Announcement of the funeral of the newly departed Bishop Luka of Western Europe

Bishop Luka (Kovacevic) who fell asleep in the Lord in Paris on 17 December 2021, will be buried at the cemetary of the Orthodox Monastery of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God in Belgrade, on 27 December 2021. 

His Holiness Porfirije, Serbian Patriarch will officiate the Requiem Office for the Dead  in the church of the Monastery of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God, starting at 9 o'clock. The funeral service and burial of Bishop Luka will be performed after the Requiem Office.

Bishop Luka (Kovacevic) of Western Europe was born in Piskavica near Banja Luka on October 30, 1950. He graduated from the Theological Seminary of the Holy Three Hierarchs at the Krka Monastery in 1971, and studied theology in 1982 at the Saint Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. He was tonsured on June 26, 1976, and in the same year, on the feast of the Holy Prophet Elisha, he was ordained a hieromonk by Bishop Nicholas of Australia and New Zealand. From 1982 to 1992, he was a brother of the monastery of St. Sava in Eilane, Australia. The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, at its regular session in 1992, elected Archimandrite Luka Bishop of Australia and New Zealand.

The act of episcopal ordination in the monastery of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God in Belgrade on August 17, 1992, was performed by Serbian Patriarch Pavle with the participation of a large number of archbishops. In the same year, he was enthroned on the throne of the Bishops of Australia and New Zealand in the monastery of St. Sava in Elaine. In 1997, he was elected Bishop of Western Europe, based in Paris, and at the same time he was the administrator of the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand until 1999.