A Festal Gathering at St. Thomas Church in Johannesburg

Icon of the Mother of God the Three-Handed brought into the church. -  Divine Liturgy in honor of St. Apostle Luke and of St. Peter of Cetinje

His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Irinej, who has been visiting the Serbian parishes in South African Republic and Botswana, officiated on October 31, 2018, on the feast-day of St. Apostle Luke, the holy Liturgy in the Church of St. Apostle Thomas in Johannesburg. He was concelebrated by His Grace Jovan, Bishop of Sumadija, and the principal of the church Revd. Isailo (Markovic).

According to the words of the Pariarch, “the African continent was blessed with the icon of the Most Holy Mother of God (Theotokos) the Three-Handed, a great shrine of the  Chilandar monastery and the Holy Mount Athos, which had been brought into the church of St. Apostle Thomas in Johannesburg.

The Serbian Patriarch talked in detail about one of the greatest saints of the Serbian origin, Saint Peter of Cetinje, as well as about the significance of the work of St. Apostle Luke, the first Christian iconographer. "We have no need to seek a new way, but to accept the path of God, the path of Christ and of the saints whom the Lord has already glorified in this earthly life,” pointed out the Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church and exhorted that we have to guard our Orthodox faith, and not to divide ourselves into fractions - there are so few of us here, and if we are divided then nothing will be left of us. And not just that! What will our fellow-neighbors think of us when they see how we quarrel and fight? The strength of our people has always been in unity, the strength of those who have left the homeland is in their unity and unanimity. In that way we shall be able to testify our faith among the people of other confessions and religions, said the Head of the Serbian Church in Johannesburg.

Source: Radio Slovo Ljubve