Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
March 25, 2005

COMMUNIQUE
ON NEW ACT OF SACRILEGE AND ATTACK ON CULTURE

It is with great surprise and disbelief that the Holy Synod of Bishops received the news that once again, under the veil of “artistic freedoms,” St. Sava, the most holy and most enlightened among Serbs since we have existed as a nation is exposed to the most primitive forms of humiliation in the play “Shepherd of the Wolves”.

Even more tragic is the fact that this monstrous and blasphemous presentation is performed by a theatrical company bearing the name of “Serbian Theatre in Hungary”, which claims “to participate in a program for the preservation of the identity and national culture of Serbs in Hungary”.

The Holy Synod of Bishops has no intention of defending St. Sava for the hands of the unclean cannot reach him in his beauty and purity, let alone degrade and desanctify him; however, the Holy Synod calls on those who profane him, including these from the theatre in Budapest, to repent and reminds them of the tragic fate of all those who in similar fashion scoffed at all that is sacred and inviolable to the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian people.

The Holy Synod of Bishops will not judge or chose whether the preservation of the identity and national culture of Serbs in Hungary will be the concern of Gabor Lengyel, Milan Rusz, Dr. Tibor Ember, Jozsef Matoricz, Levente Torkoly, Zoltan Karacsonyi or anyone else; however, it asks whether it is possible to put on a similar performance in Budapest regarding the Holy King Stefan (Istvan), to insult any Catholic saint from among the Croats in Zagreb, or to profane Mohammed in any of the Islamic capitols, without looking further. Of course, it is not possible nor should it be possible. Only in Belgrade and in Serbia can pornographic burlesques targeting the best and the most holy in Serbian history be declare the highest form of art.

The Holy Synod of Bishops, therefore, once again firmly protests against the abuse of art placed in the service of sacrilege, and emphasizes that the Serbian Orthodox Church has been and remains the inspirer, the supporter and the protector of genuine art.

From the Office of the Holy Synod of Bishops

SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH DELEGATION DEPARTS FOR USA

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church with His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle presiding, has formed an official delegation for talks with the president of the United States of America, George Bush, and United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan. The high delegation is comprised of His Grace Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina, a member of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church; His Grace Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan, abbot of Visoki Decani Monastery and vicar to the Bishop of Raska and Prizren; Hieromonk Irinej Dobrijevic, consultant to the Holy Synod of Bishops for international and inter-church affairs; Dr. Bogoljub Sijakovic, professor and prodeacon of sciences of the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University in Belgrade; Mr. Andrej Veric, director of the Serbian Unity Congress Washington office, a local consultant; and Monk Jezekilj (Stakic), a brother of Visoki Decani Monastery, the delegation secretary.

On Friday, March 25, 2005 at 12:00 noon the delegation of the Serbian Orthodox Church departed for the United States of America. The purpose of the visit is to jointly discuss issues related to the life and survival of the Serbian people, primarily in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as in other regions where Serbs live.

The Church considers it to be exceptionally important to conduct talks through its authorized representatives with the US president and UN secretary general in order to present authentic, first-hand testimony and clarify its role in the future of the Serbian people. This is an effort on the part of the Serbian Church to acquaint the global community with the situation on the ground. Some may wonder what the Serbian Church will propose in talks centered on a solution to the status of Kosovo and Metohija. Taking into account the confidence it enjoys and its reputation, the Church is in a unique position to participate and offer its contribution in the return of 200,000 expelled Serbs and 50,000 other non-Albanians to areas populated by Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija; the restitution of church property and compensation, and the resettling of displaced persons in their homes; the rebuilding of churches, houses, schools and other destroyed buildings and the employment of the returnees themselves in these tasks in order to provide them with the means to survive; and implementation of local self-government, which would result in the return of the displaced and the survival of returnees.

EASTER GREETINGS OF HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH PAVLE

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle extended his holiday greetings on the occasion o of the holiest of Christian holidays, Easter, to those celebrating it according to the Gregorian calendar, including the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church. In his message His Holiness emphasizes: “For two thousand years we Christians have exchanged this greeting of eternal joy and life. His greeting and this wondrous event mean, first of all, that by Christ’s resurrection life has conquered death – once and for all time, meaning that humanity is created for eternity, for immortality, not for disappearance and nothingness! It also means that good will triumph over evil, that love is eternal, that God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Resurrection makes human hope indestructible and makes every form of hopelessness unwarranted; it means that humanity is created to intransigence, not transigence, for immortality, not death. Through resurrection secular life becomes the yeast of heavenly, eternal life, the foretaste of the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven. With the resurrection of Christ heaven calls us from the dungeon of death into the fullness of immortality.”

CHRIST IS RISEN!
TRULY HE IS RISEN!

EASTER GREETINGS TO THE FAITHFUL OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC, EVANGELICAL AND REFORM CHURCHES

On the occasion of the greatest of Christian holidays, Easter, according to the Gregorian calendar, the Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church wishes to extend its holiday greetings to the Most Reverend Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar of Belgrade, His Excellency Bishop Arpad Dolinski of the Evangelical Christian Church, His Excellency Bishop Samuel Vrbovski of the Slovak Evangelical Church, and His Excellency Bishop Istvan Cete-Semesi of the Reform Christian Church.

