Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid – three years in prison

December 12, 2014, marked whole three years of imprisonment of Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje.

On December 12, 2011, he voluntarily enter his homeland, at the border-crossing near Bitola, where he was arrested. Since that day, the state apparatus executes torture incomprehensible for the contemporary democratic societies upon him.

In the course of these three years, the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric were allowed to visit him only once, in August 2013.
At the same time, although Archbishop Jovan fulfills all conditions required by the law to be granted a two-day leave from prison, the prison authorities are violating all legal provisions and persistently deny him the leave that the law grants him.

Archbishop Jovan, who is currently imprisoned for the eighth time in the last twelve years, has diabetes. He is placed in a cell together with other thirty-three prisoners. The prison conditions are substandard, the cell has one toilet, and the overall conditions are altogether further deteriorating his health.

Communique of the Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand

On the desecration of Russian and Serbian graves at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney

An unknown vandal or vandals during the night between Tuesday (09/12/2014) and Wednesday (10/12/2014) desecrated seventy six (76) graves in the Russian and Serbian Section No. 1 at Sydney's Rookwood Cemetery.

We are amazed and saddened by this act of vandalism witnessed in the desecration of graves. Graves and cemeteries have always been, in all cultures and cultured societies, considered sacred places and, as such, were respected and spared even from enemy armies during times of war. We believe that such vileness belongs to the past and to other and different societies and cultures. We cannot believe that in the 21st century, in a perfectly harmonious multicultural society such as our Australian, someone would abuse their freedom and destroy the basis of culture that underpins our Christian civilization.

Visit of Bishop Luka of Western Europe to Alicante

On Saturday, December 6th,  Bishop Luka of Western Europe from Paris and father Joan from Barcelona arrived in Alicante (Spain) to celebrate the feast of our patron saints: Saint Andrew and Saint Nicholas.

With great joy Bishop was greeted by the parishioners with bread and salt, as well as with floral bouquets. After the Vesper service  he parish dinner was held in honour of the Bishop and guests who came to our parish.

The next day Hierarchal Pontifical Divine Liturgy was celebrated  by priests and the whole parish. Father Nicholas welcomed the Bishop as guarantor of communion with the Church. Also in the homily and following what was heard in the Gospel, His Grace spoke of the Christ's miracle wrought for women hunched. Christ frees us from the burden of our sins, he straightens for letting us see the miseries of this earth, we lift our eyes to God.

All-night Vigil on the Eve of the feast of the Entry into the temple of the Most Holy Theotokos

One Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. at the Christ the Savior Serbian Orthodox Church in Arcadia, California, His Grace, Bishop Grigorije of Zahum-Hercegovina, His Grace, Bishop Maxim of the Western American Diocese, Hieromonk Sava, Abbott of the Tvrdos Monastery, local clergy, and the faithful prayerfully gathered for an All-Night Vigil (Feast Day Vigil and Divine Liturgy) for the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos.

70 years since suffering of Serbian Royal officers in the Osnabrück camp

His Grace Bishop Sergije of Middle Europe visited Osnabrück, Germany, on 5 November 2014, on the 70^th anniversary of suffering of Serbian officers in the then camp being bombed by allies.

On the feast-day of Saint Amphilochius of Iconium His Grace Bishop Sergije of Middle Europe officiated the Holy Liturgy in Osnabrück and visited the graveyard with priests and faitfhful, where he served memorial service for several hundreds Serbian officers who ended their martyr life in the prison of Osnabrück in 1944.

Historical day for the Serbs south of Sidney

A small Serbian community, an example of harmony and Christian love

In the region which is located on the south of the city of Sidney, the largest area is called Ilawara, which main center is Wolongong. Serbs began very early to settle in these areas. The first written records date to the time before the First World War. The name of our Serb Uskokovich is permanently engraved on a local memorial gate dedicated to the suffered Australians in the Great War.