Baptism of a Vietnamese
Nguyen Khak is a graduate student at Ho Chi Minh University in the Department of Religious Studies. He was familiar with many religions firsthand. His father is a Catholic, mother is a Protestant, but his soul was looking for the Truth. He visited the parish in Ho Chi Minh City and Vung Tau several times, read the Orthodox Catechism, the Gospel and the desire to become Orthodox only increased. On April 9, on Lazarus Saturday, the baptism took place at the parish in Vung Tau. The newly enlightened one is now named Savva, in honor of Savva the Blessed. During the Baptism, Savva read the Creed in Vietnamese.
Palm Sunday in Davao
Parishioners of the church in honor of St.. Matrona of Moscow on the island of Mindanao on the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem prayed at the Divine Liturgy. The parish has a Training and educational center for clergy of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese and laypeople. The center is headed by the secretary of the diocese and the rector of the parish, Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev). Newly ordained clergy undergo liturgical practice here, and translation activities are conducted. Father Korniliy, among other things, has his Telegram channel “Diary of a Filipino priest”, where he talks about the folk traditions and culture of local residents, and also keeps notes about the everyday life of an Orthodox priest in the distant Philippine archipelago – https://t.me/philippine_priest
Hosanna in the highest
Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Parish of the Holy Cross in Siniloan
Palm Sunday
Feast in Vung Tau
More Orthodox in Manila
“Mary took about a pint of pure nard myrrh, and she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair” (Gospel on Palm Sunday).
Today the parish of the Iveron icon of the Mother of God in Manila has significantly grown up as 17 new members were converted into Orthodoxy through Chrismation (anointing with the Holy Myrrh) from Roman Catholic faith.
Liturgy on Lazarus Saturday
Liturgy on Lazarus Saturday was celebrated at the parish of St. Isidore of Rostov in Alabel, Sarangani. The service was performed by priests Alexiy Bergado, Roman Buniel and Matthew Sale.
Memorial evening in Theological Academy
On April 2, the memorial evening was held in the assembly hall of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Its theme was spiritual missions in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and African countries. After the opening remarks, the audience watched a video about the life of Orthodox communities on the territory of the Patriarchal Exarchate of Southeast Asia. A report on the current state of the mission in Indonesia was made by students of the preparatory department for foreign students: Sejati Moses, Shakti Gerasim and Simanjuntak Sergiy. In their message, they spoke about the current state of the mission of the Southeastern Exarchate in Indonesia: The preaching of Christianity in Asia is traditionally associated with the name of the Apostle Thomas, one of the closest disciples of the Savior of the World. Today, the clergy of the exarchate, serving in 13 countries and five time zones, are united in 4 dioceses – Singapore, Korea, Thailand and the Philippines-Vietnam. The exarchate employs 75 clerics serving in 79 parishes and spiritually nurturing tens of thousands of parishioners. Most of the communities consist of local residents, Russian compatriots make up about 20%. Striving for the formation of national Orthodoxy, Metropolitan Sergius pays special attention to the training of priests from among the local population, therefore seminarians from South-East Asia study in theological schools in Russia. Special attention was paid to translation activities in Indonesia: students read several passages from the Holy Scriptures in Indonesian. “By reading examples of poems in Tagalog, you can appreciate the beauty of writing and the skill of the authors, regardless of whether you are familiar with Tagalog or not. However, we have a great opportunity to get in touch with the amazing Tagalog poetry in the original,” said the host of the evening, a first–year student of the church-practical department of the magistracy, reader Ivan Ivanov. One of the most striking examples of a poetic text in Tagalog called “The Test of our Life” was read by a student of the preparatory department for foreign students Joasaf Nunez. In the second part of the evening, the main agenda was the topic of the mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in the countries of the African continent. Before the reports, a fragment of an interview with Patriarchal exarch Metropolitan Leonid (Gorbachev) about the current state of missionary service in African countries was shown. “Talking about the mission and the history of African countries is not new for our Theological Academy. In the 60s of the XX century, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod opened the Faculty of African Youth. And from that moment on, students from African countries arrive to study in the Northern Capital,” said the evening’s host, reader Ivan Ivanov.The students’ reports alternated with various musical numbers. It is impossible to talk about the culture of other countries without ever coming into contact with it. In order to include all listeners in the rich culture of Africa, students of the preparatory program for learning the Russian language from the countries of the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa performed the song “joy for the world”.
Reference: Lenten Memorial Evenings is an annual educational project of the Department of Church History under the leadership of Candidate of Theology, Associate Professor Dmitry Andreevich Karpuk. These evenings highlight the history of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and the activities of its graduates. SPbDA Press Service
Thursday of the Great Canon
On March 30, the Thursday of the Great Canon (“Standing of St Mary of Egypt”), the service of the Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete was celebrated in Tagaytay headed by the Dean of Manila Deanery Hieromonk Alexei, with priests David Grubbs and Augustin Ponferrada co-serving. After the service, the seminar on the liturgical features of Lent and Pentecostal period was held. Archimandrite Philemon and some invited priests of Antiochian Orthodox Church participated online. The seminar was followed by the meeting of the Deanery where actual questions were discussed.
Cooperation with Cossacks
On March 26, a teleconference was held with the participation of Cossacks of the Moscow region and the Philippines. The teleconference was attended by: Ataman of the Cossack city district of the Solnechnogorsk city of the Moscow region Alexander Chizhuen, Chairman of the Board for the Cooperation with the Cossacks at the Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement Agencies and the Cossacks of the Sergiev Posad Diocese, Rector of the Pokrovsky Church of Myshetskoye village, confessor of the city Cossack society of Solnechnogorsk, Archpriest Alexander Azarov, Ataman of the Republic of the Philippines Daniel Foronda and the Dean of the Manila District of the Philippine—Vietnamese Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hieromonk Alexey (Lapshin). The main topics of the meeting were: holding joint cultural events within the framework of the interaction of the Cossacks of the Philippines with the Cossacks of Solnechnogorsk with the participation of the parishes of the Pokrovsky Church in Myshetskoye village and of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God of Manila. Based on the results of the teleconference, a range of issues has been discussed and steps to solve them have been outlined, as well as plans for cooperation between representatives of the church and the Cossacks of the Moscow region and the Philippines have been drawn up.
