Metropolitan Sergiy Headed Joint Service of Archpastors of Patriarchal Exarchate of South-East Asia in the Church of Life-Giving Trinity in Ostankino, Moscow

On January 29, the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost, the feast of the Veneration of the Honourable Chains of the Apostle Peter, the Patriarchal Exarch of South-East Asia, Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore and South-East Asia led the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Ostankino in Moscow.

His Eminence was co-served by Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, Archbishop Theophylact of Pyatigorsk and Circassia, Archbishop Theophan of Korea, Bishop Pitirim of Jakarta, and the clergy of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Ostankino.

At the end of the divine service, Metropolitan Sergiy congratulated the faithful on the Sunday and addressed them with his archpastoral word:

“Your Eminences, dear fathers, brothers, and sisters. I am pleased to welcome you on this Sunday, which prepares us for Great Lent. We can already smell the spiritual spring coming.

Today, I gladly performed a joint divine service with vladykas, with co-workers in the lands of South-East Asia and the lands of the Caucasus.

I cordially greet vladyka Theophylact, who labours in the North Caucasus in the Kabardino-Balkar and Karachay-Cherkess republics. He is the administrator of the Baku and Pyatigorsk dioceses and parishes of the Patriarchal Deanery in Turkmenistan.

Vladyka Pavel, who heads Orthodox parishes in the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese, where there are already thirty-three parishes. Vladyka Theophan, who heads the Diocese of Korea, which includes the countries of North and South Korea. In these lands, vladyka Theophan unites our compatriots, Orthodox believers, on the Korean Peninsula.

Today, we also prayed with vladyka Pitirim, vicar of the Singapore diocese, which includes parishes in Indonesia, whose population is about 300 million people living in a territory 20 times smaller than the territory of Russia. Also, today Archimandrite Oleg, the organizer of parishes in the Thai diocese, where eleven churches have already been built, shared with us the joy of common prayer.
If 15 years ago someone had told me that Orthodoxy would flourish in Asia, which seems far away for us, I would not have believed it, but today the Patriarchal Exarchate of South-East Asia includes more than 80 parishes. All this is by the mercy of God and by the works, cares, and prayers of the bishops and other people working for the Exarchate.

God never makes mistakes. If a person sincerely believes that God leads everything in our lives, then he is able to see that through our life experience and sometimes even pain and state of forsakenness, the Lord leads each of us along our own path.”