Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
April 6, 2005

FUNERAL OF POPE JOHN PAUL II

The funeral of Pope John Paul II of Rome will take place on Friday, April 8, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. in the atrium of the Vatican’s church of St. Peter. The mass for the deceased will be served by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger.

Representatives of all local Orthodox churches will attend the funeral, including His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Metropolitan Kyrill of Kaliningrad and Smolensk of the Russian Orthodox Church. His Eminence Metropolitan Jovan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, and His Grace Bishop Lavrentije of Sabac and Valjevo will represent the Serbian Orthodox Church.

“ALL THINGS WILL PASS, ONLY THE TRUTH WITH REMAIN”
– LECTURE ON ANNUNCIATION DAY IN KOTOR

On Thursday, April 7, 2005, the feast of the Annunciation, the St. Luke Brotherhood of Orthodox Youth from Kotor is organizing a lecture on the theme “All things will pass, only the truth will remain” regarding the book “Dostoevsky on Europe and Slavism” by Archimandrite Justin Popovich.

The lecturer will be Ljiljana Colan, professor of Serbian language and literature.

The St. Luke Brotherhood of Kotor chose Annunciation Day for this lecture because our great spiritual leader Father Justin Popovic was born and reposed in the Lord on this great feast day.

The lecture will be held in the auditorium of the Serbian Orthodox church parish, beginning at 7:00 p.m.

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR BULGARIAN STUDENTS
SERVED IN GOSTUN NEAR PRIJEPOLJE

Today, April 6, 2005, in the village of Gostun near Prijepolje, a monument was consecrated a short memorial service held for the Bulgarian students who perished last year in the Lim River canyon when their bus fell into the river.

The memorial service was held by His Eminence Metropolitan Grigorije of Velika Trnova of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with the concelebration of His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, and Their Graces Bishop Filaret of Milesevo and Bishop Joanikije of Budimlje and Niksic.

The memorial service was attended by Bulgarian president Georgije Parvanov, Serbian president Boris Tadic, and Montenegrin president Filip Vujanovic. After the service, the guests visited the monastery of Mileseva, where they were welcomed by Bishop Filaret.

President Parvanov thanked the hosts and all those who took part in the rescue effort, emphasizing that it the already great friendship of our two countries would further increase.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY FURTHERS CHURCH MISSION

The monastery of Lepavina has provided an interesting statistical breakdown of the visitors to their website www.manastir-lepavina.htnet.hr with the accompanying text:

“We are very pleased by the fact that the number of visitors to our site continues to increase from month to month. These tangible spiritual fruits represent a source of great encouragement for us and a stimulus for even more zealous and dedicated missionary work. We would like to thank all those who have visited us and who have joined the great spiritual family gathered around Lepavina Monastery, which is governed by the great law of love and the Gospel, and in which Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Guide who leads, protects and blesses us. Our Lord whose imagine appears on the icon with the Gospel and His right hand which blesses, tells us: " I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (Jhn 10:11). And again: " I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jhn 14:6).

The greatest number of visitors to our website are from the US. In order to enhance access and the transmission of God’s Word to those who are elderly and unable to read, we are working on including a radio broadcast on the site in order to provide information in audible form. Thanks to the symbolic monthly subscription fees for Internet use, this option is also economically feasible.

It is not our intent to cite dry statistical information extensively; however, we do wish to inform you and provide a short overview regarding the visits to our site in the month of March.

In March a total of 82,892 individual pages on our site were viewed, as follows: from the USA – 21,608 pages, Serbia and Montenegro – 17,293, European Union – 14,057, Croatia – 7,424, Austria – 3,188, Germany – 2,791, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 2,598, Canada – 2,461, Great Britain – 2,250, Switzerland – 1,999, Slovenia – 1,703, Macedonia – 1,639, Australia - 720, Italy - 510, Norway - 363, Sweden - 304, Belgium - 226, The Netherlands - 211, Romania - 182, Greece - 170, Poland - 98, Russian Federation - 94, Luxembourg - 93, Bulgaria - 76, France - 51, Hungary - 51, South Africa - 41, Slovak Republic - 35, Qatar - 33, Czech Republic - 32, Lithuania - 30, Japan - 30, Spain - 24, Latvia - 23, China -13, Lebanon - 12, Finland - 12, Turkey - 10, Ukraine - 4 and Mexico - 1. To this large spectrum of countries from which visitors to our site are coming we add those countries which registered visits for the first time in March: Denmark - 125, Ireland - 60, Malta - 19, Israel - 11, New Zealand - 9, Saudi Arabia - 6, Cyprus - 6, Georgia - 6, Vietnam - 6, Estonia - 6, Argentina - 6, Jordan - 5, Hong Kong - 2, Brazil - 2, Taiwan - 2, Bangladesh - 1, India - 1, United Arab Emirates – 1 and Moldavia - 1.

[Serbian Translation Services]