Voice Summer 2009

SUMMER 2009

St. George Serbian Orthodox Church 3025 Denver Street • San Diego, CA 92117 telephone: (619)276-5827 email: [email protected] web: http://saintgeorgeinsd.com

Church Officers & Staff PARISH PRIEST: V. Rev. Bratislav “Bratso” Krsic PARISH DEACON: Rev. Paul Germain PRESIDENT: Nemanja Selezan VICE PRESIDENT: Vladan Trifunovic 2nd VICE PRESIDENT: Dobrila Undheim 3rd VICE PRESIDENT: Simona Trifunovic SECRETARY: Tina Zivkovic TREASURER: Rev. Paul Germain FINANCIAL SECRETARY: Lindsay Selezan CORRESPONDING SECRETARY: Melanie Milicevic MEMBERS-AT-LARGE: Nada Pantovich, Vojkan Popovich, Sam Purlia, Vladan Vladisavljevic, Vecki & Miodrag Miljkovic, Dragan & Sonja Radic, Marko & Vera Rakic STEWARDSHIP MINISTRY: Chair: Lydia Petric Rhoads AUDITING BOARD: President: Miro Copic, Sean Wright, Zeljko Milasinovic TUTORS/VESTRYMEN: Mico Lukic, Ladislav Tapavcevic, Pete Dopodja, Alex Sekanovic, George Skaljac, Marko Rakic, Vojkan Popovich, Miro Copic, Milan Miljkovic S.S.S. ST. GEORGE CHOIR President: Velimir Jovanovic CIRCLE OF SERBIAN SISTERS (KOLO) President: Sylvia Ivanovic CHURCH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT Deacon Paul Germain MORAVA FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE Director: Maria (Draskovic) Milasinovic ADULT ORTHODOX FELLOWSHIP Nemanja Selezan VOICE OF ST. GEORGE Editor: Marsha Jovanovic (619)988-0650 • FAX (619)588-5767 email: [email protected]

Descent of the Holy Spirit Guides Us to All Truth Pages from the Orthodox Youth Ministry’s Our View Saints Sophia & daughters Saint John the New Martyr of China From the President Continuing Our Legacy Summary Continuing Our Legacy is Our Responsibility From the Treasurer’s Desk Naughton sisters on still another winning team St. George Choir Trip to Phoenix Kolo Sisters Religious Education Report, Spring 2009 Here’s what’s new in MORAVA’s corner Church Family News St. George Stewards—June 7, 2009 From the Stewardship Chair Stole Report for Jan. 1 – June 1, 2009 “Uniting” Bosnia, Smoking in the Arsenal Serbian Orthodox Church redistributes dioceses in the Americas Ecumenical Patriarch active in world issues Calling All Tradesman

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Midyear course adjustment. Since the shortest day of the year way back in December, each following day has given us a glint of hope as the time of darkness got shorter. Culminating now in the summer soltice, the longest day in the year, when we typically celebrate graduations, weddings, holidays, vacations, reunions, and the like, in the summer light. Many of these events mark the end and/or the beginning of something. Thus, it seems this midpoint of the year would also be a good time to make a course adjustment. Let me give you an example: Our Continuing the Legacy Capital/Stewardship Campaign has completed its first phase. Unfortunately, it didn’t make its goal this first time out. That said, I think each of us needs to re-evaluate our seriousness about supporting our Church and make a course adjustment. Did you not pledge or give? Why not? Are you going to be like all those freeloaders who enjoy public broadcasting and never donate anything for its support? Yes, you can do that. No one really knows, and you have your reasons, right? Except someone does know—the Lord knows. He isn’t going to forbid you from availing yourself of the services of the Church (or public radio), nor is He going to punish you. But if you bothered to learn His teaching, you would know that the more you give, the more you receive in return. So I urge all of us to make a midyear course adjustment today. If you haven’t done so, take your stewardship pledge card and your Capital Campaign card and commit to financially supporting your Church. Do it for your own sake, and do it for the Lord.—Marsha Jovanovic

Message on World Environment Day (June 5, 2009) Today's World Environment Day is an opportunity as well as an invitation for all of us, irrespective of religious background, to consider the world ecological crisis. In our time, more than ever before, there is an undeniable obligation for all to understand that environmental concern for our planet does not comprise a romantic notion of the few. The ecological crisis, and particularly the reality of climate change, constitutes the greatest threat for every form of life in our world. Moreover, there is an immediate correlation between protection of the environment and every expression of economic and social life.

