Metropolitan Pavel visited parish in Alabel

On February 14, 2023, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi visited the parish in honor of St. Isidore of Rostov in Alabel, Sarangani province. Vladyka was accompanied by: Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), Secretary of the Khanty-Mansi Diocese Abbot Anthony (Kirpichev), Dean of the Surgut deanery of the Khanty-Mansi Diocese Archpriest Anthony Isakov, Dean of the Nizhnevartovsk deanery of the Khanty-Mansi Diocese Archpriest Sergiy Shevchenko, Priest Oleg Gordeev, Chairman of the Department for Church-Society Relations and the media Priest Anthony Dolgushin, Hierodeacon Nikodim (Pirkhovsky), president of the Literary Fund “The Way of Life” Dmitry Mizgulin. The administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese performed a prayer service at the parish and gave the archpastoral blessing to the parishioners. In his speech to the audience, Vladyka noted: “Dear Father rector, dear fathers, brothers and sisters! I am very glad to visit your church. I remember 3 years ago we also prayed here together. The time of the pandemic interrupted our prayer communication, so 3 years later we met with you here again and offered a prayer to the Lord, and to the heavenly patron of this temple. I hope that God’s mercy and help will accompany us to meet more often and glorify our Heavenly Creator. I would like to congratulate Father Alexiy on taking the priesthood, and I would like to congratulate all of you on the spiritual acquisition of your clergyman in this church, who will constantly serve Divine services. Of course, he still has to go through training, a special practice, learn how to properly perform these services and then independently begin his ministry here. Now everyone needs to pray diligently that the Lord will bless and arrange everything, so that the temple will be reconstructed, and the community will become stronger and multiply. The most important thing is that we are following the right, saving path for our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Catholic Orthodox Church has always remained it from its establishment by our Lord to this day. I am very glad that today the true faith is being established on the Philippine land, and in your village. The Lord wants to save everyone and points out his saving, right path that leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven. And we only need to succeed in this, to work hard for our salvation, because the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by labor and effort, by prayer. Help us, Lord, to succeed in this! I thank you once again for the common prayers and rejoice with you in our meeting!”