Saint Nicholas celebrated in Tvrdos Monastery

On the occasion of the feast day of Saint NIcholas, Their Graces Bishops Grigorije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina and retired Atanasije celebrated the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy at the Tvrdos Monastery on 19 December 2016.

During the Holy Liturgy Bishop Grigorije ordained monk Pavle a hierodeacon. After the blessing of slava cake and wheat, Bishop Grigorije welcomed all the present and congratulated the slava to Bishop Atanasije and all who celebrated it.

Annual reception for Belgrade school principals

His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch, received principals of primary and secondary schools from the territory of the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovac at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade ,on 15 December 2016. The reception was attended by Minister of Education at the Government of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Mladen Sarcevic.

Afteran introductory welcome oration of His Holiness the Patriarch, protopresbyter-staurophor Professor Dr. Dragomir Sando, the head of the Catechetic committee of the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovac, delivered a keynote address. He reminded that also this year a nice tradition was being continued in the way that His Holiness opened the doors of his residence to the Belgrade school principals in order consider with them the mutual task of educating the young generation.

Meeting of the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church for North and South America

His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro Amfilohije, escorted by His Grace Bishop Kiril of Dioclea, arrived in Chicago on 7 December 2016.

The dignitaries were welcomed by His Grace Bishop Longin of New Gracanica-Midwestern America at the airport. The next day, on 8 December 2016, Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishop Kirilo, after a short visit to the monastery of New Gracanica, participated in the meeting of the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church for North and South Africa in the monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville.

Modernity and Orthodoxy

Bishop Jovan (Puric)

The modern world functions as a single planetary market on which everything is sold and bought: from physical territories, possessions and objects, to virtual “electronic money” and stock market shares, to identity and sovereignty, memory, soul, even past and future! The principle of a market economy emerged as universally valid, possessing not only economic principles but also for comprehensive human life. The overall life of humanity, and every individual human being, in all timezones, depends on the impersonal and ruthless laws and mechanisms of market economics, the aggressive dynamics of supply and demand, production and consumption, input and output. The spirit of this modern consumer civilisation, “the civilization of turning a human being into a thing”, is the spirit of greed and lust, “insatiable hunger for things and possessing them”.

Actually, one of the basic features of modern civilisation, “the fuel” of its progress and development, is that artificial “development” of that insatiable hunger in people, or more precisely the passion for possessing and spending, a hunger which cannot be satisfied by either possessing or spending since, as we know from the Tradition of the ascetic Fathers of the Church, passion may not be “satisfied”; the more it is practised, the more it is developed and permeating the man, subordinating him, reducing his freedom, sucking out his life energy, narrowing the horizon of his godlike personality, numbing its bodily and spiritual senses, passivising the mental powers of his soul, disturbing the psychological and psychical balance of his personality, causing physical and mental diseases, until it brings the man to complete spiritual and life ruin, and even physical death.

Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishop Kiril on an archpastoral visit in Latin America

The hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral and His Vicar Bishop Kiril of Dioclea have been in Latin America since 23 November 2016. - Reception by the Mayor of Resistencia, province Chaco, in Argentina, Mr. Jorge Kapitanich.

During this meeting a contract was signed concerning the grant of a plot for erection of the centre of the Diocese of Buenos Aires and South-Central America.

Historic Visit of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia to Vatopaidi Monastery

” It is our obligation to do a pilgrimage to Vatopaidi because Saint Savvas learnt here that only through holiness we can build a nation. We, as a nation, are the disciples of Saint Savvas and Saint Savvas was a monk, a disciple of this monastery. Our history, our culture, our nation would be much poorer without Saint Savvas the Archbishop of the Serbs, without the understanding that we need to love God and our nation in our day-to-day life” – Patriarch Irinej of Serbia.

In the above photos you can see  glimpses from the historic visit of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia at Vatopaidi on the 5th of December 2016 together with Bishop Jovan and Archim. Methodios, the abbot of Hilandari Monastery.