Patriarch Irinej at Saint Sava in Vancouver

After the Holy Hierarchical Liturgy at St. Archangel Michael, His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej, administrator of the Diocese of Canada, visited the oldest church in Vancouver, dedicated to the first Serbian Archbishop, St. Sava.

The welcome at the church was magnificent: many of faithful from Vancouver and surrounding areas welcomed the first heirarch of the Serbian Church with joy and love.

Patriarch Irinej in Vancouver

On Saturday, June 13, 2015 His Holiness Patriarch Irinej, administrator of the Diocese of Canada, arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia. Vancouver is the largest city in the western part of Canada, and the largest and busiest port is found in this city.

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej was welcomed by a large number of faithful and clergy at the airport. Long time parish priest in Vancouver, V. Rev. Stavrophor Miroslav Dejanov, and V. Rev. Malis Milovanovic, parish priest of St. Archangel Michael in Vancouver, V. Rev. Stavrophor Drago Knezevic and Fr. Marko Radmanovic from St. Sava in Vancouver. Accompanying His Holiness were the Episcopal deputy V. Rev. Stavrophor Vasilije Tomic and Protodeacon Damjan Bozic and Milan Lesic, president of the St. George church-school congregation in Kitchener. His Holiness spent the rest of the evening with the clergy. The conversation was cordial and filled with understanding in regards to the new situation.

Patriarch Irinej in Edmonton

  His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej, administrator of the Diocese of Canada, visited the northern most Serbian community, the St. Sava parish in Edmonton, on Frida and Saturday, June 12-13, 2015. This is Patriarch's first visit to the city of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta.

Clergy and faithful welcomed His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej, administrator of the Diocese of Canada, at the airport in Edmonton on Friday, June 12. Accompanying the patriarch were: V. Rev. Stavrophor Vasilije Tomic, Protodeacon Damjan Bozic and Milan Lesic.

Pilgrimage to the Holies of Russia

Pentecost in Sergiyev Posad with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Complete photo gallery on Flikr

Pilgrimages and homages to the relics and holy sites have a long history and great significance in our tradition, as well as in the identity creation of the believers. Pilgrims do not aim, unlike tourists, to find something exotic, original, and unchanged; nor to consume some pseudo-spiritual places and events, or to catch an event more meaningful than a spiritual and Eucharistic life of their local church. The goal of pilgrimages is to seek God, renounce oneself and the imagined securities in life, in the presence of the most holy and sacred places, and other fellow pilgrims. This makes humility and repentance (change) main virtues of a pilgrim, as opposed to tourists who with a cosmopolitan (unchanged) gaze search for ‘authentic’ (unchanged) places that are also unaffected by the presence of other (tourists).

Meeting of the Diocesan Council Was Held in Canada

On Thursday, June 11, 2015 His Holiness Serbian Patriarch and administrator of the Diocese of Canada held his first meeting with the members of the Diocesan Council, held in the Library of the Transfiguration Monastery in Milton.

The planned meeting of the Diocesan Council of the Canadian Diocese was successfully held. Members of the Council, gathered around the Patriarch, were informed of the plans regarding the organization and work of the Diocese of Canada. After opening the meeting and thanking the members of the Council, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej stated that the only work plan and program which needs to be adhered to is the Holy Gospel.

The Inward Mission of Our Church: Bringing About Orthodoxy

by Venerable  Justin of Celije

It is very, very difficult indeed for infinite and eternal life to make its way into the human soul--so narrow--and even into the narrower human body. Held behind bars, the inhabitants of this earth suspiciously stand their ground against anything coming from without. Cast into this prison of time and space they are unable--from atavism or perhaps from inertia--to bear being penetrated by something outlasting time, outlying space, something that surpasses these and is eternal. Such an invasion is considered to be aggression toward them, and they respond with war. A man, given the fact that he is being corrupted by the "moth" of time, does not like the intrusion of eternity into his life and is not easily able to adapt himself to it. He often considers this intrusion to be sheer unforgivable insolence. At certain times, he might become a hardened rebel against eternity because in the face of it he perceives his own minuteness; at other times, he even experiences fierce hatred toward it because he views it through such a human prism, one that is all too earthbound, all too worldly. Plunged bodily into matter, bound by the force of gravity to time and space, and having his spirit quite divorced from eternity, the world-weary man takes no pleasure in those arduous expeditions toward the eternal, toward what lies beyond. The chasm existing between time and eternity is quite unbridgable for him because he lacks the strength and ability needed to get across it. Thoroughly besieged by death, he covers with scorn all those who say to him, "Man is immortal; he is eternal." Immortal in just what respect? In his mortal body? In what respect eternal? With respect to his feeble spirit?