Eastern Orthodoxy in the Philippines

Eastern Orthodoxy in the Philippines, also known collectively as the Philippine Orthodox Church, refers to the Eastern Orthodox presence in the Philippines as a whole.

Overview

In 1989, Adamopoulos saw the need to establish the first Greek Orthodox church in the Philippines and thus established the Hellenic Orthodox Foundation, Inc., but he died in 1993 before the church was completed. The Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral^[1] in Sucat, Parañaque, Metro Manila, was finished in 1996 and was consecrated by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in 2000.

Since then, other autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches have established their presence in the Philippines, particularly in Mindanao. Alongside the local Greek community, a small community of Serbians and Russians living in the Philippines conduct services here.^[2]

There is an estimated number of 2,500 Eastern Orthodox Christians living in the country. That population belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, to the Patriarchate of Antioch, and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.^[3]

Churches

There are three autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches with a presence in the country, the jurisdictions of which overlap with each other. These are:

• the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Mission in the Philippines, under the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East;
• the Exarchate of the Philippines, under the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; and
• the Patriarchate of Moscow, the jurisdiction of which is divided into:
  • the Diocese of the Philippines and Vietnam, under the Patriarchal Exarchate in Southeast Asia;^[4][5][6] and
  • the Philippine Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia, under the semiautonomous Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia.

See also

• Religion in the Philippines
• Christianity in the Philippines