On the eve of the departure of a Serbian Orthodox Church delegation to the US
Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina
Blic daily, Belgrade, March 23, 2005
We will tell President Bush we are a part of the world
We will try to be simple, sincere and precise. And we will try to ensure that everything does not end with the meeting, that cooperation continues to the benefit of all, first of all, of the ordinary people who are the ones who are suffering the most, says Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina
By Zeljka Jevtic We are going to the US to tell President Bush and Mr. Kofi Annan to tell them that the Serbian Orthodox Church and our people are Christian and that they want to be a part of the community of all peoples. To tell them that this land, too, is the house of the Lord," says His Grace Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina, who will be heading a Serbian Orthodox church delegation to the US at the end of this week.
"After everything that happened and occurred, after all the information and misinformation about our people and country, we want to directly state our purpose and the truth - that we are not some sort of wild men against the whole world. That we are not people without knowledge of order and life as a part of the world," emphasizes Bishop Grigorije.
Besides Bishop Grigorije, the delegation also includes Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan, the abbot of Visoki Decani Monastery. The Serbian Orthodox Church delegation is expected to meet with UN secretary general Kofi Annan on March 28, and with US president George Bush on April 2. The latter meeting is the first official meeting of the US president with Serb representatives. "This is also the first time that a delegation is going on an official visit to the US in this manner - with concrete purposes and goals," says the Bishop.
"We are going first because there are various crises in our country, and we would be happiest if we did not have to take these kinds of steps. However, they are born out of great misfortune. We initiated this process to meet with the most important people because the US today is the leader in today's world. In addition to the US president and the UN secretary general, we will meet with many other people but exclusively as the delegation of the Serbian Church. We do not want to discuss everyday political matters and political differences but seek to represent our Church and our people. We have been presented poorly too often, both by those who presented themselves as us and by those who represented us but whose intentions may not have been good," says the Bishop.
He reiterates that "Kosovo is the most important theme, followed by the context of the whole region".
"That includes all of the former Yugoslavia, and we do have dioceses in other countries. But discussion of the Balkan region, where our Church has its people, a large number of faithful, is of special importance. We are concerned about peace. We want peace to come but it must also be a just peace," says Bishop Grigorije. He adds that he understands statesmen who rule "but it is essential that they hear and understand our desires".
"We are small. But if they want to have a leading role, then it cannot consist solely of ruling and power but also in taking the small into consideration. We want to preserve our dignity. We have consulted with many people. We will try to be simple, sincere and precise. And we will try to ensure that everything does not end with the meeting, that cooperation continues to the benefit of all, first of all, of the ordinary people who are the ones who are suffering the most," concludes Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina.
Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade
Correspondent of "Glas" among the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs
A village rises from the ashes
The Serbs were expelled from the villages in Istok municipality in June 1999. Five years ago the first 20 returnees came to the Osojane Valley and accepted the difficult task of bringing the village back to life
By Ljiljana Staletovic
LEPOSAVIC - The editorial staff of "Glas Javnosti" presented the Rados Tosic Elementary School in the Metohija village of Osojane a complete set of books from its publishing house.
Zoran Djordjevic, director of the St. Sava Culture Hall from Istok and the editor in chief of Hvosno magazine, which was temporarily displaced to Leposavic after the expulsion of Serbs in June 1999, thanked us for the gift and said that the readers of these books will the local population which still respects the written word. The Osojane library has some 3,000 volumes.
Church in Osojane which was recently restored
thanks to the assistance of the Greek Church
"Once we recovered from the first shock and found ourselves here in Leposavic, we decided to continue from where we stopped because life goes on. We decided to begin with the preservation of our heritage. We resumed the work of the Istok Culture Hall and our publishing house and soon thereafter, with the help of the Serbian Ministry of Culture, the first issue of Hvosno magazine was published. The first issue of this magazine, which is published every alternate month and concerns itself with issues of culture and history, was published nine years ago and we are presently preparing issue 43. This magazine will one day represent a rich testimony of our heritage, as well as all that has befallen us," said Djordjevic.
