In the 17th century, the Old Believers were forced to leave the Orthodox Church in Russia. They could not agree to a reformed ritual. It would have undermined their true faith. In the ensuing crises, many of the faithful died, including their priests. The Old Believers fled.
Some went to the remote parts of Russia, others to Romania and Turkey. For the next three hundred years Old Believers lived in many parts of the world.
One group left Siberia in the 1920s. They crossed the Amur River into China to live in the three river valleys near Harbin. Another group left Russia to live in Singiang Province.
They lived in their isolated villages until the Chinese government made demands against their religion. Again, the Old Believers fled, across China, surviving against impossible odds to find each other in Hong Kong.
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They appealed to the World Council of Churches, which arranged for their passage to new countries. Some families went to live in Brazil. Economic conditions there were very poor so, with help from the Tolstoy Foundation, they planned to move to Oregon.
In Aksekir, Turkey another smaller group of Old Believers heard about those living in Brazil. Then, in the mid 1960s, they all met after three hundred years, in Woodburn, Oregon.
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