Moscow, April 1, 2011
One of the chapels is at a storehouse in Chili. The other is already in Antarctica, but at the moment it is at the Chinese station, the Krestovsky Most Orthodox paper writes.
Last time Koshelev delivered it there onboard a military ship, but in course of the expedition the military men had a change in duty and had to leave the valuable cargo halfway, at the Chinese polar station.
The chapels are made of valuable wood and travel in pieces safely fixed with metallic chains.
Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine and Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk blessed the polar explorer's action. He has been recently working on a project called, Promoting Orthodoxy in the polar regions of our planet."
According to Koshelev and his friends, Orthodox churches at the South Pole should strengthen the position of countries belonging to the Russian world in Antarctica.
"We have one Church and shared geopolitical interests," he says.
The Holy Trinity Church, a patriarchal representation of the Holy Trinity-St.Sergius Lavra, has functioned for several years on the Antarctic island of Waterloo not far from the Russian polar station, Bellingshausen. Priests from the Lavra serve there.