On February 20, 2023, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi met with the Mayor of Manila, Maria Sheilah Honrado Lacuna-Pangan. During the conversation, the parties discussed the restoration of the historical presence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Philippines.

The meeting was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of the Philippines M. I. Pavlov.

Reference. In the 1930s, Russian refugees who emigrated from Russia after the Civil War built a temple in Manila in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. The temple was destroyed in 1945 by the bombing during the liberation of the city by the American army from the Japanese occupiers. In its memory, the parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in Manila, established in 2017, is named after the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.

On February 19, 2023, on Meatfare Sunday, of the Last Judgment, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Manila, Philippines. His Eminence was co-served by the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), the rector of the temple, Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin), Priest Agustin Ponferrada, clerics of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Priest Methodius Rafanan and Priest Luke Abouna and Hierodeacon Nicodemus (Pirkhovsky). At the small entrance, by decree of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, for diligent service to the Holy Church, the rector of the temple in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Manila, Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin) was awarded the right to wear a palitsa.

At the end of the service, Metropolitan Pavel addressed the audience: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! allow me from the bottom of my heart to congratulate everyone on the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ! Today is the Sunday of the Last Judgment. The Gospel today says that the Lord will distinguish between the righteous and sinners, and put them on different sides. This Sunday is one week before Lent, and it reminds us of what we must do on this Great Lent, to save our souls in order to be on the right side. The most important thing is for us to see our sins, because when a person sees his sins, he has something to repent of. To do this, we are given Great Lent — in imitation of the fast of our Savior, who suffered a forty-day fast before His saving mission. We also go through this period with repentance, with awareness of our deeds and our sins. The most important thing is spiritual fasting, during which we must realize our deeds, our life, understand whether we are going the right way, whether we are doing everything to save our soul. But it is also a physical fast, that is, we do not eat fast food, and this reminds us that there is a Great fast, so that we do not forget about the main thing — about our soul. I wish all of us to pass this fast with a result, so that we can change a little for the better, get rid of those vices with which we live, and from which we cannot get rid of in any way. Help us, Lord! I thank you for our common prayers, I rejoice at our meeting, we haven’t seen each other for a long time — for three whole years, and today the Lord has vouchsafed us to be here together, in order to thank God for the opportunity to serve together, to pray, to glorify his Creator and ask the Lord for blessings for the coming fast and for the rest of our lives. Once again I wanted to thank everyone for the common prayers. God bless everyone!”

On February 18, 2023, on the Ecumenical Saturday of the departed, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church in honor of the Nativity of Christ in Tagaytay, Philippines. His Eminence was co-served by: Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), rector of the temple of the Nativity of Christ in Tagaytay, Priest David Grubbs, dean of the Manila Deanery, Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin), Rector of the Holy Cross Church in Siniloan Archimandrite Philemon (Castro), 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. The deacon’s rank was headed by Hierodeacon Nicodemus (Pirkhovsky). The service was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of the Philippines M.I. Pavlov and his wife. By decree of Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, for his diligent service to the Holy Church, the rector of the church in honor of the Nativity of Christ in Tagaytay, Priest David Grubbs was awarded the right to wear a loincloth, a camisole and a pectoral cross. During the Liturgy, Metropolitan Pavel ordained deacon Augustine Ponferrada, a cleric of the Church of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Manila, to the priesthood.

At the end of the service, Vladyka addressed the audience: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! Your Excellency, our dear Ambassador, Marat Ignatievich! Let me thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the common prayers. There is no greater glory than to glorify your Heavenly Creator together, the Holy Scripture says. The Lord has gathered us all here so that we can thank our Creator for the immeasurable boon to each of us, for everything that each of us has and even for the simplest — the ability to move, isn’t this the grace of God? We haven’t seen you for 3 years — there was a pandemic period when restrictions prevented us from meeting and glorifying the Lord together. But prayer knows no distance, and we prayed for each other. I prayed for all of you, for all the clergy with the whole flock, you prayed for your archpastor, and the Lord heard our prayers and brought us all together today. I would like to congratulate Father Agustin on taking holy orders, it is also a part of our life, our diocese, that there is one more clergyman here in the Manila Deanery. As a sign of our meeting, I would like to present to your church a three-candlestick for Easter and surplices for the brethren, who will grow up and prepare for further spiritual education. I would like to especially thank Father David for his service, for the work he has been doing in Tagaytay for many, many years. May God grant you health, so that you may live and serve here for a long time. Thank you for your efforts. I am also glad to see Father Philemon, who is in our church today. I hope that our diocese will grow stronger, strengthen and multiply. There are a lot of questions and problems, but I think that with God’s help we will slowly solve them. There is no temple in Manila today, it was destroyed earlier, and now the task is to acquire land and build a temple and our representative offices, not only here, but also in Davao and General Santos, and in other places. So there is a lot of work, and I invite everyone to work hard on this issue. Once again, I thank everyone for the common prayers, for the meeting!”

