Life of a parish: Bacoor

The Orthodox Church today consists of 15 local Churches. The oldest of them is Jerusalem (33). The youngest is American (1970). The largest is Russian. Of these, there are present in the Philippines today: Russian, Constantinople and Antiochian.
But in the Philippines, everyone has the right to register a religious organization with any name. Therefore, there are many “churches” here, including “Orthodox” ones.
Among the non-canonical denominations is the “Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church”, whose bishop Christopher Canopen, together with the parishes in Bakoor and Taguig, this year transferred to the ROC as a layman, with the name Nicholas.
The parishes of Nicholas are located in the poorest neighborhoods of Metro Manila. His parishioners are mostly families with many children. Since the founding of the parishes in 2009, the pastor’s main concern has been to help poor kids. After joining the Russian Orthodox Church, its Department of Charity joined this God-pleasing activity.