Feast day of the Synaxis of New Martyrs of Jasenovac in Tallong, Australia

The Feast day of the Synaxis of New Martyrs of Jasenovac will be prayerfully celebrated on September 13, 2010 with the Divine Liturgy in the monastery of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos in Tallong.

The hostess of the Christian gathering at the luncheon of love after the Liturgy will be members of the Association of the Circles of the Serbian Sisters of Australia and New Zealand. 

Source: Diocese of Australia and New Zealand

Unity of the Church in Australia and New Zealand is desire of whole Serbdom

This weekend finally a long-waited parallel session of Diocesan council of the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand and Church-people council of the Diocese for Australia and New Zealand is being held on which a new mutual Draft Constitution should be adopted, by which the full ecclesiastic and administrative unity of the Church in Diaspora.

About the significance of this document and hopes that are given for this meeting witness the letters which have come these days in the Diocesan seat in Sidney, and in which His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch, members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic address the Serbian Orthodox people of Australia and New Zealand.

On behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the letter was sent by His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegroa and the Littoral, who informed His Grace Bishop Irinej of Australia and New Zealand that the Synod on the session held on June 24 of this year generally accepted the Draft Constitution of "the Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand."

Source: Diocese of Australia and New Zealand

Ecumenical Patriarch calls for titanic and righteous battle to protect the environment

The Ecumenical Patriarch said that "for our Orthodox Church, the protection of the environment, as a divine and very good creation, embodies a great responsibility for every human person, regardless of material or financial benefits." The ecumenical patriarch is calling upon Orthodox Christians to "take part in the titanic and righteous battle to alleviate the environmental crisis." Calling for "a standard of economic and social policy whose priority will be the environment, and not unbridled financial gain." The Ecumenical Patriarch said that "for our Orthodox Church, the protection of the environment, as a divine and very good creation, embodies a great responsibility for every human person, regardless of material or financial benefits."

"The direct correlation of the God-given duty and mandate, to work and preserve, with every aspect of contemporary life constitutes the only way to a harmonious co-existence with each and every element of creation, and the entirety of the natural world in general," he added in his September 1 message for the Day of the Protection of the Environment. The day is also the beginning of the Orthodox liturgical year. The patriarch concluded, "Let us motivate ourselves to harmonize our personal and collective life and attitudes with the needs of nature's ecosystems, so that every kind of fauna and flora in the world and in the universe may live and thrive and be preserved."

Patriarch Kyrril consecrates restored icon on the walls of Kremlin

On Saturday, August 28, on the feast day of the Assumption of Mother of God, the President of Russian Federation Dimitry Medvedev and about thousand believers were present at the formal consecration of the icon above the gate of the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, done by His Holiness Patriarch Kyrril of Moscow and All Russia.

Slava in Fair Oaks, CA

Source: www.westsrbdio.org

All-Night Vigil at the church of the "Joy to All the Afflicted" Icon in Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow

On 27 August 2010, the eve of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk officiate at the All-Night Vigil at the church of the "Joy to All the Afflicted" Icon in Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow. Concelebrating were Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, a vicar of Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain (Patriarchate of Constantinople), president of the "The Friends of Mount Athos" charity society, clerics of the church, and a well-known Swiss theologian, hieromonk Gabriel (Bunge) who became an Orthodox before the divine service.