For two weeks clerics on board the church ship were rendering spiritual assistance to villagers and preaching Christianity, we were told at the Novosibirsk Diocesan Administration.
In certain distant communities, accessible only by water, an Orthodox priest had not been seen for 70 years.
Missionary voyages to the distant areas of the Novosibirsk region are carried out annually in late summer. These trips were initiated in 1996 by the Novosibirsk Diocesan Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The ship was consecrated in the name of St. Andrew, one of Jesus Christ's first apostles and Christian preachers.
According to the Diocesan Administration, thousands of villagers from Siberian hinterland were able to receive confession and communication, to hear a sermon of God's Word and to solve their spiritual problems during missionary voyages up the Ob river.
In recent years medical teams have been joining priests on missionary voyages - many people in distant villages need qualified medical assistance.