"Today three employees of this hall are in Leposavic and four are in Osojane, one of 17 returnee villages in Kosovo and Metohija, where they are preparing the return of the Istok Culture Hall," said Djordjevic.
Our collocutor believes that conditions for this now exist. When they move to Osojane, they will continue publishing Hvosno, publishing books and organizing cultural events begun while in exile, such as the Gorazdevac and Hvosno Oaks art colonies and the Old Serbian Sources traditional folk art show. This year they are planning an icon-painting colony in (the monasteries of) Gorioc and Budisavci which 11 icon-painters are scheduled to attend. Djordjevic is convinced that Osojane will be come the center of cultural creativity in Metohija.
The Serbs were expelled from this village and the villages in Istok municipality on June 13, 1999. The Albanians torched their houses, and when the first 20 returnees came to the Osojane Valley on August 13, 2000, they accepted the difficult task of bringing the village back to life. And they succeeded. The Scepanovic family, the Duric family, the Radenovic family... This winter smoke was rising from the chimneys of 120 houses with some 300 inhabitants. They hope that the remaining 20 houses will also soon be inhabited.
The local residents of Osojane, as well as nearby Kos and Suvi Lukavac, are reluctant to remember the evil that befell them and their life in refugee camps. Today they are in their own homes here. In Osojane they have a primary medical facility, a shop, a restaurant. They work 120 hectares of land, they work in their fields and gardens, with the help of humanitarian organizations they are renewing their livestock... They hope that soon the Osojane Valley, rich in lignite and waterways and located at the foot of historic Hvosno, the bells of the torched church of the Holy Archangel Gabriel will ring out, thanks in part to a donation from the Greek government.
Here one can hear the laughter and jesting and clamor of children. Djordjevic tells us that 40 students attend the elementary school, five of them from the nearby returnee village of Suvi Lukovac. There are 10 students in the secondary school and 12 children in the pre-school. It would appear that the imitation of life has in fact transformed into real life. Nevertheless...
The land in Metohija, said Djordjevic, has not been sold. The Serbs have a place to return but returns are obstructed, Albanians are making lists (of people permitted to return) and it is still not safe. One can leave from Osojane twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, with a KFOR escort as far as North Mitrovica. There is no longer a permanent security checkpoint at the entrance to the village but Spanish KFOR troops and UNMIK police patrol regularly. The ghetto is, after all, the ghetto.
Osojane Valley gets its own priest
The church dedicated to the Holy Archangel Gabriel met with the safe fate as other homes in Osojane Valley, and was seriously damaged by dynamite in 1999. Last year local residents managed to rebuild it, and the monks of Holy Archangels Monastery near Prizren placed a new engraved iconostasis only days before the fateful day of March 17
ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, March 23, 2005
At the end of February, three and a half years after the return of Serbs to the Osojane Valley, the faithful were overjoyed to receive the first Serbian priest, Fr. Goran Kobic (born in 1964 in Prnjavor in Bosnia). Fr. Goran was ordained deacon in Gracanica on January 2 of this year and elevated to the office of priest on Christmas Day.
The first courageous returnees arrived in their village, which had been burned to the ground and where not one house remained intact and not one tree remained uncut, on August 14, 2001. With much assistance from Spanish KFOR, the German NGO THW and others, they have successfully revived six villages in the Osojane Valley and managed to establish a primary school and a primary medical facility.
The lack of a priest has been a major problem only partially relieved by the Decani monks or the priest from nearby Gorazdevac. Despite this, there was frequently no one to cut the slava cake or to serve liturgy.
The church dedicated to the Holy Archangel Gabriel met with the safe fate as other homes in Osojane Valley, and was seriously damaged by dynamite in 1999. Last year local residents managed to rebuild it, and the monks of Holy Archangels Monastery near Prizren placed a new engraved iconostasis only days before the fateful day of March 17.
Work is currently being completed on the house where Father Goran moved in today. In addition to the villages of the Osojane Valley, Father Goran will also service the neighboring returnee villages of Bicha and Grabac in Klina municipality, as well as the three villages of Cerkolez, Suvo Grlo and Banje in foothills of Dren.