history is filled with numerous examples of misuse of these privileges, where the use and preservation of natural resources has been transformed into irrational abuse and, often, complete destruction, leading occasionally to the downfall of great civilizations. Indeed, the care for and protection of Creation constitutes the responsibility of everyone on an individual and collective level. Naturally, the political authorities of each nation have a greater responsibility to evaluate the situation in order to propose actions, measures and regulations that will convince our communities of what must be done and applied. Yet,

the responsibility of each individual is also immense both in one's personal and family life but also in one's role as an active citizen. Thus, we call everyone to a more acute sense of vigilance for the preservation of nature and all creation, which God made in all His wisdom and love. And, from the See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we invoke God's blessing for World Environment Day, offering praise to the Creator of all, to whom is due all glory, honor and worship.

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch

For our Orthodox Church, the protection of the environment as God's creation is the supreme responsibility of human beings, quite apart from any material or other financial benefits that it may bring. The almighty God bequeathed this "very beautiful" world (Gen. 1.26) to humanity together with the commandment to "serve and preserve" it. Yet, the direct correlation of this divine mandate for the protection of creation to every aspect of contemporary economic and social life, ultimately enhances the global effort to control the problem of climate change by effectively introducing the ecological dimension into every aspect of life. With the opening of this third millennium, environmental issues - already evident since the 20th century - acquired a new intensity, coming to the forefront of daily attention. According to the theological understanding of the Orthodox Christian Church, the natural environment is part of Creation and is characterized by sacredness. This is why its abuse and destruction is a sacrilegious and sinful act, revealing prideful despise toward the work of God the Creator. Humanity, too, is part of this Creation. Our rational nature, as well as the capacity to choose between good and evil, bestow upon us certain privileges as well as clear responsibilities. Unfortunately, however, human

Icon of the Trinity, cir. 1410 by Andrei Rublev

Troparion (Tone 8) Blessed art You O Christ Our God You have revealed the fishermen as most wise By sending down upon them the Holy Spirit Through them You drew the world into Your net O Lover of Man, Glory to You! Kontakion (Tone 8) When the most High came down and confused the tongues, He divided the nations; But when he distributed the tongues of fire He called all to unity. Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-holy Spirit!

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 2

C E L E B R AT I O N * D E D I C AT I O N * P RO G R E S S * V I S I O N Descent of the Holy Spirit Produces Many Fruits and Guides Us to All Truth One should stand in church or in front of the home icons (home altar) and maintain a respectful and contemplative silence in the face of such an awesome event: the Descent of the Holy Spirit. This Feast Day falls on the fiftieth day after Pascha, the Resurrection of our Lord, hence the name Pentecost. On the Hebrew calendar, Pentecost was the harvest feast. For us Christians, it is the harvest of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul in his letter to Galatians 5:22-23 gives us the entire list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. In the gospel according to St. John 16:13, Jesus Christ told His disciples and tells us today that the Holy Spirit, will guide you into all truth. The Church’s hymnography reveals a deep and profound theology about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Light and Life, and a living, noetic Fountain, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding; a good, an upright, a noetic Spirit, presiding in power and purging offenses. He is God, and deifies; He is Fire, issuing from Fire, speaking, working, distributing the gifts; through Whom all the Prophets, and the Apostles of God, and all the Martyrs received their crowns. Strange is this report, strange and new this sight, a Fire divided that these gifts may be apportioned. (Pentecost Matins, Third sticheron at the Praises) The Holy Spirit reveals truth to a man; He enlightens and purifies him with fire. The Holy Spirit, Who guides into all truth, reveals the mystical dogmas of Christ and the Holy Trinity. By the Holy Spirit, the prophets prophesied, the apostles taught, and the councils of the

Church defined the divine dogmas concerning the All Holy Trinity, and other things pertaining to the life in the Church. The Holy Spirit makes the weak strong, and the fainthearted brave. The Holy Spirit enables a man to see things that cannot even be uttered, the deep things of God, after the Spirit prepares him. By the Holy Spirit, a man prays in spirit and truth, according to his need and the will of God. The Holy Spirit completes a Christian life and makes it possible for one to live it fully as intended by God, that is, in communion with Him. This Pentecost when the Church entreats the Holy Spirit to come and pour out His gifts once again, let us dear readers, submit ourselves to this powerful breath that renews, strengthens and enlightens every man. If we surrender ourselves completely to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to take over our life, we will share in the life and action of God. As one saint said it “all of the attributes of divinity must become ours; eternal life, truth, goodness, holiness, purity, joy ... all perfections summed up in the greatest which is Love. For God is Love!” May our St. George parish continue to gather each Sunday and Feast Day as the apostles did in the upper room, and may He transform all of us into a living flame of God’s grace that brings forth the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. "O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save, our souls, O Good One." Amen!

