Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
May 25, 2004

PATRIARCH PAVLE RECEIVES REPRESENTATIVES OF
PRO ORIENTE FOUNDATION

On Tuesday His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle received the president of the Pro Oriente Foundation, Dr. Johann Marte, and general secretary Dr. Franz Gschwandtner.

Welcoming his guests, His Holiness emphasized that their visit comes at time that is still very difficult for the Serbian Orthodox Church and its faithful, especially following March events in Kosovo and Metohija. God is the only hope that long desired peace will finally come to this region as well. As a believing people, we must serve truth, justice and peace because by doing so we are also serving God Who Is our Truth, Justice and Peace.

Dr. Marte thanked His Holiness for his warm welcome and noted that there have been friendly relations between the Pro Oriente Foundation and the Serbian Orthodox Church for many years. He extended special thanks to all bishops, priests and faithful of the Serbian Church for their expression of sympathy upon the recent passing of Franz Cardinal Koenig of Vienna, the founder and protector of the Pro Oriente Foundation. Dr. Marte assured His Holiness that Pro Oriente will continue to promote initiatives with the goal of furthering good interchurch relations between East and West, the purpose and goal of the foundation since its founding.

His Holiness then spoke about his long tenure as bishop in Kosovo and Metohija, the systematic efforts by the Albanians to achieve an ethnically pure Kosovo, former interchurch initiatives with the goal of bringing people together and his own appeals to people’s religious conscience in thinking of their human responsibility before God to Whom they must account for all their deeds. Dr. Marte condemned the March violence and destruction in Kosovo and Metohija, the killing of innocent people and the horrific torching of local churches there. After these tragic events occurred, Pro Oriente Foundation organized an experts’ roundtable in Vienna on developments in Kosovo and Metohija. His Grace Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren and Father Drago Govedarica, the Orthodox parish priest of Vienna, took part in the event. The Austrian public was quite receptive to this initiative. Dr. Marte assured His Holiness that Pro Oriente would continue to nurture good relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church in the future.

As a gesture of consideration, Dr. Marte presented His Holiness with a valuable monograph of the famous biblical manuscripts in the Vienna National Library and His Holiness presented his two guests with the book “Crucified Kosovo”.

ST. SAVA’S HEARTH

The fourth issue of the magazine “Svetosavsko Ognjiste” (St. Sava’s Hearth) was published at the beginning of May 2004. This publication of the church of the Holy Apostle Thomas in Johannesburg is also the only Serbian magazine printed in Africa.

Most of the new issue is dedicated to the celebration of the Bicentennial of the First Serbian Uprising. It also includes an interview with Mr. Srdjan Hofman, the ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro in the Republic of South Africa. Most notable are reports about the pogrom of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija in March 2004 and the fire in the greatest Serbian holy shrine, Chilandar Monastery.

The new issue of the magazine also provides reports from the parish celebrations of the feast of St. Sava, the anniversary of the First Serbian Uprising, prayer services for the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and a humanitarian campaign by the Serbs living in Africa. The magazine concludes with several pages dedicated to religious education, reviews of Svetlana Velmar-Jankovic’s book “Prozraci” (Illuminations), the film “The Passion of the Christ”, as well as a brief study of Serbian medieval music by Ivana Perkovic, M.A.

[Serbian Translation Services]