The Diocese of Khabarovsk yesterday and today

The Diocese of Khabarovsk is a church-administrative structure that manages the parishes located in the Khabarovsk Territory of Russia, as well as the Tuguro-Chumikansky, Okhotsk, Ayano-May and Nikolaevsky districts. The diocesan chair is located in Khabarovsk, and the main cathedral is the Transfiguration Cathedral located there. The head of the diocese is the ruling bishop, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Samokhin).

The light of Christianity, which consecrated the Far East

The beginning of the Christianization of the territory, which includes today the diocese of Khabarovsk, belongs in 1620, when the Bishop's Department was first established in the city of Tobolsk. However, further political conflicts, in particular, the signing in 1689 of the Nerchinsk Treaty, according to which a significant part of the Amur Region was retreating to China, suspended the process for almost a century and a half.

Only in 1858, after the conclusion of the Aigun agreement and the return of Russia to the Amur region, the life of the Orthodox parishes received a new impetus. At the same time, by the decision of the synodal leadership, the episcopal chair was moved to Blagoveshchensk.

Khabarovsk - the center of the newly formed vicariate

The present diocese of Khabarovsk was established in 1925, but in those years it had the status of a vicariate, that is, it was a church-administrative unit that is part of a larger diocese, in this case the Annunciation. At its head stood, as it should be in such cases, a bishop subordinate to the diocesan lord.

The center of the new formation was the city of Khabarovsk. This state of affairs persisted until 1933, when as a result of a series of anti-religious campaigns in the Amur Region, all churches were closed without exception. Only ten years later, at the height of the war with fascism, when, in order to promote spiritual unity of the people, the government began to partially revive religious life, the first parish in the Far East began to operate in Khabarovsk.

Organization of Diocesan Self-Government

The diocese became independent in 1945, when the Holy Synod sent a bishop to the city of Khabarovsk, which received the title of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. However, after four years, the leadership of the diocese was transferred to the Irkutsk lord.

In the late 1980s, when new trends arose in the life of the country caused by perestroika, and the pressure of the authorities on the church significantly weakened, the diocese Khabarovsk and Vladivostok (as it was now called) once again got the opportunity to self-government. In addition, its territory was significantly expanded and began to include, in addition to Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai, a number of areas: the Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Magadan, Amur and Jewish autonomous regions.

Church-administrative transformations of recent years

In recent years, the Holy Synod has made a number of changes in the territorial and administrative structure of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Priamurskaya Metropolia, which includes the Khabarovsk diocese, did not stand aside from these undertakings either.

In particular, in 2011 the Amur diocese, formerly part of Khabarovsk, was granted independence, and the Nikolaev Vicariate was established within the boundaries of the Tuguro-Chumikansky, Nikolaevsky, Ayano-May and Okhotsk regions. In 2016, the Khabarovsk diocese was somewhat reduced, as part of it departed the newly formed Vanino diocese.

The cathedral is a symbol of modern times

The visible incarnation of the blessed changes that occurred in the religious life of the Far East was the erection in 2001-2004. Spaso-Preobrazhensky cathedral in Khabarovsk. This monumental five-domed building was built on funds from voluntary donations of future parishioners, as well as a number of enterprises and public organizations. The authors of the project was a group of Far Eastern architects, headed by Yuri Zhivetyev. The painting of the walls and the dome was made by a team of Moscow painters, specially invited by Vladyka Vladimir.

It should be noted that the main cathedral of Khabarovsk, the cross of which ascended 95 meters above the earth, is the third highest in the temples of Russia. He concedes only to St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg and the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Impressive and the size of its interior, which can simultaneously accommodate up to three thousand people.

The Far Eastern pilgrimage center of the Khabarovsk diocese has been functioning for eight years already in the cathedral for eight years. Its employees organize regular trips with visiting the holy places of our country, as well as those who are outside it. Thanks to their work, many residents of Primorye have the opportunity to visit Israel and see places associated with various biblical events, as well as to worship relics stored in the monasteries and temples of their homeland.