The enthronement of the new patriarch took place in Belgrade
The new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfiry, was enthroned today in the Belgrade Cathedral of St. Sava in Vracar.
By the rite of enthronement, the new patriarch assumed all rights and responsibilities in accordance with the canons and church charter.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, the guardian of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Chrysostom of Dabro-Bosnia, presented Porfry with signs of patriarchal dignity, including a staff and panagia and a white kukol (headdress). A ceremony of handing over the patriarchal banners also took place, which was accompanied by exclamations of “Worthy!”
The bishop's liturgy, at which the patriarch's enthronement took place, was celebrated by members of the Holy Synod of the SOC, headed by the new primate.
The liturgy was also attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Serbian member of the BiH Presidency Milorad Dodik, Republika Srpska President Zeljka Cvijanovic, Mufti of Belgrade Mustafa Jusufspahic, Catholic Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar, Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic, Prince Philip and Princess Danica Karadjordjevic.
“I pray to God to support me and ask you to prayerfully and joyfully help me fulfill the great and responsible task that has been placed before me and placed on my weak shoulders in obedience to the Holy Council, so that as the 46th Patriarch and 57th head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, I was at least a modest heir to my great and holy predecessors.
First of all, I want our holy SOC, wherever she is, to live with full lungs, for every Orthodox Christian to live true freedom in Jesus Christ and for the gospel values to be the daily life of all Orthodox people, because this is the only possible way to witness about the truth.
What worries me most, as well as our church, is, as Patriarch Irenaeus said, our long-suffering Kosovo and Metohija, our spiritual Jerusalem. For Serbs, Kosovo and Metohija is not just a myth, because myth belongs to the world of imagination, and we can lose and win there. And Kosovo is a covenant for us, and this covenant of Kosovo is connected with the New Testament, which is based on holiness.
We are in Kosovo, and Kosovo is in us, in our shrines, in the Cyrillic alphabet and the Kosovo Testament. “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia,” sings today’s youth. The heart is the organ of life and love, so in our Kosovo there is a place for all of us,” Porfiriy said, addressing the believers.
Subsequently, it will be known when Patriarch Porfiry will be able to solemnly ascend to the ancient throne of the Serbian patriarchs in Pečka Patriarcha, a monastery located on the territory of Kosovo captured by Albanian separatists.
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