Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, September 23, 2019
Photo: facebook
Over the weekend, two men were ordained to serve at the Lord’s Table for the growing Orthodox flock in the Philippines.
On Saturday, the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, His Eminence Metropolitan Paul of Manila and Hanoi ordained Deacon Moses Cahilig to the holy priesthood, and the next day, Deacon Romanos Buniel was ordained as a priest, reports the Russian Orthodox Church in Mindanao.
The ordinations were celebrated in Khanty-Mansiysk, in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Russia, 620 miles northeast of Ekaterinburg.
Photo: facebook
“It is impossible to serve God without serving one’s neighbor; the path to the Lord is only through our neighbor, and for a priest, this is a special labor, a special service. I hope the Lord will give you strength to testify of our holy Orthodoxy, of our Catholic Orthodox Church, which was created by the Lord Himself. May the All-Merciful Lord help you in your ministry, and may the blessing of God be with you. God bless you all!” Met. Paul said to the new priests.
Congratulating the newly-ordained, Fr. George Maximov, a missionary priest who has baptized many people into holy Orthodoxy in the Philippines, noted that another priest, Fr. Joachim Gonzalez, was also recently ordained to serve in the Philippines.
“Yesterday and today in Khanty-Mansiysk, the Filipino deacons Moses Cahilig and Romanos Buniel were ordained to the priestly rank. Axios! Glory to God! They waited a long time, and finally it came. Another Filipino priest—Fr. Joachim—was also ordained recently. The appearance of three local priests will greatly help the development of our mission in the Philippines. All of them have shown themselves over the years as worthy Christians, faithful to the Church,” Fr. George writes.
Photo: facebook
All three men were formerly priests in the Aglipayan church, an independent Catholic church in the Philippines, but all laid aside their ordinations to enter the Orthodox Church as laymen. Moses Cahilig and Romanos Buniel were ordained as deacons and Joachim Gonzalez was tonsured as a reader during the archpastoral visit of His Eminence Archbishop Sergei of Solnechnogorsk in July. All three then served 40 days of Liturgies all over the Filipino mission, and Frs. Moses and Romanos are now serving 40 days of Liturgies as priests in Russia, reports the Philippine Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Fr. Moses serves 8 parishes in the Philippines. His son Dmitri is also a seminarian in Russia.
In the video below, Fr. Romanos, and others, explain how they became Orthodox:
