Russian Protestantism in Siberia, Yakutia and Far East Russia

Russian Protestantism in Siberia, Yakutia and Far East Russia:

Among the Russian or Ukrainian speaking population a news report explains the reasons why the Protestant Congregations Outnumber the Russian Orthodox in Russia's Far East. [1] According to the Trans-Baikal News Agency  “the regions with the most  ‘Protestants’ in the Far East are Primorsky and Khabarovsk.” Primorsky is home to 178 Protestant communities compared to 89 parishes of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church.[2] Other religious groups like Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists also lag far behind Protestants with the number of worship houses, with just six mosques, seven synagogues, and four pagodas respectively.  In the Khabarovsk area mirrors a similar development:of the 163 religious organizations, 96 are Protestant, twice as many as the Russian Orthodox. According to a comment from the Russian Orthodox Patriarchat of Moskau one reason for this development is lack of money, another the small number of adherents. Zabinfo.ru notes that Pentecostal and Charismatic churches “are the most widespread.” Pastor Konstantin Bendas, administrator of the Russian United Union of Evangelical Christians, says that “this phenomenon has a long history. Orthodoxy came to these territories quite late. Untolerated Representatives of confessions in the Russian Empire were either exiled to Siberia or to the Far East.” Moreover, he continued, “many fled from oppression—Molokane, Dukhobors, Mennonites, Stundists, etc. In Soviet times, religious leader were customary exiled to the Far East. ” In this way the elite of Russian Protestantism was moved to what today is now called Siberia, Yakutia and Far East Russia. Religiopolis suggests as another major reason for the rise of Protestantism in this region the "social openness” of Protestantism with its commitment to public action, through several denominations, which are "more attractive to the people of Siberia and the Russian Far East than the more inward-focused Russian Orthodox Church, at least at the present time."[3] Despite this news however, the many unreached indigenous people groups remain a big challenge.  Due to the language barrier Protestant Christianity apparently did not influence the other two regions of North East Asia (Mongolia and North East China). Maybe Taiwan can help? How about praying for this colder regions in North East Asia with thousands of indigenous people still waiting for the Good Message in their mother tongue? 

[1] "Protestant Congregations outnumber-Orthodox-in-Russian-Far-East" www.eastwestreport.org/3

[2] zabinfo.ru/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=
71103&mode=thread&orderthold=0

[3] dalnij-vostok-rossii-otkazalsja-ot-pravoslavija. www.religiopolis.org, retr. 4/3/2016