On February 15, 2023, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in General Santos in the province of South Cotabato, on the island of Mindanao. His Eminence was co-served by the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), the rector of the church, Priest Roman Buniel, and the clergy of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese. The deaconess rank was headed by Hierodeacon Nikodim (Pirkhovsky). By the Metropolitan’s decree, for the diligent service to the Holy Church, the rector of the parish in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, General Santos, Priest Roman Buniel was awarded the right to wear a loincloth. During the Liturgy, Metropolitan Pavel ordained the reader Juventinus Bulakvenya as a deacon. At the end of the service, Metropolitan Pavel addressed the audience: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! Allow me to congratulate everyone on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord! On this day, Saint Simeon the God-Receiver took Christ into his own hands and thanked God: “Now let Your servant depart in peace, Master, according to Your word!”, for it was promised to him – until he sees Christ, he will not die. It is said in the Holy Scriptures that Simeon the God-Receiver was a man of holy life and was honored to take into his hands the God-Child and thus sum up his earthly life. He was expecting this event. One can only imagine what joy he had when the Lord promises and you get what you ask for, and he asked for a meeting with God. Each of us desires a meeting with God, so that the Lord will guide us in this earthly life and in eternity, everyone truly desires this. But the Lord does not appear to everyone during His lifetime, only to those who live holy on Earth. And we follow this path, waiting, hoping, trusting the Lord that He is with us, even if we are unworthy of meeting Him now. The fact that He makes it possible to perform the Sacrament of Holy Communion with His Body and Blood, and to unite with Him, is a great providence of God for each of us. It is not for nothing that the Lord says: “Whoever does this in my memory will not see death”. And we know that everyone is alive with God, the soul is immortal. Having lived an earthly life, the soul goes to God and remains in Eternity with him. May God grant us to follow this right, true path, on which the Lord has chosen and set us. I am very glad to meet you, celebrating the Divine Liturgy here, praying together, and I hope that the Lord will give us the strength to see each other more often. The Lord has given us the opportunity during these two weeks of our visit to the Philippines to increase our church with pastors — priests and deacons. We have performed the seventh ordination today and I thank God that our church is developing and growing both flock and pastors. I congratulate you, I wish you spiritual and physical strength, God’s help to all! I thank everyone for the service, for the common prayers!”

On February 14, 2023, on the eve of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi held an all-night vigil in the church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in General Santos in the province of South Cotabato, on the island of Mindanao.

His Eminence was co-served by: the rector of the church, Priest Roman Buniel, Priest Alexy Bergado. The deacon rank was headed by Hierodeacon Nicodemus (Pirkhovsky).

At the end of the service, Vladyka addressed the audience:

“Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! Let me congratulate you on the feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ and thank you for the common prayers! The Lord has shown His mercy and has vouchsafed us to come to this land after 3 years to meet you again and share the joy of the festive day. I am doubly pleased to meet with the clergy whom I ordained both in Khanty-Mansiysk and here, to meet our former students. Some, like Dmitry, have already graduated, some are still studying. I am glad to offer prayers to the Lord together with all of you, so that He will hear us and send us everything we need in our life. I wish that each of us would take the God-Child into the arms of his soul. When the Lord is in our soul, then we are not afraid of any adversity. It is easy to go through life with God, but it is impossible without God. Just as Simeon the God-Receiver took the Lord into his own hands, so we should accept our Savior with our heart and soul and, of course, His teaching, so that we live exactly according to the commandments of God. God help us in this!”

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!”

On February 13, 2023, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi visited the parishes of the Davao Deanery in Mindanao Island. 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 prayer services at the parishes of the Epiphany of the Lord in Talas, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Banate and the Apostle Thomas in Kinabalan, gave his archpastoral blessing to the parishioners, held meetings with the clergy and flock of the parishes. Metropolitan Pavel also inspected the construction site of a new church in honor of the Apostle Thomas in the Kinabalan. Active work is ongoing on the site-the foundation has already been filled in, the construction of walls begins.

