09.05.09

Metropolitan Iona, the head of the Orthodox Church in America, has invited Moscow students to work as missionaries in the United States.

"We need missionaries, and we need your help. You will get a good theological education and you will have an opportunity to fulfill a missionary task not only in your society but also overseas," the metropolitan told students of the St. Tikhon's Orthodox University.

The University's press service reports that the meeting was held on the sidelines of a literary festival devoted to the memory of Inokentiy Veniaminov, a Moscow metropolitan, who served in Alaska for many years in the 19th century. He translated the Holy Writ into Yakutian and Aleutian languages and also into other languages of the peoples of Siberia and North America.

Metropolitan Iona said that most indigenous peoples in Alaska, including the Aleuts and the Eskimos, are Orthodox Christians. Groups of Maya Indians in Nicaragua and Salvador want to join the Orthodox Church.

In conclusion, he repeated that both North and Latin America needs missionaries. The metropolitan became Orthodox when he was young. After consecration he founded an Orthodox monastery in California and many communities in various cities in the United States.Metropolitan Iona is paying an official visit to Russia from April 27 to May 4 for the first time after being elected to head the American Orthodox Church.

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Source: Itar-Tass