Teofan

Archbishop Theophanes (, secular name Alexei Illarionovich Kim, ; born January 19, 1976) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church; he is the Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox diocese of Korea of the Patriarchal Exarchate in South-East Asia.

He is the first Eastern Orthodox bishop of Korean ancestry.

Life

Early life He was born on 19 January, 1976 in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk into a Sakhalin Korean family. He attended school in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, graduating from the Vostochny Lyceum in 1993. Alexei continued his education at the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk branch of the Moscow Commercial Institute, graduating in 1997.

In May 1995 he was baptized and since that time he sang in the choir in the church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, and then the Resurrection Cathedral in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. being temporarily assigned as an employee of the DECR of the Moscow Patriarchate to the clergy of the New Zealand metropolis of the Church of Constantinople,

On May 16, 2001, he was awarded a pectoral cross at the request of Metropolitan Kirill.

On June 6, 2006, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen by Metropolitan Kirill at Holy Trinity Catheral of St. Daniel monastery.

On October 6, 2011, Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church elected him bishop of the newly established Diocese of Kyzyl and Tyva within the borders of the Tyva Republic.

On October 25, 2011, Archbishop Jonathan (Tsvetkov) of Abakan elevated him to the rank of archimandrite.

Bishop of Kyzyl and Tuva

October 30, 2011 at the Assumption Church in Troitse-Lykovo he was consecrated to the rank of Bishop . The consecration was performed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Ambrose (Zografos) of Korea (Church of Constantinople), Metropolitan Juvenal (Poyarkov) of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Metropolitan Barsanuphius (Sudakov) of Saransk and Mordovia, Archbishop of Istra, Archbishop Jonathan (Tsvetkov) of Abakan and Khakassia, Archbishop Mark (Golovkov) of Yegoryevsk, Bishop Sergius (Chashin) of Solnechnogorsk, and Bishop of Voskresensk.

On November 12, 2011 Bishop Theophanes came to Kyzyl, and on November 13 he celebrated his first divine liturgy after election to the Diocese of Kyzyl. At that time Eastern Orthodoxy was considered in Tuva as a religion for ethnic Russians: if a Tuvan was to become Eastern Orthodox, they would have to forget about the culture of their ancestors and become Russian. For this reason, and also because of the lack of systematic missionary activity, the number of Tuvans who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy was insignificant, while ethnic Russians, who represented 6% of the total population of Tuva, were an ethnic minority and their number was decreasing over time. In these conditions, he began to study and master the Tuvan culture. All the Church bookstores in Tuva began to sell the Bible in Tuvan, translated by the Institute for Bible Translation, and the translation of liturgical texts into Tuvan began. Missionaries from other regions of Russia were actively invited.

Archbishop of Korea On April 4, 2019, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was appointed Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox diocese of Korea of the Patriarchal Exarchate in South-East Asia, becoming locum tenens of the Diocese of Kyzyl.