Metropolitan Pavel visited parish in Gensan

On February 13, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Khanty-Mansiysk and Surgut, the administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, visited the parish in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in General Santos (Philippines). The administrator of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese performed a prayer service at the parish and gave the archpastoral blessing to the parishioners. His Eminence was co-served by the Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev) and Priest Roman Buniel. In his speech to the audience, Metropolitan Pavel noted: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! First of all, I would like to offer prayers of gratitude to God that the Lord has allowed us to come here, and of course to meet with all of you! And not only to thank God, but also to pray together so that God’s mercy and help may help and accompany us in our lives. The Lord says, “You can’t do anything without me,” so we should always thank God for every day we live in our lives, for the fact that the Lord gives us the strength to move around and do something – this is already God’s Great mercy. I can say with confidence that the Lord blesses you and me today, and our diocese. It is young in its age, but it is slowly getting stronger and we see that the right hand of God is present with us. And so, with the blessing of God and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, to be a bishop on this earth, we see that the Lord helps us, does not abandon and multiplies our church, and this is God’s providence. Time flies very fast. It seemed that my appointment here took place quite recently, and it has already been 5 years. I remember coming here for the first time, I saw only the priest Father Joachim from the local priests, there were no others, but today look at how many priests we already have, and we see that our students are studying today, who are ready to become priests soon, and of course the deacons, who are preparing for today ordination. And the Lord blesses this work for us, so the right hand of God is with us, and what higher joy can there be if God is with us?When God is with us, we are not afraid of anything, no sorrow, no illness, no obstacles! And now I remember those moments when Father Roman and Father Moses were the first travelers to Russia, how they perceived, how they saw all, then Father Nicholas and Father Ambrose came, and now you look at this period of time and remember how our church is growing. I remember when I asked how you like it here, especially in winter, they said: it’s a refrigerator outside! You can imagine: today, in Khanty-Mansiysk, it’s minus 29°C, and here it’s about that much plus! But we are all children of the one God the Father, we live in different climatic conditions, but Christ unites us, so I want to thank the Lord again and again for His benefits that He shows us today, and to me and to all of us, let’s pray about it!”