Philippine Orthodox Church Overview In March 2014, the five diocesan provinces of
Sarangani,
South Cotabato,
Sultan Kudarat,
Cotabato and
Maguindanao of the
Philippine Independent Church (also known as Aglipayans), led by their two bishops Esteban Valmera and Rogelio Ringor together with thirteen other Aglipayan clergy petitioned
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ to accept their dioceses, totaling 28 parishes, into the
Orthodox Church. Inspired by their moves and motives, another Aglipayan group called the Aglipayan Christian Church under the leadership of their eight bishops and superiors, also petitioned to the Patriarch of Moscow that they also wished to bring their entire group to embrace the Orthodox faith. The Moscow Patriarchate then responded by sending Russian Orthodox missionaries in order to catechize the groups wishing to convert. Among the missionaries who came to the Philippines were Fr. Kirill Shkarbul from
Taiwan, Fr. Stanislav Rasputin and Fr. George Maksimov from
Russia, as well as lay missionaries Aleksei, Timothy and Sergei, from Russia, the
United States and
Ukraine, respectively.
Organization The eparchy is one of the two canonical jurisdictions in the Philippines under the Patriarchate of Moscow, the other being the
Philippine Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia under the semiautonomous
Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia. On February 26, 2019, the
Holy Synod formed the
Diocese of Korea, the
Diocese of Singapore, the
Diocese of Thailand, and the Diocese of the Philippines and Vietnam within the
Patriarchal Exarchate in South-East Asia and appointed Metropolitan
Sergius as the ruling Bishop of the Singapore diocese and
locum tenens of the other three dioceses.
Diocese of the Philippines and Vietnam of the PESEA On 28 December 2018, in response to the
Ecumenical Patriarchate's actions in Ukraine, the
Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to create "a Patriarchal Exarchate in South-East Asia [PESEA] with the center in
Singapore." The "sphere of pastoral responsibility" of the PESEA is
Singapore,
Vietnam,
Indonesia,
Cambodia,
North Korea,
South Korea,
Laos,
Malaysia, the
Myanmar, the
Philippines, and
Thailand. Archbishop
Sergius (Chashin), was appointed as primate of the newly created PESEA, with the title "of
Singapore and
South-East Asia"
Metropolitan Hilarion, spokesman of the ROC, declared the ROC "will now act as if they
Constantinople] do not exist at all because our purpose is missionary, our task is to educate, we are creating these structures for ministerial care about our flock, there can be no such deterring factors here", and that the ROC will take charge of the Orthodox faithfuls of its diaspora instead of the Eumenical Patriarchate. The
Moscow Patriarchate aims to establish parallel jurisdictions all over the world without consultations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, effectively competing with the latter. On 7 January 2019, during the
evening service in the
Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow,
Patriarch Kirill elevated Archbishop
Sergius (Chashin) to the rank of
Metropolitan in connection with the latter's appointment as
exarch of the PESEA. On 26 February 2019, the PESEA was divided into
four dioceses that were created, of which the Diocese of the Philippines and Vietnam. On February 22, 2020, Metropolitan Paul of Manila and Hanoi celebrated the great consecration of the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov in
Makalangot on the island of Mindanao, which became the first full-fledged church building in the diocese. On the same day, a first Diocesan Assembly of the clergy and laity of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese was held was held there. Five deaneries within the diocese were established: deanery of
Manila, deanery of
Davao City, deanery of
General Santos, deanery of
Vietnam, and deanery of
Davao del Sur. On February 12, 2023, meeting of the clergy of the diocese decided to separate the North Kotobato deanery from the Davaovo deanery, and also to include the Davao del Sur deanery to the Davao deanery. A diocesan Department for Prison Service and a Youth Department were also established. == Ruling bishops of the diocese ==