Communique - December 23, 2009

On Thursday, December 24, 2009 at the Saint Sava Memorial Cathedral on Vracar, beginning at 9:00am, the Divine Liturgy for the dead and forty-day memorial service will be served for Patriarch Pavle of Serbia of blessed repose. The memorial service will be served at the end of Divine Liturgy, about 11:00 am. After that, at the monastery Rakovica on Patriarch's tomb, a small commemoration will be served.

On that occasion and in prayerful remembrance of Patriarch Pavle, as well as of days from November 15 till 19, 2009 when hundreds of thousands of people participated in magnificent funeral procession of their First Hierarch - the Information and publishing institution of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in cooperation with the Ministry of Faith, has published a photo album entitled From Death into Life.

As a little credit from the Church  to its faithful people and to all those who recognized in  Patriarch Pavle the torchbearer of the Resurrection of Christ, or as the people of faith or the people of good will are ready to accept his brief, but wise message Let's be people! The Information and publishing institution of the Serbian Orthodox Church will give one copy of this photo album as a present to all faithful who will be on the day of the commemoration at the St. Sava Cathedral.

In following days through the competent institutions, this book of prayerful remembrance will be delivered to all Orthodox and other Churches and religious communities, larger libraries in Serbia and Republic of Srpska, foreign statesmen and diplomats, as well as to Serbs in the diaspora, and then its electronic edition will be put on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church (www.spc.rs).

We take this opportunity to invite the faithful to participate prayerfully on Thursday at the  St. Sava Memorial Cathedral  in Divine Liturgy and forty-day memorial service of Patriarch Pavle of Serbia of blessed repose.

Bishop Irinej of Bachka