Aktivitete

(Shqip) Festohet dita e “Shën Savës” në kishën e Trinisë së shenjtë në Vrakë.

Са благословима Његовог блаженства архиепископа тиранског и цијеле Албаније г. др Анастасија Јанулатоса и Његовог Преосвештенства епископа будимљанско-никшићког и администратора Митрополије црногорско-приморске г. Јоаникија, у цркви Пресвете Тројице у Враки код Скадра, свечано је прослављен празник Светог Саве, првог архиепископа и просветитеља српског.

Свету литургију поводом празника, у недељу 31. јануара 2021. године, служили су свештеници Српске и Албанске православне цркве, протојереј-ставрофор Велимир Јововић, парох страшевинско-кличевски и свештеник Иван Поповић.

Чтецирао је дјечак Сергеј Мишченко, унук покојног Алексеја Мишченка, првог председника Православног Друштва “Свети Јован Владимир”. Литургији су присуствовали верници из Враке, Скадра и Црне Горе, који су се сабрали да на својој постојбини прославе празник свог првог учитеља и просветитеља. Присуствовали су и представници удружења Срба и Црногораца “Морача-Розафа” и Православног Друштва “Свети Јован Владимир” из Скадра.

После причешћа вјерног народа, пререзан је славски колач у част Светог Саве, а потом се сабранима бесједом обратио протојереј-ставрофор Велимир Јововић. Он је свима честитао празник, говорећи о Светом Сави, указавши на вјековне везе српског народа са древним Скадром, подсетивши и на незаборавну личност, на блаженопочившег Митрополита црногорско-приморског Амфилохија који је несебично цијелим својим бићем бринуо о нашем народу у Враки и Скадру. Он је поздравио и надлежног пароха оца Ивана Поповића, који брине о српском народу у Враки и Скадру, заблагодаривши и Његовом блаженству архиепископу албанском г. Анастасију, да се српски народ сабира и окупља око цркве.

Свима у цркви је поводом овогодишњег Савиндана, делегација Митрополије црногорско-приморске, уручила на благослов и поклон књиге, и светосавске поклон пакетиће. Светосавске прославе и светосавске академије у Враки и Скадру, обновљење су са благословом блаженопочившег Митрополита црногорско-приморског Амфилохија, 2009. године, и од тада се редовно са радошћу прославља највећи празник Српског народа, Свети Сава Српски у Враки и Скадру.

(Shqip) Episkopi Joanikije uron besimtarët me rastin e ditës së Shën Savës.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Serbian and Shqip.

(Shqip) Hyn ne fuqi marrëveshja për lëvizjen e ndërsjellë të shtetasve shqiptarë dhe serbë vetëm me kartë identiteti.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Serbian and Shqip.

Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas.

As occurs every year, this year the Orthodox believers who celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar, gathered on Thursday, January 7 in the Orthodox Church “St. Trinity” of Vraka, to celebrate the birth of the Son of God and to participate in the holy liturgy. The ceremony began with the service of the priests of the Metropolitan Church of Montenegro together with the parish priest of Shkodra who served the holy liturgy.
The Holy Liturgy was held in the presence of a reduced number of believers due to the anti-covoid measures approved by the authorities, and it was served by Archpriest Predrag Scepanovic and the parish priest of the church of Vraka, Ivan Popovic.
In his greeting speech, Mr. Scepanovic conveyed to all people present the most cordial wishes and congratulations. He said, among other things, that “we ought to have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent to take upon us our sins to testify of the Lord’s love for us, and His birth marks the birth of hope, knowledge and tolerance between to all people because God is one for all people, regardless of their beliefs. Let this day serve as a day of hope to overcome and defeat as soon as possible the pandemic situation, which has negatively affected our society. He wished that all of us be close to the others, not to spare help, love and joy to loved ones because only then they will walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
After this speech, the believers received communion while the little ones were awarded many gifts such as cakes and church calendars. After the holy liturgy, the Christmas table was set in one of the premises of the area in which the friends from Montenegro and the guests were present.

Members of the Serbian-Montenegrin community celebrate Christmas Eve at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vraka.

