Christmas Eve celebration at the Russian Hall

The Russian Orthodox Church and a Russian community in Belgrade gathered today the faithful of the Russian and the Serbian Church at the Russian Hall in order to celebrate Christmas Eve. In an atmosphere of the traditional unity and love of Serbian and Russian people a concert of Christmas carols of the Belgrade Madrigal Choir with a conductor Aleksandar Brujic was held. In the full auditorium of the Russian Hall director delivered a speech, and then followed speeches of Rt. Rev. Protopresbyter Vitaly Tarasjev, a head of the Podvorye of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, and of His Grace Bishop Atanasije of Hvosno on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia.

SVS seminarian carries scholarship aid to "Pearl of Africa's Crown"

British statesman Winston Churchill once referred to Uganda as "the Pearl of Africa's Crown," with its equatorial snow-capped mountains, breathtaking waterfalls originating from the headwaters of the Nile at Lake Victoria, and over 3,400 species of birds and magnificent mountain gorillas. Today, Uganda secures Churchill's epithet by offering tourists white water rafting through turbulent rivers and exotic treks around shimmering lakes, creating an almost mythic lost kingdom for visitors.

But 3rd-year St. Vladimir's seminarian Troy Hamilton saw another, more circumspect view of the country when he visited the northern region around the small town of Gulu over his winter semester break, January 1-12, 2009. Snubbing the superlative camping spots and spectacular national parks, he saw people. People recovering from a civil war that had decimated villages and forced their resettlement in United Nations refugee camps where they lingered for decades. People without ambition. People reluctant to rebuild their hometowns after their kinfolk and children had been beaten, raped, maimed, forced to march to exhaustion, or sold into virtual slavery as concubines and soldiers by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).