Eparchial (Diocesan) News

The 5th Annual St. Nikolaj of Ochrid-Zicha Pilgrimage in Libertyville, Illinois

The 5th Annual St. Nikolaj of Ochrid-Zicha Pilgrimage was held on Sunday, July 13, 2008, at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery, in Libertyville, Illinois.

Hierarchical Divine Liturgy officiated by and His Grace Bishop Peter of Cleveland of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia began at 10:00 A.M. Clergy from all parishes of the Midwestern Metropolitanate participated. The guest homilist was Protojerej-Stravrophor Dragan Veleusic of St. Sava Cathedral, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who eloquently spoke of the profound significance of this annual pilgrimage.

His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America attended the 2008 Diocesan Parish Life Conference

BISHOP MAXIM KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE OF THE ANTIOCHIAN DIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES AND THE WEST

Los Angeles, Ca - Per invitation of His Grace Bishop Joseph, Bishop of Los Angeles and the West of the Antiochian Archdiocese, His Grace Bishop Maxim of Western America attended the 2008 Diocesan Parish Life Conference held in Los Angeles from July 2-6, 2008. Bishop Maxim served as keynote speaker for the diocesan conference, delivering a lecture during the course of three days. On the first day the bishop's talk was entitled - "Martyrdom: An Orthodox View of Marriage".

In the bishop's talk on the second and third day, entitled "Communion and Otherness in Marriage" he attempted to see how otherness and communion relate to marriage. He eloquently showed how and why marriage is a sort of communion where respective differences (uniqueness and personality) are affirmed through a relationship. That is, instead of considering marriage as a threat to otherness, he examined how it generates otherness. The various sections of this presentation tackle the subject of male and female in different ways. In the first sections bishop Maxim looked at the Biblical background and the Gospel perspective of marriage as a mystery of encountering two 'others' (male and female). This should be seen within a theological perspective, which entails an ecclesial and Eucharistic view of the subject. The Orthodox Church has a strong 'personalistic' perspective, which was developed in the Patristic period. With the help of the Trinitarian theology of the Greek Fathers (particularly the Cappadocians) and their ontological perspective, he gained a clearer theological perspective of the Biblical and Gospel perspectives on marriage and otherness.

BISHOP MAXIM VISITS ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST MISSION PARISH, RENO, NEVADA

Nuns from St. Xenia Skete still evacuated

On Vidovdan celebrated Holy Eucharist in Serbian Orthodox temples all over the world

St. Vitus Day (Vidovdan), a religious holiday when Serbs commemorate the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, was marked in all Serbian Orthodox Christian temples today.