Serbian Orthodox Church

Commemoration for Ilija M. Kolarac at the Cathedral Church in Belgrade

With the blessing of His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch, His Grace Atanasije, Bishop of Hvosno served the Panikhida (memorial service) for Ilija M. Kolarac at Belgrade’s Cathedral church on Friday, October 19th, 2012. Kolarac was a great benefactor, and with Christian goodness and philanthropy he has greatly indebted the Serbian people. The representatives of Ilija M. Kolarac’s Foundation attended the service. 

Relics of Saint Maximus in Serbian Capital City

With the blessing of His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch, His Grace Atanasije, Bishop of Hvosno celebrated on Sunday, October 21, 2012, the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy in the church of Saint Sava on Vracar, with the concelebration of the hieromonks from St. Paul's Monastery of Mount Athos and the clergy from the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovci. His Grace Basil, Bishop of Wichita and Middle America Antiochian Patriachate, attended the Liturgy. Following the Divine Liturgy the relics of Saint Maximus were brought into the church. Multitude of the faithful people of Belgrade showed respect and venerated the holy relics.

The Balkans and the Middle East: Do They Reflect Each Other?

On the occasion of the centennial of the First World War, The Conference The Balkans and the Middle East: Do They Reflect Each Other? was opened on October 17, 2012 at the parish house of Saint Sava church on Vracar. The Conference was co-hosted by the Office of the Committee of the Holy Assembly of Bishops for Kosovo and Metohija, the Faculty of Security Studies of the University of Belgrade and the Belgrade Open School.

On the first session there were two lectures held by Mr. Martin Van Creveld from the Tel Aviv University on the subject A Tale of Two Disasters, and Shaul Shay from Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv on the subject The Middle East between Democratization and Islamization.

Centennial of Liberation of Old Serbia

The central celebration of the centennial of the liberation of Old Serbia took place at the Mileševo Monastery

The most festive celebration of the centennial of the liberation of Old Serbia from the Turkish rule was held on October 13-14, 2012 at the Mileševa Monastery with the blessing of His Grace Filaret, Bishop of Mileševo and with the support of the Society of Serbian Hosts and the Municipality of Prijepolje.

Source: Diocese of Milesevo

International Scientific Theological Symposium of Saint Maximus the Confessor in Belgrade

“Knowing the Purpose of Everything Through the Power of the Resurrection”:

The First Two Days

The St. Maximus the Confessor Symposium, “Knowing the Purpose of Everything Through the Power of the Resurrection,” co-hosted in Belgrade by the Belgrade Theological Faculty and the Orthodox Christian Studies Program of Fordham University, has begun with opening remarks by Bishop Maxim of Alhambra and the Western American Diocese, Patristics Professor at the Faculty and a Maximus scholar in his own right. Bishop Maxim introduced the new dean of the Faculty, Professor Predrag Puzović , who expressed his satisfaction at beginning his term as dean with such a grand event. He observed that St. Maximus is the “most universal spirit of his time and probably greatest thinker in the history of the Church. He has become the focal point of reference in modern Orthodox and Catholic dialogue.” The first church dedicated to St. Maximus, he noted, is in Serbia.

Bishop Maxim, chief organizer of the event, included in his welcome address, greetings to panelists and guests from His Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch and His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Orthodox Patriarch.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, in his address, noted that “The Saints represent God’s gift to the world, precious beacons within the darkness of this transient world, and an example to be followed leading us to our final goal – the Kingdom of God.” Among these saints, who we commemorate this weekend, is the Confessor Maximus. Born in the sixth century and reposed in the seventh century, he, like all saints, belongs to the timelessness of the Kingdom of God, wherein we have him as a Heavenly intercessor before the Throne of Christ. The Ecumenical Patriarch highlight St. Maximus’s major contributions to theology in his address: his emphasis on love as the foremost of the virtues, his staunch defense of the two wills of Christ during the monothelite controversy, his distinction between the natural and the gnomic will, and his insistence that there is no natural evil, but the negligence of thoughts, from which stems mistaken actions and, important for a consideration of the contemporary ecological problem, the mistaken use of things that results from mistaken thoughts.

Metropolitan Amfilohije in His Pastoral Visit to Chile

His Eminence Amfilohije, Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Bishop-Administrattor of the Diocese of Buenos Aires and South-Central American of the Serbian Patriarchate, visited  the parish in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, from 6-9 October 2012.