Priest from Russia Hieromonk Pavel (Zhuravlev) arrived to the place of his ministry - the only Orthodox church in Asuncion.
He was sent by the decision of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia
for giving pastoral care to the community of the Protection Church,
press service of the Synodal Department for Church, Society and Media
Relations reports.
The priest celebrated a liturgy there and talked to the members of the parochial community.
Russian emigrants set up a parish of the South-American Diocese of the
Russian Church Abroad in 1924 with the help of Metropolitan Anthony
(Khrapovitsky) and local Orthodox community, which consisted of Arabs
and Serbs. The number of parishioners started reducing from 1960s,
regular divine services were ceased and resumed only in 2012.
This February Patriarch Kirill at his meeting with descendants of
Russian emigrants in Paraguay capital ordered to send a priest there.
"I rejoice to hear that the only thing you want is to have a priest here
and it absolutely redeems your guilt of not mastering the Russian
language. Low bow to you for this. We will try to make your wish come
true," he said then.