On February 12, 2023, a diocesan meeting of the clergy of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese was held in the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos of the municipality of Arakan. Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi made a report summarizing the work of the diocese over the past 3 years, complicated by the pandemic period.

To date, there are 34 parishes in the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese. The number of clergy of the diocese is steadily growing. During his current visit to the diocese, Vladyka performed 6 ordinations of the clergy, and it is also planned to perform 2 more. Metropolitan Pavel expressed his desire that Filipino priests could visit Russia, visit churches and monasteries, and, if possible, meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. His Eminence also recalled his intention to erect a temple in the Philippines capable of accommodating a large number of parishioners. “We met with the Mayor of Davao City about the allocation of land,” Metropolitan Pavel noted, “and of course, we would like to build not only a temple, but also a theological school that would train clergymen here in the Philippines. A meeting is also planned with the Mayor of Manila, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines and the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Philippines on the construction of our large Orthodox center in Manila. Let’s hope that the Church in the Philippines will grow architecturally, but more importantly, the Church is primarily people, and we need to grow internally,” Metropolitan Pavel stressed. Let’s hope that we will see each other more often, since my visit as part of a large delegation to Vietnam is planned in June 2023, and if it takes place, I will come to the Philippines as well.”

At the meeting it was decided to separate the North Kotobato deanery from the Davao deanery, as well as to include the Davao del Sur deanery in the Davao deanery and establish a parish in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Dipolog. Vladyka blessed the creation of a new parish in honor of St. George the Victorious in the settlement of Balilai. The parishioners of the settlement are ready to donate a lot of land for the construction of the temple. Decisions have also been made on the formation of the diocesan Department for Prison Service and the Youth Department. Vladyka Pavel also spoke about the specifics of the documentary work in the diocese, the appearance of the clergyman and other topical things

On February 12, 2023, on Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church in honor of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Arakan, Cotabato Province, Mindanao Island. His Eminence was co-served by: Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), Secretary of the Khanty-Mansi Diocese Abbot Anthony (Kirpichev), Dean of the Surgut City Deanery of the Khanty-Mansi Diocese Archpriest Anthony Isakov, Dean of the Nizhnevartovsk city deanery of the Khanty-Mansi Diocese Archpriest Sergiy Shevchenko, Priest Oleg Gordeev, clergy of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese. The deaconess rank was headed by Hierodeacon Nikodim (Pirkhovskiy).

On February 7, 2023, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi performed the monastic tonsure of the nun Maria Buniel, with name Olga, in honor of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. The monastic tonsure took place in the church in honor of St. Matrona of Moscow in Davao. After the Sacrament, Metropolitan Pavel said to the nun Olga: “We were praying now that the Lord would accept your labors, your prayers, your soul’s aspiration for the Lord, and I know that you are doing everything and will do it, and God willing, you will still work in the field of Christ, saving yourself and teaching the way of salvation to those around you. In prayer, when taking the tonsure, it is said about the light of Christ, so that those who have dedicated their lives to Christ shine like lamps, illuminating everything around them. I wish you physical and spiritual health, strength, so that the Lord and your heavenly patroness will keep you, helping you on the path of life. I see it as a craft. Just as Princess Olga brought holy Orthodoxy to Russia, so you, Mother, taking vows, the feat of the first our nun in the Philippines, will bring Orthodoxy to everyone you meet on the path of life. And you are already fulfilling this obedience. May the Lord help you. Through the prayers of your heavenly patroness, the equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, may the Lord strengthen you so that all problems with your health will pass by, so that the Lord will heal you for many years of service to Him.”

***Richel (Maria) Buniel, was born on October 14, 1977 in Kidapawan, Philippines. Since childhood, she dreamed of dedicating her life to God. Richel grew up in a family far from religion, but she attended services in a Protestant church. Richel Buniel received the Orthodox sacrament of baptism in 2015 with the name Catherine. With the blessing of the Patriarchal Exarch of Southeast Asia, Metropolitan Sergius of Singapore and Southeast Asia, she underwent obedience at St. Nicholas Convent in Ukraine, where she took monastic vows with the name Maria, in honor of St. Mary of Radonezh.