The Department of Charity and Social Ministry of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese and the FMI Foundation organized a Christmas outreach in Tagaytay. Employees of 14 municipal institutions were given gifts, those who care about us and protect us: firefighters, rescuers, police officers, employees of local authorities, the Volcano Service, the National Bureau of Investigation and others. To show the love of Christ and our appreciation! Thank you to our wonderful team, who always consider it a “labor of love” for the Lord…

For the second year now, a charity event has been held in Mindanao in memory of the deceased brother Hierodeacon Juvenalius (Lapshin).

The clergy of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, Priest Moses Kahilig, deacons Nicholas Salgado and Ambrose Sumagaysay, together with Priest Dimitri Lavrentiev, organized the collection and distribution of gift sets in Davao City. More than 50 children from poor families received gifts.

The action was held with the assistance of the city administration and police.

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.

On the feast of the Entry into the temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Divine Liturgy was served at the parish on Cebu Island by the dean of the Manila Deanery, Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin).
This parish differs from other parishes of the ROC in the Philippines in that its main parishioners are our compatriots. Russians temporarily or permanently reside in small numbers on different islands, but it was here that a sufficient number of Orthodox (about 20) gathered to organize a parish. The initiator was a local entrepreneur Nikita Osharov, whose travel company Pelagos, focused on Russian-speaking tourists, was the best in its sector before the pandemic. Services were held monthly.
Unfortunately, the pandemic hit tourism the hardest. In addition, most of the compatriots had to leave the Philippines during this period, so only a few people remained from the parish who had not been able to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ for two years. Only recently, for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, all restrictions on flights between Manila and Cebu were lifted.
Hopefully, the worst time is over, and the parish will recover over time. Perhaps local residents will join the Orthodox family, although for this, of course, the constant presence of a priest and more frequent services are necessary, for Filipino believers, as a rule, care about regular attendance of the temple and participation in the Holy Sacraments seriously.

Siniloan (Manila Deanery). The parish was founded in 1980 by Fr. Filimon Castro and is the first Orthodox parish in the Philippines after most Orthodox Russian refugees left Tubabao Island in 1951 and their churches were destroyed by a typhoon. Until 1995, the parish belonged to the non-canonical Orthodox Catholic Church, and then to the Constantinople Orthodox Church. Since 2020 , the parish has been converted to the Russian Orthodox Church

And happy Patronal Feast of the Heavenly bodiless Hosts to our brothers and sisters in Mahongkog!

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the Secretary of the diocese, Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev), met with the Mayor of the city of Guiuan, Mrs. Annalisa Kwan. During the meeting, the possibility of building an Orthodox church on Tubabao island in memory of the Russian refugees who stayed on this island for three years was discussed. During the pastoral visit, which became possible for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic due to the weakening of quarantine measures, Hieromonk Korniliy performed a prayer service on the island of Tubabao, on the site of the camp of Russian refugees, and a litany at the cemetery where Russian compatriots who died during their stay in the Philippines were buried.

The blessing of the dome and the cross completed the renovation of the Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in Banate. The previous temple was almost completely destroyed by termites. Together with the renovation of the building, a dome with a cross was built on the temple for the first time. The rite was performed by Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev), Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, together with priest Joachim Gonzalez and priest Roman Buniel. God willing, more and more Orthodox temples in the Philippines will acquire their domes.