New church in the glory and honour of St. Petka

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch served yesterday the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in a newly built church of Venerable Mother Parascheva in Belgrade's suburb of Rusanj. 

His Holiness was concelebrated by hierarchal deputy of Belgrade-Posavina protopresbyter-staurophor Branko Mitrovic, protopresbyter-staurophor Zoran Grujic, Milan Vilenica, Nedeljko Bozic, Dusan Puskar and Miljko Korincanin, protopresbyter Vitomir Kostic, presbyters Nevenko Sukur and Nenad Djuric, protodeacon Stevan Rapajic and deacons Dragan Tanasijevic and Nebojsa Milicevic.

At the beginning of the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in a presence of many faithful people of Rusanj and area, His Holiness consecrated a newlybuilt church, after which he ordained Nikola Markovic a reader.

Rusanj dates from 1525. It was called Great Village and it has 5 to 6 houses. Local residents of Great Village (Rusanj) then ambushed the Turks near Avala. After the bloody shootout, the Turks burnt the village. Villagers on the present location of Rusanj, on the ruins of Great Village found a new settlement and named it Rusanj.

From a very underdeveloped village near the capital, with no transport links, electricity and any infrastructure,  Rušanj since 1960s has been quickly developed, built and now grown into a modern suburb. In Rusanj there were no church, only a bell tower, which was built after the First World War. It was located in the centre of the village. The decision to build a church the citizens of Rusanj brought on the meeting, when also the church committee was formed.

In Rusanj in 2007 a priest Aleksandar Grujic came who is especially engaged in a church building.