Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
June 11, 2004

JOINT COMMUNIQUE FROM THE MEETING OF SERBIAN PATRIARCH PAVLE AND CARDINAL JOSIP BOZANIC, ARCHBISHOP OF ZAGREB, IN BELGRADE ON JUNE 11, 2004

COOPERATION OF CHURCHES ON CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION

On June 11, 2004 His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle, together with members of the Holy Assembly of Bishops His Grace Bishop Jovan of Sumadija and His Grace Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina, received the Most Rev. Josip Cardinal Bozanic, Archbishop of Zagreb; Msgr. Stanislav Hocevar, Archbishop of Belgrade; and Most Rev. Vlado Kosic, Auxiliary Bishop of Zagreb and the president of the Council for Ecumenism and Dialogue of the Croatian Bishops' Conference; and their associates in the Patriarchal residence in Belgrade.

Patriarch Pavle expressed special pleasure at being able to once again welcome Cardinal Bozanic and his associates to the Serbian Patriarchate and expressed the conviction that this meeting would contribute to the furthering of relations between the two Churches.

In his response to the Patriarch's welcome, Cardinal Bozanic wished the blessing of God upon the Serbian Orthodox Church, its Head, the clergy and all its faithful, and informed His Holiness the Patriarch that the 32nd annual meeting of the secretaries general of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe is being held in Belgrade from June 10-13 and that he is attending in the capacity of the vice-president of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Europe. The collocutors agreed that all Christians in this age of globalization are called upon to work together to defend fundamental human and Christian values and that the goal of the mission of the Church in the world today, as in previous ages, can be expressed in Christ's words: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

The conversation emphasized the importance of earlier meetings between the Serbian Patriarch and the Zagreb Archbishop (1999 and 2000) as well as last year's first and historical meeting between the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church with all the members of the Bishops' Conference of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as the establishing of joint committees whose work is expected to yield the first results in the near future.

BLAGO FUND PREPARING ARCHIVE OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF SOPOCANI MONASTERY

This summer the BLAGO Fund of the Serbian Unity Congress will be taking digital photographs of Sopocani Monastery, i.e., the interior and exterior of the holy shrine and the monastery area. On Monday, June 7, 2004, the photography of the interior of Decani Monastery was completed.

After the photographs are taken, an archive of the digital photographs will be prepared and a virtual reality tour of the monastery prepared. Virtual reality allows the viewer to virtually view the interior and exterior of the monasteries.

This project, like all previous projects, is made possible by Mr. Nenad Vukicevic, the president of the BLAGO Fund. It is necessary to emphasize that this is not the first Serbian monastery whose digital representation will be left for future generations. Previous projects of the BLAGO Fund can be viewed at the Internet presentation:

http://blago.serbianunity.net/Archives/index.html

UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT IN KISTANJE

On June 10, 2004 in Kistanje an unknown person in the middle of the day broke a window on the house of Orthodox priest Zeljko Lubarda. Police carried out an investigation and are searching for the perpetrator.

This is yet another event attesting to the problems confronting Serbs in this region.

[Serbian Translation Services]