Today, on January 6, 2021, members of the Serbian and Montenegrin minorities in Shkodra celebrated Christmas Eve in the church of the “Holy Trinity” in Vraka gathered around the sacred fire, which symbolizes the ember that warmed the Virgin Mary during the birth of her son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It should be noted that this Christmas was celebrated in unusual conditions, applying the anti-covid safety protocol approved by the Albanian authorities and maintaining physical distance. In the churchyard, the ceremony was held by the parish priest of this church Ivan Popovic accompanied by the sound of the church bell. In his speech he emphasized the symbol represented by the lighting of Christmas trees on bringing the son of God to this world, as a source of warmth for all mankind.
He said that God chose to bring our savior into a simple home and an ordinary family, and not as a king, because the best values and virtues are characteristics of ordinary people away from all the temptations of worldly possessions. He wished the faithful that this day bring them good health and God’s blessing in their homes, the hope of victory over the pandemic that has paralyzed the whole world and he also thanked for the blessing the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Archbishop of the Albanian Orthodox Church, Anastas.
At the end of the ceremony, the parish priest of “Holy Trinity” Church told the believers that the Christmas Liturgy would be held on the next day, on January 7, at 10 am.

Congratulation on the occasion of Christmas.

The Orthodox Association “St. Jovan Vladimir” wishes a Merry Christmas to all Christian believers who celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar.

Every Christmas expresses the gift of God to humanity, the birth of our Lord Jesus and at the same time our spiritual birth and coexistence in peace and without distinction with all people of other religions and nationalities. On this occasion, we wish all Christians this Christmas also meets all your wishes and gives you more health, luck and well-being.

Letter of condolences on the death of Patriarch IRINEJ.

The presidents of the Associations representing the Serbian and Montenegrin minority in Shkodra, St. “Jovan Vladimir” and “Moraca-Rozafa” have sent a letter of condolence to the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Tirana on the occasion of the death of Patriarch Irinej
The letter sent by the president of the association “St. Jovan Vladimir” Mr. Zoran Hajkoja -Ajkovic states: “With a huge sadness, we received the sad news of the death of His Holiness the Archbishop of Peja, the Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovac and the Patriarch of Serbia Mr. IRINEJ. This is a huge loss not only for our Serbian people, but also for the entire Orthodox Church. We had the great honor to welcome him together with Metropolitan Amfilohije on a visit to the “Holy Trinity” church in Vrake, in May 2014. It was the only visit in the recent history of a Serbian Patriarch in Shkodra, and we are witnesses of that unforgettable visit. Patriarch IRINEJ will remain in our thoughts and hearts as a man of deep faith and a confessor of Orthodoxy.
May His memory be eternal!”
While the condolence letter the president of the Moraca-Rozafa association Mr. Pavlo Jakoja-Brajovic writes: “On behalf of the association of the Serbo-Montenegrin minority “Moraca-Rozafa” we express our condolences for the death of the Serbian Patriarch IRINEJ. With regret we received the bad news of the death of His Holiness Patriarch Irinej. This is very sad news for all Serbs and Orthodox believers. We express our condolences to the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church to the clergy, and all the Orthodox believers.
May God and the angels keep us in the kingdom of heaven!”

Patriarch IRINEJ passes away.

