On February 28, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the administrator of the Philippine—Vietnamese Diocese, held a parish meeting in the city of Nha Trang in the Republic of Vietnam. The faithful Russian citizens living in Nha Trang asked the bishop to open an Orthodox parish in the city. During the meeting, the Nha Trang parish was established in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, a parish council consisting of 15 people was elected, and members of the audit commission were also elected. At the end of the parish meeting, Bishop Pavel answered the questions of the parishioners.

On February 27, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, performed the rite of minor consecration of the house church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Vung Tau, Vietnam. His Eminence was co-served by Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Priest Eugene Tsukalo, dean of the Vietnamese Deanery, and Priest John Obrembalsky, cleric of the Balashikha Diocese. At the end of the service, Metropolitan Pavel gave the archpastoral blessing and delivered a sermon: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters, let me express my gratitude for the common prayer. You and I have now performed a small consecration of our temple of the Queen of Heaven, our Patroness, the Intercessor of the Christian family, and asked Her for intercession and help so that She would not leave us, who are far from our Fatherland, would preserve our Fatherland, grant victory to our army and preserve all of us on our life-saving path. Every Christian, passing through the saving path, living his life, cannot live without temptations and without sin. But the Lord also gave us all the saving means so that every person would have the opportunity to get rid of sins, receive forgiveness, and connect with the Lord God. And today we thank the Lord for His immense mercy to us.The Lord gives us such mercy today that today we have this small temple, cozy, beautiful, where each of you, coming here, connects with God, talking in prayer and uniting in the sacraments. This is the mercy of God, and we thank the Lord for giving us his immense mercy and love. Thank you for your common prayers, for there is no greater glory than to glorify your Heavenly Creator together. May the All-merciful Lord, through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven, not leave this holy place, the abbot, the entire flock that comes here and unites with God. God bless you all!”

The Medal of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco for services to the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese was awarded to Svetlana Shcherbakova.

On February 13-15, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese and a member of the Russian Academy of Engineering, Chairman of the Architectural and Construction Department of the Khanty-Mansiysk Metropolis, Priest Konstantin Memyachkin, visited a temple under construction in Kinabalan province on the island of Mindanao. The architecture of the temple has a pronounced outline of the basilica, the ancient architectural style of Christian churches. The temple is built on a reinforced concrete foundation slab and is a monolithic reinforced concrete frame with columns. The inter-column space is laid with hollow concrete blocks of local production. Construction technologies and materials are due to the special geographical location of the islands, logistical difficulties and a limited market for building materials. Nevertheless, the construction work is progressing successfully and is moving towards completion. In addition to Kinabalan, temples were visited in the cities of Lambayong, Lake Sebu, Polomolok and other settlements. A visual inspection of all the visited temple buildings was carried out and engineering decisions were made on their repair and reconstruction.

On a working trip to the island state of the Philippines, His Eminence was accompanied by the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), Archpriest Anthony Isakov, dean of the Surgut City Deanery, Archpriest Sergiy Shevchenko, dean of the Nizhnevartovsk city deanery, Priest Konstantin Memyachkin, Chairman of the architectural and construction department of the Khatna—Mansi Metropolia, Hierodeacon Nikodim Perkhovsky, a resident of the Dimitry Rostov Monastery Of the Khanty-Mansiysk Diocese, Director General of the UVIS IC, Vladimir Yurievich Bashkov. It should be noted that in 2023, in accordance with the decision of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Engineering, for his great contribution to church building in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra, the development of church building in earthquake-prone areas of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese: Kinabalan, Davao and others, Metropolitan Pavel was awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Engineering Academy.

On February 27, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, Administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, held a working meeting with Oleg Petrovich Saraev, First Deputy General Director of Vietsovpetro Joint Venture in Vung Tau, Republic of Vietnam. Also present at the meeting were: Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev), Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, and Priest Eugene Tsukalo, dean of the Vietnamese Deanery. During the working meeting, issues of cooperation between the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese and the Vietsovpetro enterprise were discussed.

Vietsovpetro is an oil company, a joint Russian-Vietnamese enterprise. The company’s headquarters are located in the city of Vung Tau. A significant Russian-speaking community of JV employees lives in this city. Vietsovpetro JV specialists have explored six fields on the shelf of the South China Sea: Dragon, Daihung, Wolf, Bawi, Baden and Tamdao. Two fields “White Tiger” and “Dragon” have been equipped, the first oil from the Daihung field has been extracted. Vietsovpetro Joint venture has created the most powerful base in Southeast Asia for the construction and installation of offshore platforms for drilling and production of oil and gas.

On February 27, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, arrived in the Republic of Vietnam. At Ho Chi Minh City airport, Vladyka was met by the dean of the Vietnamese Deanery, Priest Yevgeny Tsukalo and Consul-Counselor of the Russian Embassy D.A.Repkov.

