Bright Week

Easter Bright Week is a special time of the year. The whole week passes as one day – the Easter service is repeated daily with processions, fasts are cancelled, all prayers are replaced with Easter hymns, and believers try to take Communion daily (where there is such an opportunity). According to Orthodox tradition, clergy and believers visit neighboring parishes this week to prayerfully share Easter joy with spiritual brothers and sisters. This tradition has already been instilled in the Philippines. On Mindanao island, Easter services were performed continuously during the Bright Week in different parishes by the clergy of the diocese, headed by the Secretary of the diocese, Hieromonk Korniliy (Molev): on Monday – in the church of St. Thomas in the village of Kinabalan; on Tuesday – in the church of the Resurrection of Christ in General Santos with priests Roman Buniel and Matthew Sale; on Wednesday – in the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Lake Cebu with the same clerics. On Bright Thursday, the Easter service was held in the church of St. Ignatius in the village of Lambayong in the concelebration of Priest Roman Buniel. On Friday, the service was held in the church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Arakan in the concelebration of Priest Moses Kahilig and deacons Raphael Frajillo and Anthony Aranco, and on Saturday – in the church of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Makalangot with Priest Nikolai Salgado. Deacon Juventinus Bulaqueña accompanied the Secretary of the diocese during the whole tour.