Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
September 30, 2005

STATEMENT OF BISHOP FOTIJE OF DALMATIA
FOLLOWING THE ATTACK ON THE BISHOP’S RESIDENCE IN SIBENIK

Last night’s attack on the bishop’s residence in Sibenik has provoked great bitterness among the Orthodox people, clergy and monks and nuns of the Diocese of Dalmatia. We considered and consider the curses, insults and threats we are experiencing daily on the streets of our cities and villages to be isolated incidents instigated by irresponsible individuals. What disturbs us is the fact that none of the perpetrators of other, far more serious crimes – murders, physical attacks on the members of our community and holy shrines, throwing of grenades at our buildings – has been found or punished. We hope that there will be no repeat of the brutal attack on the bishop’s residence in the very center of Sibenik.

What saddened us especially about this attack is that it occurred only hours after a meeting between His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and Serbian president Boris Tadic, and the evangelical words of peace and love uttered upon that occasion. We do not doubt that the highest officials of the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia will condemn this crime and the ones that preceded it.

On this occasion we call on all Orthodox faithful to remain calm, to return to their daily live s and work and to have confidence and fully cooperate with the appropriate authorities.

We wish to take advantage of this opportunity to once again call all Serbian Dalmatian refugees to return to their homes and to the homes of their forebears and to give their full contribution to the creation of a new Croatian state in which instances of violation of human and religious rights such as these or endangerment of the very sanctity of life based on religious and national affiliation will be unthinkable.

In the end we wish to remind that His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle and the Holy Synod of Bishops have on numerous occasions requested that the Government of Croatia protect churches, monasteries and other important buildings of the Serbian Orthodox Church from attacks such as this. We repeat this request yet again in the hope that the Government of Croatia, after this most recent attack, will realize the seriousness of the situation. For if the police had not arrived, albeit late, we have no doubt that the perpetrators would have realized their far more radical intentions.

From the office of the Diocese of Dalmatia

BRUTAL ATTACK ON THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX DIOCESE IN SIBENIK

On Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 9:30 p.m. a large group of people jumped over the fence and entered the courtyard of the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Dalmatia and, with cries of “Kill the Serb! Hang the Serbs from the willow trees!” broke down the entrance door on the building of the Diocese and destroyed everything it found in front of it: a table, benches, windows, etc.

After a call to police was made from the Diocese, the attackers fled in the meanwhile, and a patrol of the Bishopric of Sibenik-Knin Police Department carried out an on site investigation.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia in Zagreb, as well as the Ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro Mr. Milan Simurdic were promptly advised of this unprecedented event and scandal, and brutal attack and attempt to lynch the staff of the Orthodox Diocese of Dalmatia. The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade was then also informed.

From the office of the Diocese of Dalmatia

SERBS FORBIDDEN TO USE CYRILLIC SCRIPT

The head of the security section of the Luka Corporation in the district of Brcko, a certain Izudin Karahmetovic [trans. note: a Muslim name], has prohibited employees of this agency to use Cyrillic script to complete work documentation.

According to the media in Republika Srpska, Karahmetovic issued a memorandum on September 22, 2005 ordering that every employee of the security agency is responsible for maintaining orderly records and documentation in all logs upon shift changes, and to do so exclusively in Roman script.

Source: www.tanjug.co.yu

METROPOLITAN AMFILOHIJE AND ANDREI VOZNESENSKY RECEIVE AWARDS FOR LITERARY CREATION

On September 29, 2005 in the atrium of the Serbian National Museum a formal academy was held on the occasion of the presentation of the Three-Handed Theotokos international literary award presented by the Ivanka Milosevic Foundation from Chicago.

“The Three-Handed Theotokos is the first literary award of the Orthodox world and is presented to Orthodox literary creators who, inspired by Christianity, express the being of their Orthodox peoples, their foundations and holy shrines. On behalf of the Foundation, His Grace Bishop Jovan of Sumadija, whose parents are from Sumadija by origin, presented the awards.

The award is presented for the glory of the Three-Handed Theotokos and for the benefit of the Orthodox people and Orthodox poetry in memory of Ivanka Milosevic, a student of the fifth grade of the Latin School in Chicago, who was killed in Chicago on June 19, 1977 by agents of the Yugoslav Communist secret police at the age of nine years.

This high recognition for the year 2004 was awarded to one of the greatest living poets, Mr. Andrei Voznesensky, and was presented to him at the ceremony.

Explaining the choice of the Russian creator for the award, poet Djordje Nikolic, vice president and art director of the Foundation writes: “The poetry of Voznesensky was the reflection of Orthodox sentiment on the face of modern Russia and the herald of hope to the God-fearing and faithful Russian people and the Slavs in general during the darkest period of their history.”

Speaking of this year’s laureate, His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Nikolic said: “He who was as young monk guided by the great Christian vision of the future Serbian St. Nikolaj of Ohrid and Zica, and Celije prisoner and Christ-bearer Justin and nourished by their holy peace had to be heard by the largest bells by which the Almighty blesses the chosen. A fiery speaker, Metropolitan Amfilohije is a universal figure and in his literary and spiritual work, the pride of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian nation for which he prays tirelessly and battles continuously.”

Before an overflowing audience in the amphitheater of the National Museum last night, academician Nikola Milosevic spoke about the works of Mr. Andrei Voznesensky while Professor Dr. Bogoljub Sijakovic talked about the literary creation of Metropolitan Amfilohije.

Participants in the formal academy also included Mrs. Sava Rosic, translator, and Mr. Dragomir Acovic, member of the Crown Council. Also addressing the gathering was Mrs. Dragica Milosevic, president of the Foundation, who expressed satisfaction at presenting the awards under the roof of our oldest cultural institution to the two recipients from two brotherly peoples, Russians and Serbs, who share the same faith.

Participants in the artistic part of the program included the Obilic Academic Choir and dramatic artist Danilo Lazovic.

[Serbian Translation Services]