Led by a respected former PM, and given a lot of resources by the Russian State, meet the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society

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The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, a humanitarian NGO founded in Russia 140 years ago, now plays a key role in expanding Russian influence in the Middle East and beyond.  As relations between Russia and the Western world plunge, Middle East and African countries engage in developing ties with Moscow. It is also quite remarkable that this rapprochement is based not so much on political foundations as on the common values and moral foundations. 

The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS) is the oldest scholarly and humanitarian non-governmental organization in Russia. Recovering after decades of being largely underestimated by the Communist government, it has now regained its former role as an important peacemaker in the turbulent region. Operating as an independent entity it maintains strong ties both with the Russian Orthodox Church and with the federal Government.   

The IOPS is led by its chairman - the former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Stepashin, whereas the IOPS Committee of Honorary Members is headed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. It also includes Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, Russian diplomats and top managers of major corporations.

The IOPS objectives are threefold: promoting pilgrimage to the Holy Land, developing academic and humanitarian cooperation with the countries of the Biblical region.

From the very start the IOPS took Chi Rho as its emblem, with a saying by a Prophet: “For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest" (Isaiah, 62:1) as the motto of the Society. 

Today, IOPS considers protecting Christians in the Middle East and around the world as one of its key international objectives.

Says Elena Agapova, Deputy Chairman of the IOPS, Head of the IOPS Public Center for the Protection of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa:

Today, more than 300 million Christians in different regions of the world are persecuted and discriminated against. The IOPS regards it as a global attack against Christian civilization and fundamental human values, which Russia now defends in its fight against the collective West.

The IOPS considers its duty to carry out a mission to protect Christians, to encourage a dialogue between different faiths. This could help stop the discrimination against Christians, who, as we know, are the most oppressed and persecuted religious community in the world.  That is why the Society intends to expand its presence beyond the Biblical region to countries in North Africa, Latin America and the African continent, where violence and discrimination against the Christian communities is on the rise.

As of June 2022, IOPS network included 60 regional branches in the Russian Federation and 32 branches and offices in the CIS and the neighbouring countries, Middle East, the Mediterranean and the European Union.

IOPS History in Brief

The Orthodox Palestinian Society was established in 1882 on direct order from Emperor Alexander III. Its goals were promoting pilgrimage from Russia to the Holy Land, studying the region and engaging in humanitarian missions. In 1889, after seven years of successful operation it earned itself a status of the Imperial society.

Its first Chairman was the emperor’s son Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. After he was assassinated in the terrorist attack, his late wife Elizaveta Feodorovna took over. She, too, was brutally killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, and later canonized as a Sainte. 

IOPS was very active well up to the First World War. It proved to be most instrumental in expanding the Russian presence in the Middle East and the Holy Land, supporting the Christian communities in these countries and implementing many humanitarian projects there. After the communists came to power in Russia in 1917, they kept the Society, but its mission in Jerusalem was de facto closed, it was renamed, and its work was reduced to occasional academic reports. However, after the state of Israel was formed in 1948, it established diplomatic relation with the USSR, which was quick to revive the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1992, the Society got back its historic name and resumed its primary functions, including the promotion of Orthodox pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The AP video tells a story of one of the IOPS missions in Jerusalem.

One of the most important developments in the 1990s was the revival of relations between the Society and the Russian Orthodox Church. His Holiness Alexis II Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia took the Palestinian Society under his direct patronage and in 1992 became the Head of the IOPS Honorary Members Committee.

Sergey Stepashin was elected IOPS Chairman in 2007.

Today the IOPS operation covers the whole of the Eurasian continent, from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia, and from the British Isles to the Arabian Peninsula. Another IOPS representative office has recently been opened in the United Arab Emirates, and one more office was established in Tunisia, where there are two Orthodox churches and a cemetery of Russian sailors. There are also plans of opening an IOPS office in Egypt.

South-East Asia is another region, where IOPS is planning to enter, in particular the Kingdom of Thailand for a start. Plans are now discussed to open an IOPS office in the South American country of Chile, home to almost a million Orthodox Palestinians, descendants of those who left the Holy Land in the early and mid-twentieth century. 

On November 9, 2022, President Putin signed a decree "On Approval of the Basic State Policy to preserve and strengthen traditional Russian spiritual and moral values". The IOPS members believe that the Society is in a good position to help in promoting these values around the world.

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