By God’s providence, with the blessings of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej and His Grace Bishop Gregory of Hercegovina, and by the effort of good people, our Serbian Orthodox parish of St. Archangel Gabriel in Richmond Hill, ON received the relics of the Holy New Martyrs of Prebilovci.
This remarkable gift and a blessing from the Lord will remain permanently at our parish church.
We invite you to come join us on Saturday, June 11, 2016 in venerating the holy relics of those that died for the Faith in Christ. Holy Liturgy will begin at 10AM, during which the adoration of the holy relics will take place. Agape will follow the Holy Liturgy at our church hall.
A terrible crime took place in 1941 in lower Hercegovina (Bosnia and Hercegovina today). Entire Orthodox Christian villages were wiped out. No one was spared: men, women, children, the elderly and infirm. They were killed simply for confessing the Orthodox Christian Faith and refusing to renounce Christ. The cruelty of the crimes surpasses anything seen in the history of mankind.
The martyrs of Prebilovci, saints of Christ, will be with us to protect us and intercede for us before the Lord through their prayers.
By God’s providence and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, at the regular session of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, held in at the Patriarchate in Belgrade between May 16-25, 2016, for the arch-pastor of the God-protected Eparchy of Canada His Grace Bishop Dr. Mitrophan (Kodić) was elected, the former Bishop of Eastern America.
His Grace Bishop Mitrophan was born in 1951 in the village of Ljusha, Shipovo, in Bosna. His elementary studies he completed in 1966 and the Seminary at Monastery Krka in 1971. He received the monastic tonsure on the eve of the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple in 1970 and on the following day was ordained as a hierodeacon by Bishop Stefan (Boca) of blessed memory. He completed the Theological Faculty in Bucharest, Romania in 1975. In 1977, after completing his studies, he was assigned as supplent of the Seminary of the Holy Three Hierarchs in Monastery Krka. He passed his professorship exam in 1979 and was assigned as assistant Rector of the Seminary at Monastery Krka in 1980 and as Rector in 1987. He was elected as a Vicar Bishop of Toplica in 1987 and appointed as assistant to the Administrator of the Diocese of Midwestern America, Dr. Sava of blessed memory. He was appointed as Administrator of the Diocese of Midwestern America in 1988, where he remained until he was appointed as Bishop of Eastern America in 1991.
In 1997 Bishop Mitrophan successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade on the theme: “The Mystery of Christ According to the Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians of the Holy Apostle Paul”.
Besides the above mentioned dissertation, Bishop Mitrophan has published many theological works. He translated from the Romanian, Professor Dr. Dumitru Staniloae’s “Community and Spirituality in the Orthodox Liturgy” three volumes of “Orthodox Dogmatics”, “The Immortal Image of God”, “Orthodox Moral Theology”. Also from Romanian he translated “The Romanian Patericon I and II” and the “Dictionary of Orthodox Theology” by Hieromonk Joankije Balan. His own book, “The Teaching of St. Apostle Paul on the Church” published in 1991 in Chicago, has been translated into English.
His latest book “Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, the New Testament” has been released this year. Also, the translation of the book “The Gospel Image of Christ” by Professor Dr. Dumitru Staniloae is being prepared for print.
Bishop Mitrophan is Professor of New Testament at the St. Sava School of Theology in Libertyville, Illinois.
The long-planned and vigorously prepared fundraising banquet took place at our modest parish hall on Sunday 5/15/16. While the actual turnout of the invited guests was not what we expected based on the confirmations we got in the previous weeks, the atmosphere was nevertheless very joyful and the fundraiser was a success.
In the festively decorated banquet hall for the occasion (courtesy of Dana Vojnov) the evening began with a cocktail hour accompanied with an excellent assortment of appetizers and good red and white wine offered. The bar was served by Srdjo Stojsic and Aleksandar Cvijetinovic.
Right before dinner was served, Fr. Vasilije Tomic briefly addressed the guests to thank them for their response and support to our parish, and then he led a prayer and blessed the food.
Dusko Knezevic, president of our building committee, made a presentation on the current state of affairs at our parish (rezoning success, the incurred costs so far, our regular monthly expenses, etc.) as well as explained what are our next goals and challenges: primarily the ability collect funds through donations and pledges so that we can keep up with our monthly work, and hopefully save up sufficiently so that we can start building our new church.
Aleksandar Cvijetinovic, the church board president, concluded the presentation with an appeal that we all, with God’s help, take part in making our plan a reality and spread the word to our community as well.
The excellent food prepared by our tireless Kolo sisters under the principal guidance of chef Lenka Steker was served after that. Both the quality and presentation of the food was marvellous. There was also a desserts table with a great choice of fruits and cakes.
Misko and Danijela from Kitchener were kind, as always, to provide us with entertainment, and the guests enjoyed the well selected and performed songs and dances. We also had a special guest, Mladen Stojanovic who sang two old songs about St. Sava to the accompaniment of his “gusle” [Serbian single-string fiddle], and the 2 short performances were very powerful. Eventually the banquet was joined by all of the organizers present.
A distinguished guest of honour was the Richmond Hill city councillor Greg Beros, who gave a moving speech, congratulating us on our hitherto achievements, and encouraging us to continue with our dream project to complete the church building in Richmond Hill. As a child of immigrants and being a witness to communities struggling to create a little piece of their homeland in our Canadian mosaic, councillor Beros has been very understanding and supportive of our actions and plan.
Other guests of honour were the people who helped us with the building permits, plans and projections: Sasha Milenov and Mladen Ninkovic.
We want to thank all of our guests and donors for their great help, and we hope that they will keep supporting our parish and spread the word about our parish to our community. We also want to thank all of our parishioners who took part, and especially the members of our KSS for the great effort they invested in helping make this a successful event. Finally, we want to thank Fr. Vasilije Tomic, who over the years has faithfully led our parish and was at the helm of all events in our parish, including this one.
With the arrival of spring, as well as being prompted by the fundraising-dinner planned for Sunday, May 15, 2016, some of our parishioner’s volunteered to help clean-up the grounds of our parish on Saturday 5/14/16. Though the day started off cold with rain, the gentlemen of our parish came forth to mow the lawn, clean-up the parking lot, collect the litter, remove any unnecessary items from sight, as well as to clean up the children’s playground and the bocce lane. The leader of the effort was Drgan Curcic who lended a full day off work and his landscaping gear so that we would be equipped for the effort properly. The busy hands helping were our Father Vasilije Tomic, Dragan Curcic, Srdjo Stojsic, Mile Kotarac, Aleksandar Cvijetinovic, Sinisa Cvetkovic, Dejan Pavlovic, Ziko Bozic and Zoran Radisic. We’ve also had junior assistants: Jovana Cvijetinovic, Jana Stojsic, Marko Curcic and Jakov and Kalina Pavlovic.
Sinisa Cvetkovic donated meat and prepared it on the kitchen grill. It was a joyous atmosphere at the table with the delicious BBQ, music and our merry company of not only the outdoors clean-up crew, but also the Kolo sisters who were preparing the hall for the fundraiser dinner on Sunday. The day was finished with a game of bocce where both the grown-ups and children played, while indoors Sinisa and Zoran pealed the roasted peppers!
We thank all of those who were able to come by and help out and appreciate everyone’s help in any way and ask that anyone who was not mentioned please forgive the writer of these lines.
