Information Service of MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF NATO
AGGRESSION ON FRY “Innocent victims will remain alive before God” Pursuant to the Decision made by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church a memorial service was held for the victims of the NATO aggression on FRY in all the churches in the country and abroad, on March 24, the three-year anniversary of the bombardment. On Sunday of Orthodoxy, after the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy, His Holiness Pavle Serbian Patriarch served, together with His Grace Lavrentije, Bishop of Sabac-Valjevo and many priests and deacons, memorial service to the victims of the NATO bombardment in the newly build Monastery of Saint Nicholas at Soko, near Ljubovija, where he also consecrated a monument – a bust of the Bishop Nikolaj (Velimirovic), authored by our famous sculptor Drinka Radovanovic. Praying to Lord to place the souls of the killed in NATO bombardment “where the souls of the righteous reside”, Patriarch Pavle pointed out that “if we are innocent and suffer afflictions, we will remain alive before the living God”, as well as that “without the faith in Lord we will be unable to exist as a people, either biologically, or as the people of God”. Unveiling the first monument to Bishop Nikolaj in the Fatherland, Academician Matija Beckovic pointed out that this year’s March 24 united “not only memorial service and a holy day, but also Europe’s true face and its counterpart, actually its heartlessness and its conscience”. Patriarch’s Auxiliary Bishop Atanasije, Bishop of Hvosno, served the Holy Hierarchal Liturgy and the memorial service in the Church of Saint Mark the Apostle and Evangelist. Dr Vojislav Kostunica, President FRY, as well as a great number of eminent people, attended the Liturgy and the memorial service. Bishop Artemije of Raska/Prizren served the memorial service to the victims of NATO bombardment together with the clergy of this Diocese in the overcrowded Church of the Gracanica Monastery. Bishop Artemije pointed out in his speech that “after nearly two and a half years of the presence of international community in Kosovo and Metochia, not only that Orthodox Serbs are not free to move or to exercise their basic human rights, but are also represent permanent targets”.
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