Asia is the largest of the earth’s continents, stretching from Asia Minor in the west to Japan in the east, from the Siberian Arctic in the north to Sri Lanka in the south. Asia is the home of the very first Christians, but also of many peoples yet to be evangelized.

The various Orthodox Christian Churches of Asia reach back to the beginnings of the Christian faith. Turkey was at one time the heartland of Christianity, where scholars produced the creeds of Nicea and Chalcedon, before being over-run by Islam. In many Islamic countries there exists a small, faithful, persecuted remnant.

On the Indian sub-continent Christianity has existed since as early as the 4th Century, and maybe earlier. The Syrian tradition survives today in South India. More recently the churches in India have led the world church in the quest for Christian unity. Since WWII, united churches have been formed in South India, North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, providing some of the great leaders in the ecumenical movement.

In China, Christianity has both prospered and temporarily disappeared according to the attitude of the authorities. The Nestorian Church, appeared in the 7th century, during the Tang dynasty. Roman Catholicism was among the religions patronized by the Mongol emperors in the Yuan dynasty, but did not take root until it was reintroduced in the 16th century by Jesuit missionaries. Persecution returned at the time of the communist takeover and the “cultural revolution”. In the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, Christians suffered along with other Chinese. The church is now mostly underground (hidden) but independent of outside support, and has developed its own distinctive style of witness and leadership.

One 3rd of Asia lies in what was the Soviet Union. Communist Russia tried socialism without God, and found it doesn't work. They massacred over 61 million people*, many of them for being 'religious believers'. Yet a remnant of the Russian Orthodox Church whose history dates back to the 9th century, with numerous saints and martyrs, emerged after the Soviet Union disintegrated and communism ended.

In Japan the pattern of conversion and suppression has been followed by toleration. Korea has produced many martyrs and North Korea continues to do so. The Philippine church has had a long struggle for freedom from foreign domination. The same is true in Indonesia, where the largest church anywhere in the Muslim world has been established.