The priest, at the diocese of San Pablo in Laguna, was filmed riding the self-balancing scooter up and down the aisles, to the applause and evident delight of some of the congregation.

The diocese issued a statement in the form of an image post on its Facebook page on Tuesday night.

“As a way of greeting his parishioners, the priest sang a Christmas song, while going around the nave standing on a hoverboard,” it said. “That was wrong.”

It condemned the priest’s behaviour as an attempt to “capriciously introduce something to get the attention of the people”, and said he would “spend some time to reflect on this past event”.