The Pentecost icon not only tells the story of the descent of the Holy Spirit in tongues of flame upon the apostles, but it also teaches us the greater meaning of this event in God’s provision for the salvation of the world. See how the circle of the Apostles is not closed but is open both at the top toward heaven – from which they receive the Holy Spirit – and also at the bottom where we see a crowned figure holding a cloth filled with many blank scrolls.In this we see that the Holy Spirit descended first upon the Apostles for they had been prepared by our Lord Jesus Christ to receive this divine indwelling. But the outpouring of the Holy Spirit does not stop there for the crowned man at the bottom and in the center of the Apostles represents all the kingdoms and nations of the earth. Having received the Holy Spirit, the Apostles began to speak and preach the Gospel in a multitude of tongues which were the languages of the nations of the earth. Shortly after this the Apostles divided up the whole of the known world between themselves and began to preach the Gospel to all nations. The scrolls represent the various nations, each of which would be taken up by one or the other of the Apostles. There he would go to proclaim the Resurrection and the defeat of sin, death and the devil and the freedom of all men from their captivity.(Archpriest David Moser).

Protopresbyter Bratislav Krsic

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 3

Pages from the Orthodox Youth Ministry Put Your Thinking Caps On! 1. Sinan Pasha of Belgrade ordered that the relics of St. Sava be translated to Belgrade and there to be burned on Vracar, April 27, 1594. a True/ b False

2. We commemorate the burning of St. Sava relics on May 10 each year. a True/ b False

Wrath destroys even men of discernment; but a humble answer turns away anger, and a grievous word stirs up wrath. The tongue of the wise understands good things, but the mouth of those without discernment proclaims evil things. The eyes of the Lord are in every place; they keep watch over both the evil and the good. The healing of the tongue is a tree of life, and the one who guards will be filled with the Spirit. (Proverbs 15:1-4)

Getting Familiar with Orthodox Terminology & Etiquette Canon. Literally, "a rule." It describes (1) the inspired Books of the Bible—the Canon of Scripture; (2) the rules and decrees issued by the early Church (see Acts 15:23-29) and by Ecumenical Councils—Canon Law; and (3) certain parts of worship, such as the Liturgical Canon or the Canon of Matins. Chrismation. The sacrament completing baptism, whereby one receives the gift of the Holy Spirit through anointing with the Chrism, a specially prepared oil which must be consecrated by a bishop. On several occasions in Acts, a baptized Christian received the gift of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of the hands of an Apostle (see Acts 8:14-17; 19:6). Chrismation is a continuation of that ancient practice in the Church.

3. The Vidovdan Feast day is commemorated on…?

a Transfiguration b Pentecost c Ascension d Pascha

5. Transfiguration Feast Day falls on which date? a July 12 b August 19

a May 12

c August 28

b June 11

d January 19

c June 28 d August 28

Answers: 1-a; 2-a; 3-c; 4-b; 5b

Scripture says this about a Righteous Response

massive conversion of the crowd after they had each heard the Gospel being preached in their own language?

4. What special feast day described in the Book of Acts was followed by a Church. The faithful are called out of the world to be the Church: the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the New Israel, the ark of salvation, the assembly of the faithful. Through the Church, Christians are united to Christ and to each other. In this community, the believer receives the grace of God through the sacraments and hears the truth of the gospel. This mystical transformation of people into one body in Christ takes place in the Eucharist. Because Christ is the Head of the Church, the Church is a reflection of the Incarnation, with both human and divine qualities (see 1 Cor. 10:16, 17; Gal. 6:16; Eph. 4:12; 5:22-32). Commandment. The Law of God, given first in the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, and completed or fulfilled by the teaching of Christ (Ex. 20:1-17; Matt. 5:1—7:27; John 15:12). Communion. (Gr. koinonia) A common union of the most intimate kind, enjoyed by Christians with God and with each other in the Church. This communion is especially realized in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist (John 6:56; 1 Cor. 10:16, 17). VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 4

