Last year, the Metropolitan of Manila and Hanoi Pavel blessed the foundation stone of the new church of St Thomas in the village of Kinabalan. Due to the pandemic, the construction was postponed. Now we are happy to announce the beginning of the works. With the help of the parishioners, the lot of land has been levelled, and sand has been delivered to cover the place under the foundation.

On December 23, at the parish in honor of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God in Vung Tau, a meeting with children was organized. The rector of the parish priest Eugene Zucalo talked about the upcoming feast of the Nativity of Christ. The parishioners organized a cultural program: children made Christmas toys, baked gingerbread and learned a Christmas carol.

On December 17, a New Year’s reception was held at the residence of the Consul General of Russia in Ho Chi Minh City A.V. Popov, which was attended by Russians and Vietnamese friends of Russia. Among the invited were the managers of the JV “Vietsovpetro”, rector of the parish of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God priest Evgeniy Tsukalo, representatives of “Zarubezhneft” Corp. and other leaders and representatives of the Russian associations, Vietnamese students of Ho Chi Minh city pedagogical University and Institute of social Sciences and Humanities.

On the island of Mindanao at the end of 2019, a series of devastating earthquakes occurred, there were deaths, many people were injured and left homeless. Orthodox churches located near the epicenter were not left without damage. So the church of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Makalangot suffered, but now its structure has been strengthened and all damage has been fixed. By the grace of God, this temple was already consecrated.

But there are other damaged temples. So the church of St. Queen Helena in the village of Little Baguio survived, but was severely damaged (by the way, the Roman Catholic churches located nearby were completely destroyed). Skew cracks appeared in the supporting columns and walls, and the concrete cross crowning the temple broke. At the moment, the church needs to be reinforced with an external metal structure, but the parishioners do not have the funds for this, since they mainly live in agriculture and are very poor.

Thanks to the help from Russia, materials for its repair and strengthening have now been purchased and delivered. We thank all the donors, especially the Christian book Foundation, for their financial support for the renovation and strengthening of the church.More than 140 metal corners were purchased, as well as rebar and other materials.