Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
April 18, 2005

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE JOINT SESSION OF THE HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS AND THE HOLY ASSEMBLY OF BISHOP’S COUNCIL FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
PATRIARCH PAVLE MEETS WITH OLLI REHN, EU COMMISSIONER FOR ENLARGEMENT
“LET US BREATHE LIFE INTO SERBIA” PASCHAL BENEFIT CONCERT
6O-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF BREAK OUT OF JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP PRISONERS, VICTORY AGAINST FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATED IN DONJA GRADINA
JASENOVAC – DONJA GRADINA FACTORY OF DEATH 1941-1945
LITERARY EVENING IN VINKOVCI

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE JOINT SESSION OF THE HOLY SYNOD OF BISHOPS AND THE HOLY ASSEMBLY OF BISHOP’S COUNCIL FOR KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

A joint session of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Holy Assembly of Bishop’s Council for Kosovo and Metohija with His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle presiding, was held today in the Patriarchate in Belgrade.

The Holy Synod of Bishops and the Holy Assembly of Bishop’s Council for Kosovo and Metohija heard the report of His Grace Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina and the members of the delegation of the Holy Synod which visited the United States of America from March 25 to April 16, 2005, and adopted it in full and in detail.

All participants in today’s meeting assessed that the delegation faithfully represented the positions of the Holy Synod of Bishops and the Council for Kosovo and Metohija before all collocutors in the USA.

The participants concluded that the Serbian Orthodox Church will continue to work on the implementation of these established principles of action with respect to the survival of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, as follows:

1. Protection of elementary human rights for Serbs and all who live in Kosovo and Metohija, which should be based on equality of all citizens;
2. Return of all displaced persons and their survival and incorporation into all aspects of social, economic and cultural life;
3. Return of nationalized church property;
4. Restoration of all churches, monasteries and other church buildings destroyed since the arrival of the international mission in 1999;
5. For the purpose of implementing and bringing to life the Memorandum on understanding on agreed general principles for the restoration of Serbian Orthodox Church holy sites in Kosovo and Metohija, the Holy Synod of Bishops appointed His Grace Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan, the abbot of Visoki Decani Monastery, as the representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Commission foreseen by this Memorandum;
6. Resumption of dialogue with representatives of the Islamic religious community, as well as other Churches and religious communities in Kosovo and Metohija;
7. Readiness of the Serbian Orthodox Church for cooperation and constructive dialogue with all international institutions able to contribute to peace and stability in Kosovo and Metohija, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all of Southeastern Europe.

PATRIARCH PAVLE MEETS WITH OLLI REHN,
EU COMMISSIONER FOR ENLARGEMENT

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle, together with His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral and His Grace Bishop Jovan of Sumadija, met today with Olli Rehn, the European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, in the Belgrade Patriarchate.

In the course of cordial discussion Olli Rehn thanked His Holiness for his personal engagement in spreading tolerance in Serbia and Montenegro, and he also thanked the Serbian Orthodox Church for signing the Memorandum of understanding. Mr. Rehn emphasized that the European Union will try to restore all monasteries and churches that have been destroyed or damaged in Kosovo and Metohija and that it will seek to keep Kosovo and Metohija a multiethnic and multiconfessional environment. Mr. Rehn was informed that at its most recent meeting, the Holy Synod of Bishop had appointed His Grace Vicar Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan as its member in the joint commission for implementation of the Memorandum on understanding. At the end of the discussion, Mr. Rehn thanked the Serbian Orthodox Church for helping the state on the path to European integration.

“LET US BREATHE LIFE INTO SERBIA”
PASCHAL BENEFIT CONCERT

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church launched the “Let us breathe life into Serbia” campaign in 2001 and has been conducting it for the past five years with the sponsorship of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle. The basic goal of the campaign is to provide desperately needed incubators for prematurely born children to all maternity wards in Serbia, as well as other equipment.

In the past three years infant mortality, especially for prematurely born children, has reduced by half, we believe in part thanks to this campaign. During this period 77 stationary incubators, 3 transporter incubators, 17 phototherapy devices, 15 patient monitors, 9 pulse oximeters, 3 sterilizers, 1 respiratory machine, 1 suction set and 1 bilirubinometer were distributed.