Patriarch IRINEJ passes awayThe Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Irinej, passed away yesterday at the Belgrade Military Hospital in Karaburma, where he was hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection, as his health condition deteriorated. Recall that Patriarch Irinej has been hospitalized earlier on November 4th because of COVID-19 infection. Three days earlier, at the funeral of Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro at the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica, Patriarch Irinej celebrated the holy liturgy. In January on this year, the Serbian Orthodox Church marked the 60th anniversary of its monastic service, 45 years of episcopal service and 10 years in its heading position. On that occasion, Irinej had stated that “we live in a time when it is not easy to be in a high position, so it is not easy to be a patriarch”, but that he tried and did everything within his competencies to lead the Church on the right path. Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilović) was born in 1930 in the village of Vidovi near Çačak. He completed the primary school in his native village, and then the high school in the town of Cacak. After graduation from the Prizren seminary, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade, where he graduated. After completing his military service, he was appointed as deputy (professor) of the Prizren seminary. Before taking office as a professor inOctober 1959, at the Rakovica Monastery, he received the rank of Patriarch from the Serbian Patriarch German, taking the monastic name Irinej. On Holy Friday of the same year, he was ordained in the hiero-monarch in the church of Ružica in Kalemegdan.While serving as a professor at the Theological Seminary of Prizren, he continued his postgraduate studies in Athens. From there, he was appointed as director of the Monastic School at the Ostrog Monastery in 1969; he later returned to Prizren to the position of rector of the famous seminary. From that position, in 1974, he was elected vicar of the Serbian patriarch with the title of bishop of Moravica, while in 1975 was elected as the bishop of Nis.He ascended the throne of St. Sava in late January 2010, in the Belgrade Cathedral, as the 45th head of the Serbian Orthodox Church and he was later enthroned in the Patriarchate of Peja. Serbian Patriarch Irinej turned 90 in August of this year. On this occasion, he was congratulated by the head of the Russian, Romanian and Czech Orthodox Churches, by Pope Francis, as well as by the two presidents – of Serbia and Russia, and from the Crown Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic.For us, the Serbian-Montenegrin community living in the centuries-old hearths in Shkodra, the visit he made, on May 31, 2014, will remain indelible in our memory. In 2014, for the first time in history, a Serbian patriarch visited the church of the “Holy Trinity” in Vraka nearShkodra. During this visit, His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej was accompanied by the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coast, Mr. Amfilohije and the Metropolitan of Berat, Mr. Ignatius of the Albanian Orthodox Church. Upon entering the temple, His Holiness the Patriarch of Serbia Mr. Irinej, was greeted by the Metropolitan of Berat, Mr. Ignatius, on behalf of the Holy Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church and His Beatitude, the Archbishop of Tirana Mr. Anastas, who thanked the Serbian Patriarch for coming to Albania and for participating in the spiritual celebrations in Vraka and Tirana.After welcoming the believers, Patriarch Irinej said on this occasion that “This is a great gift and grace of God for me to visit this wonderful land, to visit this wonderful church, and you brothers and sisters belonging to the Holy Orthodox Church, a large Orthodox family. I comeon behalf of our Holy Serbian Orthodox Church to greet and convey the greetings of the Church and our people to you who live here in this area. We are a large, Christian Orthodox family, and no matter what countries we live in, we are a spiritual family and our goal is to draw closer to and unite with our Lord. When we are united with God, then we are close to each other. You live in this blessed country, Orthodox, Catholics and Muslim brothers live here, even though we belong to different religions, we are the people of God. God created us all and we are all obliged and called to praise God in the way faith teaches us. Keep the Holy Orthodox Faith. From the past until today, and we hope that in the future as well, our holy church will exist here, that it will proclaim the truth of the Holy Gospel and that it will teach us to pray to the Lord and to respect and honor one another – as God wills. I wish you all the goodness and blessings of the Lord, through this wonderful holy temple, to bestow upon yourfamilies and your children and upon all of you who approach the Lord in the holy temple with faith and love. May the blessing of God accompany you all the days of your life! Amen, God save us “, said His Holiness Patriarch Irinej in his sermon.After the death of Metropolitan Amfilohije, this is a great loss for the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian people and Christianity as a whole.

Representatives of the Serbian and Montenegrin communities in Shkodra bid farewell to His Holiness Metropolitan Amfilohije Radovic.

On Sunday, November 1, representatives of the Serbian and Montenegrin community associations in Shkodra attended the funeral dedicated to His Grace Metropolitan Amfilohije in Podgorica. To pay tribute to the highest clergyman in Montenegro, the president of the association “St. Jovan Vladimir” association Mr. Zoran Hajkoja-Ajkovic accompanied by its secretary Mr. Viktor Mishcenko did participate. On the other hand, the association of the Serbo-Montenegrin national minority was represented by its chairperson Mr. Pavlo Jakoja-Brajovic accompanied by the secretary Mr. Artur Popaj-Popovic and activists Ymer Ymeri-Stankovic, Veselin Matanovic, Edmir Piranic and Gani Mucmeraj. The Metropolitan of Montenegro, Amfilohije, passed away on October 30 at the Clinical Hospital Center of Montenegro at 8.20 am.
On Friday, October 30, 2020, at 8:20 am, at the Clinical Hospital Center of Montenegro, after receiving the Holy Sacrament of Communion, the Most Holy Archbishop of Cetinje, the Metropolitan of Montenegro Amfilohije, passed away”, is written on the official website of the Metropolitan of Cetinje.
He was cured at the Clinical Hospital Center of Montenegro in Podgorica, where he was hospitalized on October 6 due to the deterioration of his condition caused by the coronavirus. Although he had resulted negative for the coronavirus for 10 days, he had pneumonia and his health suddenly deteriorated a few days ago, despite the tremendous efforts of the entire medical team.
The death of His Grace is a great loss for the Serbian church and all the Orthodox believers. Metropolitan Amfilohije has given a great help for the organization and celebration of Orthodox religious holidays and has visited our community in Shkoder many times, delivering messages of peace and harmony. Under His blessing since 1992 for almost 30 years Christmas Easter and other holidays of the Orthodox believers have been organized and celebrated in Shkoder and Vraka.
With His blessing, annual scholarships have been awarded to our minority students, regardless of religion, who are pursuing higher studies at Belgrade universities.
May His memory be eternal! May he rest in peace!

His Holiness Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro passed away.

Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović died at the age of 83 from the effects of the coronavirus at a hospital in Podgorica. The beacon of Montenegrin freedom and the guardian of the throne of the Patriarchate of Peja failed to emerge victorious from the greatest battle of his life. Amfilohije Radović left an indelible mark on the Serbian Orthodox Church as a great name of all Serbs in the homeland and the region.
The Metropolitan of Montenegro, Amfilohije was born on Christmas Day according to the Julian calendar, on January 7, 1938, in Radovic in Lower Moraca. His childhood name was Risto and he was a descendant of Duke Mina Radovic, one of the first Montenegrin tribal dukes, who united Moraca with Montenegro in 1820.
He spent his childhood in a patriarchal family, which remained loyal to Orthodoxy in the difficult post-war times and growing atheism under communist rule. He completed the primary school at the Moraca Monastery and the “Shen Sava” seminary in Rakovica, Belgrade. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade in 1962. Besides the the Faculty of Theology, he studied classical philology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. After graduating from college, he continued his postgraduate studies in Bern and Rome, where he received a master’s degree from the Eastern Papal Institute (1965). From there, he went to the Greek Orthodox Church, where he spent seven years and where he acquired an angelic image and received the priestly rank.
During that period, in Athens, he defended his doctorate at St. Gregory Palamas, which attracted the attention of the then European theological public. After spending one year at the Holy Mountain, he became a professor at the Orthodox Institute of St. Sergius in Paris, and from 1976, he became an assistant professor, and then a professor at the Faculty of Theology of St. John the Baptist in Belgrade (later the Faculty Orthodox Theological Seminary of the University of Belgrade) in the Department of Orthodox Pedagogy (Catechism) on teaching methods. He was also the dean of this faculty for two terms.
He received his doctorate honoris causa from the Moscow Spiritual Academy in 2003, from the Institute of Theology of the Belarusian State University in Minsk in 2008 and from the Orthodox Theological Institute of St. Sergius in Paris in 2012 and the Spiritual Academy of St. Petersburg in 2014. By decision of the National Committee of Social Awards of the Russian Federation in 2001, he was awarded the Order of Lomonosov, in a ceremony in the Kremlin in the presence of about 4,000 outstanding guests. In 2015, he was elected a honorary member of the Slovenian Academy of Literature and Art.
The Holy Synod of the Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected him as Bishop of Banat in May 1985. By decision of the Holy Synod of the Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Amfilohije was elected as Metropolitan of Montenegro and its coast in Cetinje with its headquarters in Cetinje on 1990. The solemn enthronement for the Metropolitan of Montenegro was performed on December 30, 1990 by the Serbian Patriarch Pavle, at the presence of bishops at the Cetinje Monastery. Metropolitan Amfilohije was the bearer of ancient titles such as: Exarch of the Holy Throne of Peja, as well as Archbishop of Cetinje. He was a member of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in several meetings. He presided over that institution and was the deputy of Patriarch Pavle since the end of 2007 until his death, as well as the parish priest of the Patriarchal throne since the death of Patriarch Pavle, on November 16, 2009, until the election of Serbian Patriarch Irinej on January 22, 2010. He administered the diocese of Raska-Prizren from May 2010 until the enthronement of Bishop Teodosije of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, at the end of December of the same year. He administered the Diocese of Buenos Aires and South Central America (which was founded by his suggestion) from its founding on May 2011 up to date.
During the lead of Metropolitan Amfilohije, for the first time in the history of Montenegro, the Metropolitanate of Montenegro was visited by several patriarchs and representatives of all local churches of the Orthodox world. Some of them include: Patriarch Bartholomew, Patriarch of Moscow and the entire Russia Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and entire Russia Cyril, Pope and Patriarch of entire Africa Peter VII, Archbishop of New Justinian and entire Cyprus Chrysostom II, Archbishop of Athens and entire Greece Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and entire Greece Jerome, Archbishop of Tirana and entire Albania Anastas, Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia Christopher. This speaks volumes about the great respect that Metropolitan Amfilohije enjoyed.
Metropolitan Amfilohije has visited several times the Serbian and Montenegrin community living in Shkoder. Together with the other clergymen he has held several times the holy liturgy in the church of the Holy Trinity in Vraka and has always preached the word of God, love and harmony among all people. We have witnessed his words and will proudly remember His sermons.
Despite various difficulties and troubles, he morally and materially assisted the associations representing the Serbian community in Shkodra and Albania. The Metropolitan supported and financially supported the Serbian language course in Shkodra. With his blessing, dozens of scholarships were awarded to students from our minority who study at the University of Belgrade in the Republic of Serbia. Therefore, this is a great loss for the Serbian Orthodox Church and for all Orthodox believers.