By Fr. Maros Peciar, SDB
In the past 23 years in the Siberian part of Russia, in the Jakutia-Sakha autonomous republic (3 million square kilometres with a population of 1 million), we experienced many fast and powerful changes in our society and in our religious situation. In Jakutsk City itself, that hosts 130 different nationalities, we were able to create a small but vibrant Catholic community. From 2002 to 2009, we completed the construction of the first Catholic Parish Church in Jakutsk. Our city has direct flight connections to Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong. After the rather unstable situation of the former EST province (which included the territory of 8 former Soviet Union republics and was closed in 2011), we look to the future with optimism.
There are quite a few mission challenges: of climate (50 degrees Celsius below zero in a 9-month-long winter), of personnel (frequent turnover of Salesians with rather weak preparation) and long distance from our mother province of Slovakia (SLK) in Europe.
However we acknowledge also a variety of opportunities for the future: in the multicultural and multi-religious environment (11 different religions, with 30% orthodox, 30% animist, some atheists, Muslims and other Christian denominations) we are blessed by large numbers of young population. Due to alcoholism and family crisis, our Salesian education contribution can find meaningful fields of possible ministry, such as the minority diaspora of the Catholic community.
After almost 25 years of our mission, there are about 500 baptized Catholics, although a good number of them already moved elsewhere. We are really a small flock of few committed faithful, looked upon by many who are asking for faith and even baptism. Besides the 5 Salesians, we were blessed over the years with more than 100 lay missionary volunteers, mostly coming from Slovakia.
The main goal of our immediate six-year future is to deepen the life of faith of our Catholics and contribute with our Salesian lifestyle witness, ministry and education to the initial proclamation of the Gospel:
In particular, we try to:
Deepen the faith of and strengthen our Catholic community, so as to be open to all around us; Give a witness of life, service and education, especially to the poor youth and their families Care for missionary formation and the formation of the international community: we are open to confreres coming from other provinces, we also look forward to welcoming some congregation of sisters, other lay charisms and lay missionary volunteers (for a minimum period of 3 months). For a more responsible growth of our mission, we dream about the creation of a future Yakutia Delegation. Structures and means of our mission: chapels in two strategic towns, youth centre and vehicles.
We also made a discernment of the missionary profile of the Salesian in Jakutia – Siberia:
We invite Salesians from East Asia provinces, English speaking, who are open to learning the Russian language (which is the main means of communication in our place), ready to contribute to the building of our small Catholic community and face the hard climate challenges of the 9-month-long winter season, open to team work with the Salesians and Lay Mission Partners. Eventual experience with family ministry and youth at risk is most welcome!
Dear Salesians of EAO region, we welcome you in Yakutsk and Aldan - the very northern part of East Asia!
