Serbian Orthodox Church

Letter from the detained Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid

 “I’m not aware that if there is any Idrizovo prison inmate with more restrictions than me” – says Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje in a letter to the Director of Penitentiaries in Skopje.

We should not forget that Archbishop Jovan who is the canonical heir of his predecessor, who was threatened with his life, did not deny faith, the Church and her unity.

“We shall also not forgot that the Republic of Macedonia applied various coercive measures to reassure me to give up the unity of the established Church and to return to the schismatic Macedonian Orthodox Church”, says Archbishop Jovan.

Metropolitan Amphilochius serves Liturgy in Recife

His Eminence Amphilochius, Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Bishop Administrator of the Diocese of Buenos Aires and South-Central America of the Serbian Patriarchate, served the Holy Liturgy at the parish of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God in Recife, Brazil on 7 December 2014.

His Eminence was concelebrated by local clergy. The Metropolitan, during the Holy Liturgy, anointed brother Anthony and set apart five believers from Recife, Caruaru and the vicinity to the rank of reader – Nicholas, Athanasius, Daniel, Maxim and Jose.
In following days, His Eminence had also brotherly talks with the priests from Pernambuco, as well as with many believers, who want to become more informed about the Orthodox Church.

Patron Saint-day of the Royal family Karadjordjevich

His Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander and Princess Katherine celebrated the Patron Saint-day (slava) of the Royal family of Saint Andrew the First-Called at the Royal Court in Belgrade.

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irenaeus celebrated the Holy Liturgy in the Court’s chapel dedicated to Saint Andrew the First-Called together with His Grace Bishop John of Shumadia and with concelebration of the clergy of the Archbishopric of Belgrade-Karlovac. After the Liturgy the slava cake was blessed by His Holiness in the Blue Saloon of the Royal Court.

Name-day of Metropolitan Amphilochius observed in Aldeia

His Eminence Amphilochius, Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Bishop-Administrator of the Diocese of Buenos Aires and South-Central American of the Serbian Patriarchate, visited the Serbian Orthodox community in Brazilian state of Pernambuco, while paying his pastoral visit to Brazil.

At the airport in Recife, the capital of the state of Pernambuco, the Metropolitan was welcomed by priests from Recife and other parishes and a few believers on 5 December 2014.

Bishop Andrew in Linz and Tulln

His Grace Bishop Andrew of Austria-Switzerland served Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in Linz on 6 December 2014. The next day the Bishop visited the Church-school congregation of Tulln.

Diocesan dean for Austria protopresbyter-stavrophor KrstanKnezevic and other local priests concelebrated to the Bishop. The Holy Liturgy was attended by high church and municipal authorities of the city of Linz, among whom there was retired Catholic Bishop Maximilian, benefactor of the Serbian people and the bearer of the order of Saint Sava. There were also lots of pious believers.

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.