Entering the Church Late! The time to arrive at church is before the service starts, but for some unknown reason, it has become the custom - or rather the bad habit - for some to come to church late. If you arrive after the Divine Liturgy begins, try to enter the church quietly - and observe what is happening. If the Epistle or Gospel is being read or the Little or Great Entrance is taking place, wait until it is finished to quickly find a seat. If Father is giving the sermon, stay in the back until he has concluded. If in doubt, check with one of the ushers to see if it is a good time to seat yourself. Try not to interrupt the Liturgy with your entrance. By the way, the best way to avoid this problem is to arrive on time then you don't have to wonder if it's okay to come in or not. People who come late to the Liturgy should not partake of the Eucharist! Crossing Legs in Church! In some Orthodox cultures, crossing one's legs is taboo and considered to be very disrespectful. In our North American culture, while there are no real taboos concerning crossing one's legs, we tend to cross our legs to get comfortable while sitting. Should we cross our legs in church? No.

Not because it is "wrong" to ever cross legs, but rather because it is too casual and too relaxed - for being in church. Just think about it, when you get settled in your favorite chair at home, you lean back, cross your legs, and then your mind can wander anywhere it wants to. Remember that sitting in church is a concession, not the normative way of prayer. You surely don't want to get too relaxed and let your mind wander off too much. In fact, when you do sit in church, you should sit attentively - and not too comfortably. When sitting in church, keep those feet on the floor, ready to stand at attention (which is what "Let us attend" means). Cross yourself with your fingers and hand - but don't cross your legs!

How to Celebrate Pentecost at Home ...Read and discuss the Scripture lessons that are read in Church on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11 and John 7:37-52, 8:12). It is the Body of Christ through which He continues to be present in the world today: to teach us, forgive us, guide us, bless us, and strengthen us. After Christ ascended into heaven, He established the Church to carry on His work. When we go to Church on Sunday, we are going to Christ. When we support the Church with our offerings, we are supporting Christ. When we listen to the Church, we are listening to Christ. The Body of Christ. The Church is called the Body of Christ because just as Christ once used His physical Body to do the work of God in the world, so now He uses His mystical Body, the Church. On the long high front wall of a church that was just being completed, an artist started painting a picture of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Only the firm brush strokes outlining the head could be seen. A stranger stopped in and asked curiously, "When will the picture be finished?" A workman replied. ''That picture? It is finished.'' "Finished?" repeated the star-

tled visitor. "Why all it is, is the outline of a head. Most of it is still missing - the eyes, mouth, arms, legs and feet - the whole body is missing!" "You won't see that on a wall," the workman replied. "The body of Christ is the congregation of people who will be worshipping in this church. The Body of Christ is the Church." St. Paul writes, "He (Christ) is the head of the body, the Church" (Col. 1:18). St. [John] Chrysostom said, "Christ is the head of the body, but what can the head do without hands, without feet, without eyes, without ears, without a mouth?" As the Head of the Body, Christ issues orders to the various members. He is the brain; the One in Whom all the fullness of God dwells bodily. What a privilege God bestows on us when He ties us so intimately with Christ and with each other as to make us constitute one Body with Him as the Head. When we meditate on this analogy, we come to look at prayer as the members of the Body (the Church) reporting for duty to the Head (Christ). He continues to be present in the world today. The Holy Spirit. Finally, Pentecost is the day on which the Holy Spirit came to us in His fullness. On this day we kneel three times during the church service as we pray together with the priest that the same Holy Spirit Who filled the first apostles with God's presence and power may fill us today with the same power that we may experience the reality of God in our lives. The Holy Spirit must be constantly attained. He should be received daily. To achieve this, it is necessary to wait prayerfully and expectantly for Him as the apostles did before Pentecost. "All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer..." (Acts 1:14). This kind of prayerful waiting is essential if we are to receive the Holy Spirit. St. Seraphim of Sarov describes the whole purpose of the Christian life as nothing more than the receiving of the Holy Spirit: "Prayer, fasting, vigils and all other Christian acts, however good VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 5

