Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
June 8, 2005

PATRON SAINT’S DAY OF THE CAPITAL OF BELGRADE AND SAVIOR’S DAY PROCESSION

On Thursday, June 9, 2005 His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle will be serving Holy Hierarchal Liturgy on the feast of the Ascension of Our Lord in the church of the Ascension (Admirala Geprata Street) beginning at 9:00 a.m. After Holy Liturgy, His Holiness will cut the slava cake.

In all other churches Holy Liturgy will begin at 8:00 a.m. so that all clerics and all the faithful can take part in the festive religious procession on the occasion of the feast of the Ascension [also called Spasovdan or Savior’s Day], which will start out at 11:00 a.m. from the churchyard of the church of the Ascension.

VISOKI DECANI MONASTERY PRESS RELEASE

Following yesterday's communique by the Kosovo Ministry of Culture regarding the visit of Minister Astrit Haracija to Visoki Decani Monastery, the Monastery administration would like to clarify that Mr. Haracija came to Visoki Decani on his own initiative, like any other visitor, and not in the capacity of a Kosovo Government minister, nor was his visit in any way connected with yesterday's meeting of the Commission for the Restoration of Churches, of which he is not a member. Consequently, no talks whatsoever were conducted with Mr. Haracija regarding the restoration of churches and monasteries, nor regarding any other issues of essential importance as stated, completely arbitrarily, in the aforementioned communique of the Ministry of Culture in Pristina.
The Visoki Decani Monastery administration considers the persistent efforts to politicize issues relating to cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija by the Kosovo Ministry of Culture to be harmful and politically irresponsible, and wishes to emphasize that such communiques on the part of this Ministry do not contribute in the least to the building of tolerance and confidence among ethnic communities in the Province.

HOLY SYNOD OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH ON OCCUPATIONS FOR CLERICS

At their most recent meeting in May, the members of the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church decided that clerics of the Greek Orthodox Church must not be, among other things, magicians, policemen, actors, politicians - or gynecologists. Gynecology is one of a long list of occupations forbidden to Orthodox clerics because of their close association with women and the abortion issue. Clerics can be physicians specialized in other fields.

In connection with this news a highly inappropriate image, a photo montage, appeared on the website www.iskon.hr on June 1, 2005 accompanying the article. The photo image is insulting toward the bishop’s office in the Serbian Orthodox church, more precisely, toward His Grace Bishop Fotije of Dalmatia. This Croatian portal is not only demeaning to the bishop’s office but humiliating for all Christian faithful. Without seeking to place this particular incident in the same context as recent tragedies that have occurred involving Serbs in Croatia, we would like to emphasize that we would not like a similar occurrence to involve any senior dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church or any other religious community in our region.

[Serbian Translation Services]