Celebration of the 20​ th​ Anniversary of the Rebirth of True Orthodoxy in Serbia

On the feastday of the Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius the 20​ th anniversary of the rebirth of True Orthodoxy in Serbia was celebrated at the Sts Cyril and Methodius parish in Vrdnik with a festive Hierarchal Liturgy, the breaking of a Slava bread and a little community gathering with the offering of toasts, the singing of a guslar (bard) and folk dancing.  His Grace Bishop Akakije of Uteshiteljevo served the Holy Liturgy in concelebration with His Grace Nektarije of Shumadia and the clergy of both STOC eparchies.

  

In the sermon during the Liturgy, His Grace Bp. Akakije emphasized the importance of the unbroken line of the STOC's apostolic succession.  It proceeds from the very Apostles, through the Equals-to-the-Apostles, Sts. Cyril and Methodius and St. Sava of Serbia, to the holy Hieromartyrs Patriarch Barnabas of Serbia and St. Nicholai (Velimirovich) of Zhicha to today in the apostolic succession from the Holy Patriarch Tikhon to the Russian Church Abroad and the Russian Catacomb Church which deemed the bishops of the STOC worthy of ordination. His Grace also touched on the great apostasy of these times, both in the Church as well as in our national secular life. He stressed that the rebirth of our much-suffering, cross-bearing people and St. Sava’s Church can only happen through True Orthodoxy which is at the moment small and weak, but nonetheless the spark, the leaven of the Truth which can light the nation’s torch and leaven the great dough of a spiritual- and national-rebirth.  

After the Holy Liturgy the Slava bread was broken and koliva blessed in honor of the Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles brothers Cyril and Methodius, and afterwards a festive meal of love followed with pleasant speeches and celebration.