The Philippines are the coral-embroidered islands that the Pacific Ocean stole from the land of South Asia and made them its own. They form a sea-shaped archipelago of more than 7,000 islands that carry 95 million inhabitants. Their people are distinguished for their kindness of speech and goodness. Their piety springs from the pure crystal of their souls, and religious feeling pervades their entire society.
The grace of God, who always knows how to defy the odds, allowed the message of our saving Orthodox faith to dawn in this country too, some 30 years ago. It all began in 1983, when a Roman Catholic abbot of the Benedictine Order, Vincent Escargot, from the island of Masbate in the central Philippines, made a trip to the United States. There, on Holy Saturday, he met a crowd of believers outside a Greek Orthodox Church and was internally motivated to participate in the Resurrection Mass. The Orthodox worship moved him and for six months he regularly attended the sacred services. His search for Orthodoxy did not stop there. After seven years of obsessive searching, study and deepening in the Orthodox faith, in 1990, along with 12 other souls, he received a pastoral visit from the Metropolitan of New Zealand, Mr. Dionysios and the then Bishop of Zilon, Sotirius (Trampa). In April of the same year, Fr. The Brotherhood of the Orthodox Foreign Mission has from the very first moment contributed to the needs of the mission in the Philippines by supporting the construction of the Holy Church of the Annunciation in Manila and the Holy Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on the island of Masbate.
Fr. Sotirios Trampas was the soul of the first missionary excursions, which carried the word of Orthodoxy over long distances.
Today, there is an Orthodox presence in 10 regions of the tropical country with the number of believers amounting to about one thousand six hundred. The distances are vast, as the Philippines is more than 1,850 kilometres long. Most communities exist on the northern island of Luzon, where the capital Manila is located. In the central islands, the Visayas, believers are served mainly by the Monastery of Our Lady and a few other nuclei. In recent years, Orthodoxy has also spread to the southern volcanic island of Mindanao, where two new communities with 70 faithful were founded in December 2012. Orthodox Filipinos are distinguished for their zeal, but the mission faces a variety of problems. The clergy have not received full training, resulting in only one spiritual director in the entire archipelago. There are great shortages of even the simplest forms of worship, there are no sanctuaries, and even those that do exist need renovation. It is significant that the six priests in the country do not have a second cassock to wear, and baptisms take place in buckets.
It is truly a great responsibility of us, the Orthodox Greeks, who have transmitted to these people the light of the true faith, to support them in these difficulties. Orthodox Filipinos ask for nothing superfluous. They simply ask us, as their brothers and sisters in faith, to help them worship God properly and decently. To teach them the Orthodox ethos but also to give them a practical example of our love in Christ. For so many years they have shown admirable patience. Their hearts are waiting to receive our help again.
