Metropolitan Amfilohije visits Brazil
His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, Bishop-Administrator of Diocese of Buenos Aires and South-Central American was in a visit to Brazil from September 12-16, 2012.
From September 14-16, Metropolitan Amfilohije visited Orthodox community in teh city of Recife, in the northeastern Brazil.
This community consists of Orthodox Brazilians, who recieved Orthodoxy few decades ago, thanks to the mission of the then jurisdiction entitled Orthodox Church in Portugal. Ten years ago ,after being some time under the Orthodox Church of Portugal, requested and recieved the canonical reception to the Serbian Patriarchate, and now they are the part of its Diocese of South America.
Metropolitan Amfilohije on September 15 with the concelebration of three priests and two deacons, served in the church of Holy Trinity in the monastery in Aldeia, near Recife, built in 1991. In the monastery abbot Pedro lives, the church is also the parish church for the parish of protopresbyter Rafael, and it was built on the estate of presbyter Elias.
On September 16 with the concelebration of three priests Metropolitan served in the chapel of Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos in Recife. This is the second visit of Metropolitan Amfilohije to Recife.
Almost all believers, and some of them priests were in the past priests of the Roman Catholic Church or some of the very strong protestant communities in Brazil.
Metropolitan also the same day along with father Rafael and his spouse, visited an estate fifty kilometres from Recife, in the place Carpina, on which father Rafael also plans the construction of a small church.
Just before visiting Recife, the Metropolitan visited San Paolo and the city of Campinas, hundred kilometres away from Sao Paolo. There he met our colony, which is not so big. At the Cvijics residence in Campinas, he baptized four members of the Bozovic family.
In Sao Paolo he met with some of the oldest members of our emigration Dragisa Pavlicic and Sinisa Vojvodic.
With few families there, the Metropolitan made an arrangement for founding the Church committee, which would organize celebrations of the great church feast days and visits of priests, for the sake of the spiritual needs of local citizens there.
Our emmigrants mostly live in this part of Brazil (the state of Sao Paolo), but are quite scattered and have no the meeting place, and it's not rare that compatriots do not know each other who are living in the same city. This is the case of Sao Paolo.
Source: Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral
