Bali, Indonesia, January 17, 2018
Photo: mospat.ru On January 14, the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and St. Basil the Great, the administrator of the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in the countries of Eastern and Southeastern Asia Archbishop Sergei of Solnechnogorsk celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the new home Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh on the Indonesian island of Bali, reports the site of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Photo: mospat.ru Nearly all of those praying the church on that day partook of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The church’s first Liturgy had been celebrated just a week prior on the feast of the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.
A group of Russians living in Bali organized the community of St. Sergius, rented a space to organize a home church, and appealed to the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to establish a parish in honor of St. Sergius on the island.
Photo: mospat.ru His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had visited Bali in 2003, being at that time the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad and Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR), to investigate the possibility of organizing pastoral care for the canonical Old Believers (Edinovertsi) living on the island.
In 2007, during a visit to Indonesia, the Deputy Chairman of the DECR Bishop Mark of Egorievsk (now Metropolitan of Ryazan and Mikhailovskoe) had studied the question of opening of a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church on Bali.
There are also two churches under the Ecumenical Patriarchate on Bali, both named in honor of All Saints and served by Fr. Stephanos Boik Nino, according to one member of an Orthodox Christian Mission Center mission trip to Bali. One parish in Kuta has about 20 members, and the church in Singaraja about 40.
In the video below, Fr. Stephanos tells the story of how he started the church in Bali, and of the humanitarian work they do, including running an orphanage:
