Belgrade, June 15, 2022
Photo: mospat.ru
On June 13, 2022, the Day of the Holy Spirit, the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity Church of the metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia celebrated the Divine Liturgy there, the DECR Communication Service reports. Concelebrating were: Archpriest Sreten Mladenovic, Deputy rector of the Cathedral of St. Mark the Apostle in Belgrade, Archpriest Nebojsa Topolic, rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Zemun, Priest Miodrag Nesic, cleric of the Banat Diocese, and Archpriest Vitaly Tarasyev, rector of the Belgrade Metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church, along with other clergy of Belgrade churches, including the rector of the seminary in Belgrade, Protodeacon Vladimir Obruchinich, Protodeacon Stevan Rapaich and Protodeacon Dragan Radich.
The service was attended by the Cultural Adviser of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Serbia A.N. Konanykhin, minister of the Republic of Serbia Nenad Popovich, Deputy Head of the Office for Religious Affairs Marko Nikolic, Chairman of the City Municipality Palilula Miroslav Ivanovich and his employee Rade Petrovich, and employee of the Russian House in Belgrade George Engelhardt.
In his welcoming speech at the end of the Liturgy, Archpriest Vitaly Tarasyev congratulated His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia on the holiday celebrated on this day, marking the fulfillment of the promise that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, will be revealed to every person and to all mankind. It is through the assistance of the Holy Spirit that the most important thing is accomplished in the Church—the salvation of human souls. Moreover, in the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is the goal of our earthly life.
Photo: mospat.ru
On behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the rector of the Belgrade Metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church thanked His Holiness for the Divine Liturgy celebrated in the church that day. He also expressed gratitude for His Holiness Porfirije’s paternal care and love for the community of the Russian Church in Belgrade.
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije congratulated the parishioners of the Metochion on the patronal feast and expressed his joy at being “at this place where our Russian brothers erected their church, in which they pray for the whole world.” He recalled that all church communities are essentially a single prayer community. The Church is the Body of Christ, whose Head is the Lord Himself, and in the Church as a single organism there are no members of this body who are more important than others, and each part has its own time and place in accordance with the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit. God’s gifts must multiply these gifts to the measure of one’s growth in Christ.
“By establishing the Church through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, the Lord allows people to understand each other even though they speak different languages—often even better than people who speak the same language, because the language in which the apostles testified about Christ was the language of Christ, the language of the Holy Spirit, the language of love... The Holy Spirit creates from us a single body in Christ,” Patriarch Porfirje stressed. “And all the Local Churches are actually one Church. Autocephalous Churches do not exist to defend the interests of this world, but so that everything that is of this world, passing through the millstones of the Church, becomes one Bread, one Body. The Church does not exist to be an instrument [of worldly interests]. Whoever does not understand this degrades the Church for the sake of its transitory interests. You cannot create a community that narrows people and separates them from others. The Church is a community that grows and multiplies.”
Photo: mospat.ru
In prayerful memory, Archpriest Vitaly Tarasyev presented His Holiness a copy of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God.
After the festive service, a solemn reception was held in the chancery hall of the courtyard.
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