His
Grace Akakije Bishop of Uteshiteljevo has sent an appeal to all True Orthodox
Churches throughout the world to take part in the humanitarian action which the
Serbian TOC has begun to help the victims of the cataclysmic floods in
Serbia. On the official site of the
Serbian TOC an appeal from His Grace Akakije in has been published in the Serbian,
English, Russian, Romanian and Greek languages.
Along
with being significant help which would be collected for the victims of the
floods this would also be the first joint action of all the True Orthodox Local
Churches throughout the world.
In
the following we present the content of the appeal broadcasted:
Serbian
True Orthodox Church
Humanitarian
Action
TRUE
ORTHODOXY
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
FOR THE AID
OF FLOODED SERBIA
To
the Most Reverend Leaders of The True Orthodox Churches,
Archbishops,
Metropolitans, and Bishops
APPEAL FOR
HELP
For
the victims of the great floods in Serbia
And Noah
sent forth a dove from him, to see if
the waters
were abated from off the face of the ground…
and the
dove came in to him in the evening;
and lo, in
her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off:
so Noah
knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
(Gen.
8:8-11)
The
Serbian True Orthodox Church sends an appeal to all the Local True Orthodox
Churches to gather help through their Holy Synods, eparchies and parishes for
the many victims in Serbia and Serbian Bosnia of these unprecedented floods.
As
you most likely know, the greatest misfortune within the last hundred years has
come upon our people. Parts of Serbia
and Serbian Bosnia have been struck by an unheard-of catastrophe. Many cities and villages are flooded, tens of
thousands of people have temporarily, or permanently, been left homeless. The evacuees have been relocated to a center
for temporary housing. They left their
homes bringing nothing except the clothes on their backs. The rising waters, torrents, and landslides
have destroyed their homes, properties, fields and livestock. Though the Serbian state and the Serbian
people are doing all that is within their power to keep the cataclysmic
situation under control, any and all help, even the smallest, is more than
welcome. Many official Orthodox and
heterodox churches have shown their great solidarity and readiness to start
projects of gathering help for the flood victims.
Your
Beatitude, Your Eminences, and Your Graces, we would be most grateful if the
True Orthodox throughout the entire world would answer to our appeal and
involve themselves in the movement to help the victims of these catastrophic
floods by making a transfer of funds to a bank account which will be used for
direct help organized by the Serbian True Orthodox Church for those in the most
danger at their location. With the
financial means collected through our appeal, the purchase of basic,
long-lasting, or canned groceries, bottled drinking
water, essential medicines, diapers, and basics for hygiene and disinfection,
etc, will be organized which a group of our believers, volunteers, led by the
clergy, will give out in the most devastated cities in Serbia and Serbian
Bosnia which have been hit by these terrible floods.
We
also beg You for the most heartfelt prayers of Your Churches that the Lord have
mercy on our much-suffering people, and that the Gentle and Man-loving God be
merciful and compassionate, turn away
all wrath which has be directed at us, deliver us from His imminent and righteous
threat, and have mercy on us.
Your
brotherly help for Serbia will not only be like that olive branch of Noah’s
dove which will ease the suffering and offer hope to our suffering people in
this difficult time, but at the same time, like a life-preserver, bring them to
knowledge that the mystical Noah’s Ark, the True Orthodox Church, which can
save them from the flood of the great apostasy, is within their reach.
6/19. 5. 2014.
Humbly,
Akakije,
Bishop of Uteshiteljevo
President
of the Hierarchal Committee
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