Manila, Philippines, June 26, 2018
Photo: mospat.ru On June 23-24, Archbishop Sergei of Solnechnogorsk, the administrator of the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Eastern and Southeastern Asia, visited the Orthodox communities of the Russian Church in the Philippine provinces of Davao and Kotabato.
Photo: mospat.ru The archbishop’s visit marks the first time a hierarchical Liturgy has been celebrated in the Philippines by a hierarch of the Russian Church, reports the site of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The hierarch was accompanied by a number of clergymen from the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, including Fr. George Maximov and Fr. Stanislav Rasputin—both of whom make frequent missionary trips to various Asian countries, and Fr. Silouan Thompson of the ROCOR parish of St. John of Shanghai in the village of Santa Maria on the island of Mindanao. The three of them have celebrated multiple mass Baptisms in the Philippines in recent years. See here, here, and here.
Abp. Sergei celebrated the first Russian hierarchical service in the Philippines on June 23 at the house church of Blessed Matrona of Moscow in Davao on the island of Mindanao. In honor of the occasion, Vladyka gave the parish an icon of St. Matrona for its central analoy stand.
Photo: mospat.ru The Divine Liturgy was celebrated again the next day in the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in the village of Arakan in the Kotabato province. It is the largest parish in the Philippines, with more than 150 people partaking of Holy Communion at the hierarchical Divine Liturgy. Abp. Sergei also gave the parish an icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos and a set of Eucharistic vessels.
Photo: mospat.ru The services were celebrated in Church Slavonic, Cebuano, and English.
The Russian Church delegation also visited the parish of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Makalongot and the parish of Sts. Peter and Paul in Salasan the same day, where molebens to the Heavenly patrons of the communities were served.
Follow us on Facebook!