Serbia still has an infant mortality rate of more than 9 percent, whereas infant mortality in Western Europe varies between 3 and 5 percent. The basic cause of this tragic situation in our country is the lack of incubators and other equipment in the maternity wards. During the current year, we wish to provide incubators to as great a number of medical institutions as possible.

In order to remind and caution Serbian society of the necessity of obtaining additional neonatal devices, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church has been organizing the “Let us breathe life into Serbia” paschal benefit concert every year. This year the traditional concert will be held on the second day of Pascha, May 2, 2005, in the concert hall at Kolarceva Zaduzbina. His Holiness Patriarch Pavle will be attending the concert, as well as other eminent figures from the life of the Church and Serbian society.

Performers will include Katarina Radivojevic, Marija Karan, Kalina Kovacevic; the groups Teodulija, Belo Platno and Gora; and the choirs of the monastery of Kovilj, Mojsije Petrovic and the Church of the Holy Trinity in Zemun. The general sponsor of the concert is VODA VODA.

All proceeds from ticket sales will be used to purchase incubators. The entire concert will be inspired by the spirit of the most joyous holiday of holidays – Pascha.

6O-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF BREAK OUT OF JASENOVAC CONCENTRATION CAMP PRISONERS, VICTORY AGAINST FASCISM AND THE HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATED IN DONJA GRADINA

The 60-year anniversary commemoration of the break out of Jasenovac concentration camp prisoners, victory against fascism and the Holocaust was held on April 17, 2005, in Donja Gradina, the biggest killing field in the Jasenovac concentration camp system where 366,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma and other patriots perished under hideous conditions.

His Grace Bishop Jefrem of Banja Luka served Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Kozarska Dubica with the concelebration of the clergy of the Diocese of Banja Luka, and in the presence of several bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church. After Holy Hierarchal Liturgy candles were lit, and wreaths and flowers placed on the memorial plate at the Topole cemetery in Donja Gradina.

His Eminence Metropolitan Nikolaj of Dabro-Bosnia served a memorial service for the victims of Jasenovac with the concelebration of His Grace Bishop Grigorije of Zvornik and Tuzla in the presence of approximately 10,000 citizens and faithful at the Kostute cemetery. “During World War II in this region and beyond it, Serbs, Jews and Roma were taken from their warm homes to the concentration camps and killed in various fashion, both in Jasenovac and here in Donja Gradina without knowing why and whom they had offended,” said Metropolitan Nikolaj. He added that the memorial service and other events today are to mark the 60-year anniversary of the break out from Jasenovac “by the few surviving prisoners who did not share the fate of the 700,000 innocents tortured and killed.”

A prayer for the victims of the Holocaust and Kaddish, the Jewish mourners' prayer, was led by Rabbi Isak Asiel from Belgrade. Rabbi Asiel recalled the horrible tragedy of the Jewish people throughout Europe during World War II and expressed the hope that such monstrous crimes will never again be repeated. Prayers for Roma victims were led by Dragoljub Ackovic, a representative of the World Congress of Roma.

After prayers for the victims in Donja Gradina, the group of 10,000 gathered citizens was addressed by Gojko Knezevic, a representative of camp survivors, Dragoljub Ackovic of the World Congress of Roma, and Republika Srpska president Dragan Cavic. A message from Avner Shalev, the president of the Yad Vashem Memorial Center in Jerusalem, was read by Arie Livne, the special representative of the World Jewish Congress for the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

The message of the president of the Yad Vashem Memorial Center in Jerusalem said that the lesson of the Holocaust should be a cultural code for learning about human values, democracy, human rights, patience and tolerance, and against racism and totalitarian ideas.

