the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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founded in the vast region from Orenburg to the Caspian Sea. Hundreds and
thousands of Cossacks and non-Cossacks living in the Cossack villages were
converted to yedinoveriye Orthodoxy, and every year tens of new parishes
were added to the diocese.
In 1903, a movement of resettlement from the southern districts of Russia
to the Turgai region began. Spiritually speaking, the settlers were left to cope
for themselves. Thus the Turgai settlers were forgotten about, and the Chief
resettlement administration concentrated its attention on the peasants of
Siberia, the Altai and the Far East. Many sectarians came with the settlers
from the southern regions of Russia to the Turgai. In each settlement there
were Baptists or Seventh Day Adventists, whose semi-literate "priests" and
pastors wasted no time in founding their own prayer assemblies. But the
Orthodox were like sheep without a shepherd, and had no place in which to
satisfy their spiritual needs. The sectarians took advantage of this and began
to invite the Orthodox to their prayer meetings. Soon the Orthodox settlers
began to fill up the sectarian prayer meetings and without realizing it
themselves became members of sectarian communities. Children were born,
the old died, the young entered into conjugal relationships - and there was
nobody to carry out the rites. The Orthodox population experienced
particular hardships during the Great Fast and on great feasts. In one
settlement the Orthodox gathered on Pascha night on a site which had been
set aside for the construction of a church, erected six bells which had been
brought from Tauris province, rang them for several minutes, chanted "Christ
is risen" as best they could, and then dispersed despondently to their huts and
dugouts to break the fast. On such days the sectarians arranged their
triumphant prayer services and insistently invited the Orthodox to come and
"listen to the chanting and preaching". Many went unwillingly, but then
stayed for ever.
From June, 1906 to the beginning of 1907, Bishop Joachim sent two
diocesan missionary priests to Turgai. They established that the whole region
was in captivity to the sectarians. This missionary trip had a reviving effect on
the waverers: people brought tens of babies for baptism; young newly
married couples came asking that they "receive the law", that is, be married
according to the Orthodox rite; and many believers asked for pannikhidas to
be performed for those who had died without a church rite.
On the return of the missionaries, Bishop Joachim sent a report to the Holy
Synod, which then assigned 50,000 roubles above the normal annual budget
for the construction of churches and schools in the Turgai region. Special
missionary courses were organized in Orenburg and Kustanai, at which
candidates for the priesthood were trained for four months. These were
mainly teachers, readers and experienced deacons. Churches, schools and
hospitals were built, and every central point received a priest-teacher. A new
life began in the Turgai region. Many zealous pastors from other regions
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