that nominal Muslims will seek truth through Christ.
Pray that Russian believers will seek God with all of their hearts, souls and minds and become strong witnesses of our Lord to Muslims.
Pray that God’s Word will be understood in the languages of Russia’s Muslims and that His message will be conveyed through radio, television and the Internet.
Pray that more Russian Orthodox will become committed believers.
For the full article or for those who want somewhere else to go to be disgusted the origninal article is here http://www.global-prayer-digest.org/monthdetails/2009/md-March-2009.asp