In the message read by Arie Livne, who is also the director of the Republika Srpska mission in Israel, Mr. Shalev also said that the event in Donja Gradina and the work of the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, as well as the activities of various centers throughout the world, the work of teachers, researchers and public figures, join into one powerful voice that promises that the past will be remembered and interwoven deeply into our lives, and that it will be the foundation for the future. “These voices join into one so that we can ensure that the horrors that happened here 60 years ago will be eradicated from the model of human behavior and from the European people,” said Mr. Shalev, who quoted from the memoirs of Djuro Svarc, an engineer of Jewish origin who survived Jasenovac: “If all the prisoners of the camp could join their voices and their feeling of despair into one voice and one despair, then the mountains would ring with the scream of horror of the Judgment Day... because that was spectacle in the camp at that time, while we were slaves in hell, and the purpose of the world was different than what it is now. Thus all people who are former prisoners stopped being individuals forever and became equals among themselves because they deeply experienced and felt on their own skin the satanic nature of man. The Nazis and their allies wanted to exterminate the Jewish people from this earth. They denied the universal values that the Jewish people gave to their world on the foundations of which Western culture was established. The Holocaust is the first and unprecedented attempt to exterminate an entire people and an entire culture, that is, a people that gave the world the idea of respect for life and the responsibility of respecting humanity.”

Today’s commemorative gathering in Donja Gradina was attended by numerous guests from at home and abroad. In addition to domestic guests including the speaker of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, Dusan Stojicic; the vice president of Republika Srpska, Ivan Tomljenovic; the prime minister of Republika Srpska, Pero Bukejlovic, and the chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, Borislav Paravac, the commemoration was also attended by Serbian president Boris Tadic, Serbian justice minister Zoran Stojkovic, the ambassadors of Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia and China in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as representatives from the missions of other embassies in Bosnia-Herzegovina located in Banja Luka. The commemorative gathering in Donja Gradina was also attended by the vice-president of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Federation, Desnica Radivojevic, several members of the Council of Ministers, including foreign affairs minister Mladen Ivanic, and ministers from the Republika Srpska government.

Church bells in all Orthodox churches in Republika Srpska also marked the beginning of the memorial academy “I seek pardon” in Donja Gradina, the final event in the commemoration of the 60 year anniversary of the break out of Jasenovac prisoners, the triumph over fascism and the Holocaust. Approximately one hundred performers took part in the program of the memorial academy, including actors from the Republika Srpska National Theatre, the Republika Srpska Children’s Theatre from Banja Luka, the members of the Braca Baruh Jewish choir from Belgrade, the Jedinstvo choir and the Academy of Arts Academic Orchestra from Banja Luka.

Republika Srpska president Dragan Cavic, addressing those present in Donja Gradina, emphasized that the perpetrators of the crime of Jasenovac cannot be justified to anyone in any way and that the executioners need to be punished each year – by remembrance. At the largest killing field in the Jasenovac system of concentration camps, where the Ustashe of Ante Pavelic brutally killed 366,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascists, Mr. Cavic reminded that six decades had passed from the crime committed on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in World War II.

Source: Republika Srpska Government

JASENOVAC – DONJA GRADINA FACTORY OF DEATH 1941-1945

On the occasion of the 60-year anniversary of the break out of Jasenovac concentration camp prisoners, victory over fascism and the Holocaust, a CD-ROM has been published with an electronic library, film archive, bibliography, data base of victims and recommended sources under the title “Jasenovac – Donja Gradina Factory Of Death 1941-1945”.

Published by Svetlopisno Odelenje, the CD-ROM was prepared by Hieromonk Jovan (Culibrk) with the assistance of Presbyter Dragoslav Topolac. Sources for this CD-ROM include the Serbian Orthodox Church Museum, the Victims of Genocide Museum, the documentary film “Jasenovac” by Gustav Gavrin, courtesy of the Yugoslav Film Archive, archive photographs of Jasenovac, courtesy of the Council on Jasenovac of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the World War II video archive of Svetlopisno Odelenje.

LITERARY EVENING IN VINKOVCI

A literary evening promoting the book of Dusan S. Vojvodic “Eminent Serbs of the Vinkovci region” was held on April 17, 2005 in the building of the Vila Serbian Singing Society in Vinkovci. Novi Sad University professor Dusan Beric and Novi Sad Library director Dragan Kojic spoke about the book, which discusses eminent Serbs from Vinkovci and the surrounding region with a love of the truth.

The program for this literary evening included the choir of the Diocese of Osijek Polje and Baranja, which sang several spiritual compositions. This spiritual and cultural event in Vinkovci before numerous guests was also attended by His Grace Bishop Lukijan of Osijek Polje and Baranja and the Serbia-Montenegro consul in Vukovar, Ms. Bojana Ristic.

Protopresbyter Predrag Azap

[Serbian Translation Services]