During the second week of Lent, Saturday and Sunday services were held in parishes in Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam), Manila, Tagaytay, and Mindanao in General Santos, Kyamba and Cayupo. The parishes of GenSan and Tagaytay also held Lenten services with the Liturgy of the Presanctified gifts.
General Santos hosted a meeting of the Sisterhood and distribution of humanitarian aid. Daily feeding programs for children from poor families are held at the parish in Tagaytay.
Two icons of the most Holy Theotokos, written on the donations of the Orthodox people of Ho Chi Minh arrived to the city from Russia. In turn, each family will take the icons to their homes until the next Liturgy, and at home they will pray reading the Akathist of the Intercession of the most Holy Theotokos.
Due to coronavirus pandemic, appropriate precautions are being taken in parishes; a “prayer Service during a pestilence” has been served.
Internal travel is restricted in the Philippines, so many parishioners were unable to attend services in Manila, and the monthly Liturgy in Cebu was canceled.

God is with us! The first Sunday of Lent is a celebration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy as the true faith and the only Church founded by God, Whose Image, as He revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, we honor today and forever. Festive services were held in the parishes of the diocese

The first week of Lent is the strictest. In parishes in Manila, Tagaytay, Davao, and Vietnam, Lenten services were held daily in the morning and evening. From Monday to Thursday, the Great Canon of Andrew of Crete was read at the great Compline. On Wednesday, The Liturgy of the Pre-consecrated Gifts was celebrated. At the parish in Ha Noi city, parishioners read the services themselves.

On March 1, Cheesefare Sunday, a Liturgy was served at the parish of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God in Vung Tau. Most worshippers have received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
On this day, the warden of our parish has a personal holiday – his birthday. After the Liturgy priest Eugene congratulated Igor Bulkin and presented him an award from his Holiness Patriarch Kirill – the Jubilee medal “in memory of the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church”.
In the evening, Vespers was served with the ceremony of forgiveness. After the service, during agape meal, fr Eugene told about the Lent, its significance, features and opportunities.

The spring of soul has come to us! This year it is very opportune in the face of world disasters. Let us treat the coming Lent most seriously before the wrath of God punish our nations!

Those who forgive will be forgiven! On the eve of Lent the Forgiveness ceremonies took place in our parishes in Paranaque and Tagaytay.

On February 27, in the parish of the Kazan icon of the Mother of God in Vung Tau, priest Eugeny Tsukalo met with children living in the Russian subdivision.
Fr. Eugeny told the children about the national holiday “Maslenitsa”, the Lent and its significance for every Christian, large and small. He gave the children recommendations for how to carry out a small feat with children’s strength.
Then the pupils were shown a short cartoon based on the story of V. Nikiforov-Volgin “Lent”.   Then the children guessed riddles and drew.
After all, the children ate pancakes, fruit and sweets cooked by their parents.

On February 26, Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), Priest Siluan Thompson and Deacon Ambrose Sumagaysay visited the community of the non-canonical Christian Eastern Catholic Church in Bacoor.  Bishop Christopher Medina Canopen, who is taking care about this community, while studying the history of the Church, and realized that he was in a schism, and after that he wanted to be baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church.  Since being a layman in the true Church is higher than being a bishop in a noncanonical one.