Four years ago, I attended the cremation of a one-and-a-half-year-old girl. It was the seventh cremation I had attended in Japan as an Orthodox priest. Although the cremation process is unnatural and unholy, it is carried out in a particularly sadistic manner in Japan. The little girl’s body emerged from the furnace as nothing but ashes and a few bones. All of us present collected them with long chopsticks. The officiant reinforced the sadistic nature of the process by explaining the origin and role of each bone.
As I waited for the cremation process to begin, I raged inwardly and said: “I never want to participate in something like this again! Lord, this is the last cremation I will ever attend! You must find me a place where I can bury people in a Christian manner and give due honor to this body of clay that has become a temple of God through baptism and the Holy Sacraments.”
Today, a little over four years later, we have an Orthodox cemetery where three Orthodox Christians have found their final resting place: a Japanese woman, a Russian man, and a Romanian man. Consecrated in May 2024, the place received a guardian angel and was filled with the presence of God’s grace.
We want to finish the Orthodox cemetery project in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi, by bringing a small, hand-carved and embellished wooden church by monks from Romania. The church is ready to be shipped. However, we need your help to bring it to Japan and install it on the cemetery grounds. This will require building a foundation, covering the church with a roof, accommodating the workers, feeding them, and rewarding them for their efforts.
Therefore, I ask that you also become a founder of holy churches in a land that is still far from worshipping the true God. You can help us finish building the small church in Yamanashi by donating through the link below. You will be commemorated as a founder at the altar of our church.
May the Lord bless you with grace and reward your kindness!
Fr. Daniel Coriu Representative of the Romanian Patriarchate in Japan