During the archpastoral visit of the head of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, meetings with the parishioners of Nha Trang and a prayer service in Vung Tau are planned. On March 2 and 3, Metropolitan Pavel will celebrate Divine Liturgies in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Also in Hanoi, Bishop Pavel plans to meet with the Russian Ambassador to Vietnam and members of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Republic of Vietnam. On a trip to the Republic of Vietnam, Metropolitan Pavel is accompanied by the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev) and the president of the Literary Foundation “The Road of Life” Dmitry Mizgulin.

On February 26, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, Administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of the Philippines M.I.Pavlov. The meeting was attended by: Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev), General Director of LLC SK “YUVIS” Vladimir Bashkov, President of the Literary Fund “The Road of Life” Dmitry Mizgulin. During the meeting, the parties discussed various issues of cooperation between the Russian diplomatic Mission and the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese.

On February 26, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, governor of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, celebrated a prayer service in the church in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in Siniloan, Laguna Province. His Eminence was co-served by: Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin), Dean of the Manila District, and Archimandrite Philemon (Castro), rector of the temple. At the end of the service, Metropolitan Pavel addressed the audience: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters, dear Father Philemon! We drove for a long time, but we got to this holy temple in order to meet with you here and share a short prayer to the Lord and His Life-Giving Cross! Prayer moves our lives, it heals us, prayer gives us the strength to continue serving God and our flock. The Lord says, “Pray that you may be healed, pray for one another.” I think that the Lord will give us more strength and time to serve the Divine Liturgy here, because the Liturgy is the most important service of our Church, because we all partake of the one cup of the Body and Blood of Christ, uniting in Christ. I hope that the Lord will give us such an opportunity and strength, to serve the Divine Liturgy and other services here. Let’s hope and ask that the Lord will not leave us in the future, and give us such an opportunity. I am glad to meet the parish today, with the flock that Father Philemon is caring for, realizing that today is a working day and not everyone had the opportunity to come and meet for our common prayer. I thank everyone who took the time to share the joy of common prayer, and you will convey the bow and blessing to our entire flock of our entire parish. May the Lord preserve us all by the power of the Holy Cross in health and longevity!”

On February 25, 2024, Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the feast of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi governor of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the temple in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Manila. His Eminence was co-served by the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev), rector of the temple, Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin), Archimandrite Philemon (Castro), Priest Agustin Ponferrada. The deacon’s rank was headed by Hierodeacon Nicodemus (Pirkhovsky). The divine service was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of the Philippines M.I. Pavlov. During the Liturgy, Metropolitan Pavel ordained Deacon Juventinus Bulaqueña to the priesthood. Metropolitan Pavel congratulated the audience on the patronal Day: “Dear fathers, dear Ambassador of the Russian Federation Marat Ignatievich, brothers and sisters! I am glad to be with you today at the patronal feast of this parish! Patronal Day is like the second Easter. The Iveron icon of the Mother of God has a long history. Tradition says that it was written by the Apostle Luke himself. And this icon was located near the city of Nicaea, at the pious widow, when in the IX century there was a persecution of icons, the iconoclasm. Soldiers, state guards came and saw this icon at the widow. One of the soldiers struck the icon with a spear, and blood flowed from the icon. The widow asked the soldiers not to break the icon, and when they left, she and her son took this icon to the sea and sent it on a journey so that the Lord would determine the place of its stay. And the icon arrived by sea to Mount Athos. Why is it called Iveron? There was a Georgian monastery nearby on Mount Athos, where the inhabitants were mostly Georgians, and Iberia is the ancient name of Georgia, and this icon was found by the monks of this monastery, and eventually the monastery became known as Iveron, and the icon of the Mother of God from that moment also became known as Iveron. It is very providential and miraculous that the Iveron icon was found at sea, but when the monks took it from the sea to land, a source of fresh water clogged here. This spring still exists today, and by the grace of God I have been there many, many times, drinking water from there. And when this icon was found and placed in the temple of the Iveron monastery, a day later this icon stood over the gate at the entrance to the monastery, and this happened several times. The monks took her away and put her in the temple, but she went back to the gate. To one of the monks, the Mother of God appeared in a dream and said: “You will not protect me, but I will protect you, and let My image stand over the entrance to the monastery.” So she began to be called by the second name: “Gatekeeper”, protecting the monastery from foreigners who very often attacked monasteries. God grant that this icon, to which this temple is dedicated, protects everyone who comes to this image, would keep it in life, would keep the gates of our soul. We will pray, we will ask her, and she will certainly be with us and will help us. I thank you all once again for the common prayers, and I would like to especially congratulate today the priest Juventinus, who took the priesthood. And of course, I would like to remind you that a clergyman bears great responsibility, he has great grace from God, and responsibility not only for himself and his salvation, but already for the salvation of the flock that will be handed to him. One of the wisest saints, His Beatitude Vladimir of Kiev, said: “You must be a strict father and a loving mother to each of your parishioners. Love the Church — and the Lord will not leave you, and the Church too,” because the Church is people united by faith in Christ, and you can serve and love God only by loving and serving your neighbor. May the Lord help you in your ministry! I would like to especially congratulate Father Anthony, who has angel Day today, for the third time during his trip to the Philippines, he has to celebrate both his birthday and angel day.