Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
July 25, 2005

UNKNOWN PERPETRATORS OPEN FIRE
ON SERB HOUSES IN VILLAGE OF ZUPCE

Early Sunday morning at approximately 1:30 a.m. unknown persons opened fire on Serb houses in the village of Zupce near Bunar near the main highway from Kosovska Mitrovica to Zubin Potok.

According to information provided this morning by Kosovska Mitrovica International Press Center director Rade Njegovic, one hand grenade was also thrown.

The shots were fired from automatic weapons and at least 25 bullets were fired from the direction of the village of Kosutovo, which is inhabited by Albanians.

No one was hurt in the incident but the houses, one of which is owned by Miroslav Mirkovic, have been damaged.

This incident has caused unrest among the Serbs in Zupce and throughout Ibarski Kolasin [i.e. Leposavic and Zvecan municipalities in the Ibar river basin]. The Adriatic highway passes through this area and Albanians use it to freely travel in the direction of the sea.

The incident has been reported to police, which has conducted an on the scene investigation.

Source: www.kosovo.com

OPEN LETTER TO MONTENEGRIN PRIME MINISTER MILO DJUKANOVIC FOLLOWING THE DECISION TO DESTROY THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT RUMIJA

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

Your Ministry for Ecology and Space Planning passed a decision on July 22, 2005 to destroy the memorial chapel of the Holy Trinity at Rumija built and reinforced by stones collected for ten centuries by the faithful for the purpose of its restoration.

This diminutively symbolic church (three by two and one-half meters) was erected far from any urban zone, outside the area where any urban plan exists, at a height of almost two thousand meters and on the foundations of a church destroyed in times long ago.

Around this church site Orthodox faithful have gathered for centuries on the feast of the Holy Trinity, and together with them Roman Catholics and Muslims, bearing the cross of St. Jovan Vladimir and a stone each for the return and restoration of the church.

The destruction of this chapel of the Holy Trinity at the request of Muslim deputies and in the immediate vicinity of Kosovo and Metohija where local terrorists who are unfortunately compatriots of this deputy have destroyed 150 Orthodox churches and monasteries in the past six years will have far-reaching consequences for peace and order in Montenegro.

The Metropolitan who only one year ago personally interceded to prevent the destruction of a mosque in Belgrade from a crazed mob deserves this neither from Mr. (Mehmet) Bardhi nor from the Montenegrin Government.

The destruction of a church of God’s Love will only contribute to the spreading of religious and national hatred in Montenegro.

A Ministry that destroys only an Orthodox chapel at Rumija instead of tens of thousands of houses and buildings being built without permits in the rural, village and mountain regions of Montenegro is protecting the mountain and area from what by sowing hatred and polluting souls?

At the same time a mosque is being built in a protected zone of the old town of Bar without any permit that will be completed and should be completed.

We wish to inform you, Mr. Prime Minister, that the Metropolitanate of Montenegro, which exists to build and not to destroy churches, will not carry out the order of your Ministry regarding the destruction of this church.

Let your Government do it and thus take upon itself the historical responsibility before God and the people for this act of vandalism and antitheism, which serves only to multiply hatred and misfortune and to invoke new tragedies for Montenegro.

Respectfully,

ORTHODOX METROPOLITAN OF
MONTENEGRO AND THE LITTORAL
+AMFILOHIJE

Source: Svetigora Press

ORDER OF ST SAVA PRESENTED TO PAINTER MIROSLAV LAZOVIC

On Sunday, July 24, 2005 His Grace Bishop Vasilije of Srem served Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the church of St. George the Great-martyr and Victory-bearer in Hrtkovci and bestowed a high distinction, the Order of St. Sava of the Second Degree, upon Mr. Miroslav Lazovic, a professor of the Faculty of Applied Art in Belgrade.

Upon the nomination of Bishop Vasilije, the Holy Synod of Bishops honored Mr. Lazovic for decorating the church and his personal donation toward the creation of the icon mosaics of St. George, St. Elijah, St. Sava, St. Demetrios, the Holy Three Hierarchs and the floor mosaic of the memorial fountain being built next to the church in memory of the victims of “the Bloody March” from Sabac to Jarak in 1941*.

This is the third distinction in a row that the Holy Synod of Bishops has presented to those deserving for the construction of this holy shrine.

* In early September of 1941, German soldiers "rounded up all males from 14 to 70 years of age….The Germans forced their captives to run from Sabac across [the] Sava River to Yarak in the Srem Province and back, a distance of 14.38 miles. Those who lagged behind…were pitilessly killed on the spot….[W]hen the survivors of this group returned, another group of 800 peasants were forced to run along the same routes….[O]nly 300 of this group reached Yarak alive." New York Times (February 10, 1946): 32 col. 5. quoted in “Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust” by Karen Silverstrim, MA Candidate, University of Central Arkansas, USA

CONSECRATION OF MONASTERY BELL
AT NEMANJIC ENDOWMENT OF BLISKOVA MONASTERY

On the feast of St. Prokopios the Great-martyr His Grace Bishop Joanikije of Budimlje and Niksic served Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the monastery of Bliskova near Pavino Polje, the endowment of the Nemanjic dynasty.

Immediately prior to Holy Liturgy, Bishop Joanikije consecrated the monastery bell, the gift of Mr. Bozidar Joksimovic, and two crosses, the gift of Mr. Veselin Draskovic.

Source: www.teofil.cg.yu

CHURCH ASSEMBLY IN DALMATIAN KOZLOVAC

On July 24, 2005 His Grace Bishop Fotije of Dalmatia served Holy Hierarchal Liturgy in the church of St. Kyriake the Great-martyr in Kozlovac.

In his sermon Bishop Fotije emphasized the urgency of needed repairs for this holy church, which is in very poor state.

Bishop Fotije called on the faithful to gather more frequently around this church. The faithful gather for the assembly in Kozlovac every year on the first Sunday after St. Kyriake the Great-martyr.

[Serbian Translation Services]