On February 22, 2020, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the Administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese, performed the rite of the Great consecration of the church in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov in the village of Makalangot (Mindanao, Republic of the Philippines) and headed the divine Liturgy in the newly consecrated church.
With His Eminence served the clergy of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese: the Secretary of the diocese, hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), priest Siluan Thompson, hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin), priest David Grubbs, priest Eugene Zukalo, priest Joakim Gonzales, priest Roman Buniel, and priest Moses Kahilig, hieromonk Antony (Kirpichev), Secretary of the Administrator of the Khanty-Mansi diocese, and Archpriest Antony Isakov and Archpriest Sergiy Shevchenko, deans of the Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk city deaneries of the Khanty-Mansi diocese and a cleric of the Resurrection Cathedral of Khanty-Mansiysk deacon Daniel Matveev.
At the small entrance, by the decree of Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese, hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), was awarded the right to wear a golden pectoral cross for his diligent service to the Holy Church.
During the Liturgy, Metropolitan Pavel ordained the head of the parish of St. Seraphim of Sarov of Makalangot (Philippines) sub-deacon Nicholas Salgado to the diaconate.
At the end of the service, Metropolitan Pavel addressed the audience:
“Dear brothers and sisters, I cordially and sincerely greet you on this special day for all of us. Today we specifically asked the Lord to send us His divine grace and sanctify this temple, to be present here forever, so that everyone who comes to this temple will be united with God in prayer and sacraments!
“The house of God will be called the house of prayer,” as the Holy Scripture says, and today we prayed for all those who have contributed to the construction of this temple. This day is special in the annals of our diocese also because we performed the diaconal ordination of a parishioner of this church who took Holy orders today, and I hope that he will sincerely serve God and people. During 3 days of our visit, we performed three Divine liturgies and three diaconal ordinations, adding these days to the history of our diocese by adding clergy from our parishioners who are ready to serve God. But it is possible to serve God only through serving one’s neighbor. I prayed for this, and asked deacons Nicholas, Matthew, and John to pray that the Lord would strengthen them in faith for the most important service on earth – to be a worthy servant of the Lord. Our clergy has been replenished with three clergymen, and I am happy that our Church, our Filipino diocese, is growing both in quantity and in quality. I am sure that the Church Foundation being laid today will be strong and reliable, like this temple, the first in the history of this diocese, built and consecrated by the Great blessing. I think that a good start has been made and the construction of temples on the Philippines land will continue. I thank all of you for your prayers and participation in the construction of this Holy church. I congratulate everyone on this event – for this event is not only for this village and not only for the Philippines – it is a celebration of the entire universal Orthodoxy, the true Orthodox Catholic Church! I would like to give a present to this Church, an icon of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we brought from Russia, so that the Risen Lord can show everyone the way to salvation. God bless everyone!»
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The community of the Makalangot church converted to Orthodoxy from the Independent Philippine Church, informally called “aglipayan”, in 2015, as a result of the adoption of the Orthodox faith by Fr. Moses Cahilig, now the priest of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese. For a long time, prayers and services were performed in a bamboo hut without walls. in 2017, the Patriarchal Exarch, Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore and South-East Asia, blessed the construction of the temple. The Church was built with the active participation of benefactors from Russia. The foreman Igor Diamond and Orthodox community of Davao made a big contribution to the construction.