Easter is a day when all Christians celebrate the victory of Our Lord the Son of God over death and the day of evangelical promise to all humanity that the life which we live according to our conscience, protecting others, is stronger than death. In the Balkan region all people should live with the hope in the Resurrected Lord and together with those closest to them, with their neighbors, celebrate the holiday of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

GREETINGS ON THE OCCASION OF THE JEWISH HOLIDAY OF PURIM

On the occasion of the great Jewish holiday of Purim, the Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church wishes to extend its holiday greetings to the Great Rabbi of Serbia and Montenegro, Mr. Isak Asiel, and all members of the Jewish community.

METROPOLITAN AMFILOHIJE SERVES MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR VICTIMS OF NATO BOMBING

"Something terrible and unfathomable to the healthy human mind, and even less so for deeper human and Christian morality, occurred at the end of the twentieth century. Christian peoples, or at last those who bear that name, gathered together and bombed a sinful Balkan people, but a Christian people, who in their past have always and again been on the side of God’s and human justice,” said His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral yesterday in his homily to the gathered faithful in the church of St. George in Podgorica after serving a short memorial service for those who perished in the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.

"I am deeply convinced when these eclipses of our time have passed and the interests of the weak, that Europe will time and again come back to this event and what is healthy in it will time and again question its conscience because of this crime committed against innocent people. They will do this because of the killing of innocent people, because of the horror and fear sown in our hearts, homes, meadows, in the souls of our children. There are many children who are frightened by the period that began on today’s date. It will take much time to rebuild homes, bridges, railways and churches, and first of all to renew human souls and human dignity before such a terrible and unprecedented event with which Christian Europe concluded the second millennium of Christian history,” concluded Metropolitan Amfilohije.

Source: Svetigora

ART BENEFIT FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA ENDS

An exhibition of icons and fresco copies painted by students of the Serbian Orthodox Church Academy which was opened by His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle on March 17, 2005 has ended.

The art exhibition was organized by the Academy for Arts and Conservation of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Final year students in the class of professor Goran Janicijevic presented 40 works to the domestic and foreign public in order to place their unquestionable talents, in accordance with their abilities, at the disposal of their brothers and sisters in Kosovo and Metohija.

During the one week that the exhibition was open, on Monday, March 21, 2005, Prof. Dr. Predrag Ristic gave a lecture on the topic “Logos in the foundations of the Church of Holy Archangels in Prizren”. During Communist rule the Institutes for the Protection of Cultural Monuments wanted to turn the living church of the Living God and the living people into dead museums with displays of preserved documents of the “transcended” past. If a church such as Holy Archangels was destroyed to its foundations, then only the remains could be protected. In response to an initiative by the Society for the Restoration of Holy Archangels, the Institute organized a “scientific” conference on February 15, 1991 which states in its “Conclusions” that the restoration of Holy Archangels “must be rejected”!

Today, however, the situation has changed completely, and Ristic has already presented his lecture in the Institute, where he demonstrated how the implementation of the traditional Holy Mysteries can be used to reconstruct the entire Church, the endowment of the Holy Emperor Dusan, one of the wonders of Serbia. In addition to his Code of Law Emperor Dusan apparently established the rule for the building of the church, according to analyses of the geometrical patterns apparent in the foundations, starting from the “holy Egyptian 345 degree triangle”. On the basis of these simple geometrical shapes recognizable to the faithful and the mathematician alike, which Prof. Nenadovic discovered under the pillar bases of Holy Archangels, Ristic illustrated on the screen how in accordance with Logos, beginning with the already existing foundations, one can use the same process to reconstruct the dome, the fresco of Christ the All-Sustaining, and even the whole Church.

As well, Ristic reviewed programs following recompositions of this type throughout the world, such as small-scale architectural models of cities, etc. Citing as examples the completely destroyed Holy Virgin Cathedral in Dresden and the Mostar Bridge, which will soon be restored through the collaboration of the victim and the destroyer, Ristic similarly proposes the restoration of Holy Archangels as a living monastery of the Living God and the living people, all in the spirit of relations among peoples in the modern world.

On Thursday, March 24, 2005, the day of the closing of the exhibition in front of many guests, students, professors and the dean, Protopresbyter Dr. Radomir Popovic, Prof. Miroslav Stanojlovic held an informative lecture on the topic “Conservation and restoration work on frescoes in Mileseva Monastery”. The professor presented his own work on the conservation and restoration of frescoes, as well as the work of graduates of the Serbian Orthodox Church Academy. The lecture emphasized the necessity of restoring all Serbian historical and cultural treasures.

The Sloga Choir from the church of St. George the Great-martyr in Smederevo sang at the event, and after the lecture the secretary general of the Serbian Choir Association, Mr. Sava J. Miric, accepted the Smederevo Choir into this family of great Serbian choirs. On this occasion the choir director, Presbyter Zeljko Djuric, signed the charter on behalf of the choir.

The art benefit “For Kosovo and Metohija” has ended but the decision has been made to hold the event again n the future to assist the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

AMBASSADOR OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO TO CROATIA
VISITS KRKA MONASTERY

During his visit to new returnees who collectively returned to Zegar, Ocestovo, Benkovac and Smilcic, the state union of Serbia and Montenegro in Croatia, Mr. Milan Simurdic, also visited the monastery of Krka. The eminent guest was received by His Grace Bishop Fotije of Dalmatia with the brotherhood of monastery of Krka.

[Serbian Translation Services]