The Church in the former Soviet state of Kazakhstan affirmed its Asiatic identity when its episcopal conference was formally accepted into the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.
According to figures released by the FABC, of the 15 million inhabitants of Kazakhstan, some 60% are Shiite Muslims, while some 40% are Christians, mainly Orthodox. There are approximately 250,000 Roman Catholics in the country.
A bishop’s see existed in the land in the fourth century, and at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth centuries, there was a Melkite monastery. Source
I’m a little puzzled by this last statement, since my understanding was that the Melkites were first defined as such in the middle of the fifth century.
Melchites are the people in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt who remained faithful to the Council of Chalcedon (451) when the greater part turned Monophysite. Source
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