Science

We Are All the Church

Remembering Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, Part 2

“To keep the faith and live by it”

Remembering Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, Part 1

Jubilee Epistle of His Eminence Hilarion Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad

Your Graces Brother-Archpastors, Honorable Fathers,
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in the Lord!

I sincerely greet you with the 725th Anniversary of the appearance of the miraculous Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God of the “Sign,” and with the Centennial of the founding of the Higher Church Administration Abroad, which later was transformed into the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad. We are not marking the events that destroyed all the foundations of Pre-Revolutionary Russia, and which hit extremely hard on our dear Mother – the Local Russian Orthodox Church – having pushed Her, together with the whole country, onto a path of great suffering, repression, martyrdom and confession. Rather, we raise up gratitude to God, Who has preserved us under the shelter of our precious Orthodox Faith, in the traditions of the glorious Russian Church. We bow down before the memory of those ascetics, who have carefully preserved and increased our Russian ecclesiastical inheritance in the Diaspora, who have sustained a spiritual flame in our people scattered across nations, and who have nurtured their flock’s talents in the difficult conditions abroad. Thanks to the grace of God, as expressed in the sacrificial labors of our predecessors, the children of the Russian Orthodox Church, dispersed among various nations, were not dissolved in the foreign masses, like splashes and droplets of water are dissolved in the ocean. Glory to God, they have not disappeared, but rather have preserved Holy Orthodoxy and through it our cultural and historical tradition!

Foreword to Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović’s book “Chronicles of the Renewed Crucifixion of Kosovo” by James Bissett

IN MEMORIAM

I was deeply saddened to hear of the death of Metropolitan Amfilohije whom I got to know during my visits to Montenegro and later in Belgrade after the bombing. We became friends and he asked me to write the foreword to the English edition of his book "Chronicles of the Renewed Crucifixion of Kosovo". I was honoured to do so because the book was desperately needed to be read, not only by Serbs, but more importantly, by non-Serbs who have been misled by the lies told by the NATO countries about what really took place after the NATO forces entered Kosovo. Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović was an outstanding man, a brilliant scholar, an eminent statesman, a fierce and courageous defender of his country and his Serbian Orthodox faith. As my tribute to this great man I hope that this foreword to his book may give the reader an indication of his devotion to his faith and love of his native land.

***

The twentieth century has not been kind to Serbia or to the Serbian people. Wars and suffering have plagued the nation for the best part of the century. Yet it was not until the last decade - the 1990s - that Serbia was caught up in events that were destined to bring the nation to its knees, and threatened to break the proud spirit and heroism of its people. In March 1999, the country was subjected to a massive, 78-day bombing campaign by the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Only Greece, Serbia’s traditional ally, refused to participate in this illegal and outrageous act of aggression by the so-called democratic nations of North America and Western Europe.

International monastic symposium in the monastery of Prohor of Pcinja

On the occasion of the great jubilee - 950 years of the monastery of the Venerable Prohor of Pcinja in the Diocese of Vranje -  an international monastic symposium entitled "950 years of the Venerable Prohor Pčinjski" was held on October 30 and 31, 2020.

Several metropolitans, bishops, abbots and abbesses from ten countries (Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Belarus, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Republika Srpska, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia) took part in the two-day symposium in the monastery of Venerable Prohor and presented a total of 13 papers on the topics of the organization of the monastic life, the monastic feat, the problems of modern monasticism and the history of monasticism.

Saint Peter of Cetinje

Saint Peter was born in Njegushi, Montenegro on April 1, 1747. He was tonsured a monk and ordained to the diaconate when he was only seventeen. He accompanied his uncle Bishop Basil to Russia the following year in order to study there. His uncle died within a year after arriving in Russia, and so Peter was obliged to return to Montenegro.