they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life; they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, vigils, prayer and almsgiving, and other good works done in the name of Christ, they are only the means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God... [Ed. Note: emphasis mine]. Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and suffering, righteous and sinful. Great is the power of prayer; most of all does it bring the Spirit of God and easiest of all is it to exercise." It has been said that St. Seraphim in the above words sums up the whole spiritual tradition of the Orthodox Church. For, what is greater than to possess the Holy Spirit? And what is easier than the means by which He comes to us: prayer? No prayer is complete unless it includes a petition to the Holy Spirit that He come to dwell in us. Thus, through prayer every day becomes Pentecost. This would be a good time to learn one of the best known and most used prayers of the Orthodox Church. Almost every one of our church services begins with it. It is a prayer to the Holy Spirit and should be used often in your family devotions: O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who are everywhere present and fills all things, Treasury of good gifts and Giver of Life, come and abide in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, 0 Good One.

From Fr. Anthony Coniaris in Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home. This book offers us many ways to enrich the lives of our families.

Saints Sophia & daughters The Orthodox Church is filled with accounts of courageous Christians who, throughout the ages, have witnessed their faith—not only in word but, most memorably, in deed. For it was they who outwardly expressed their faith and, in some cases, joyfully accepted their fates at the hands of brutal murderers who condemned the True Christian Faith and sought to erase it from the face of the earth. In the second century, there lived in Rome—under the Emperor Hadrian (a pagan idolater)—a young widow named Sophia (Greek for ‘wisdom’). She lived with her three daughters whom she piously named after Christian virtues. Pistis (which means Faith) was the oldest, then came Elpis (which means Hope) then Agape (which means Love). Sophia raised them to embrace their Christian faith and they not only learned of it as one would a school subject, but they lived it—for it was their entire life of faith. They reached such a level of young piety that their names spread throughout the land and fell upon the ears of the eparch Antiochus. Upset by their outward beauty of holiness, he reported them to the Emperor Hadrian who commanded they be brought immediately to trial. Sophia undoubtedly knew the struggle that lie ahead of herself and her three daughters. However, she was not afraid for she had always turned to Christ in times of difficulty and had taught her daughters to do the same. Therefore, she gathered the girls together at their tender ages of 12, 10 and 9. She warned them of the days to come and that their faith was about to be tested. She informed them that their trials would be painful and most likely lead to their deaths. She told them that Christ would be with them throughout and that physical pain lasts only a short while but the Kingdom of Heaven is forever. She instructed them to pray constantly and cling to Christ, without fear.

When Sophia was brought alone before the emperor, the malicious Hadrian was amazed at her confidence and boldness. When no progress was made, he sent for her young daughters. Though, sharing their mother’s faith and wisdom, they did not waver. Hadrian attempted a different approach by assigning the sisters, along with their mother, to a noblewoman name Palladia—in order that they may learn the ways of foolish idolatry. Instead of heading Palladia’s words, they utilized the VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 6

time to pray and gain strength for their certain martyrdom. After the three days had elapsed, Hadrian made hollow promises of riches and power to the girls. He didn’t realize that they cared nothing about earthly things but rather they kept their values set at their meeting with their Lord Jesus Christ and his Heavenly Kingdom. He tried, one at a time—starting with Pistis, the oldest child—to woo and flatter them into renouncing their faith,

promising wealth beyond comprehension. Pistis calmly informed Hadrian that while he was an earthly ruler, her God rules the universe and she will serve only her God. She commanded that she would never bow down before a lifeless idol. Surprised that his enticements and eventually, his threats, were being thwarted by a young girl, he became enraged. Sophia and Pistis’ two sisters watched as she was brutally beaten. They prayed as she was savaged and burned, remaining peaceful and hopeful throughout her sufferings. She was then beheaded. Next came Elpis, age ten. She endured the same interrogations and attempts to sway her faith. She also gave the same kind of responses to the emperor. Unaware of the power of true Christian faith, Hadrian commanded the burning, hanging and lacerating of the beautiful child. She bravely endured, with her Lord by her side. Her face glowed brightly and her body exuded a sweet smell, astonishing all those who looked upon. When Hadrian ordered her to be beheaded, she willingly gave her neck. Lastly, Agape, age nine, came forward. Feeling he could surely sway such a gullible and fragile young child, he screamed at her to be smarter than her sisters and leave her mother with at least one child. She responded that her mother was wise and unharmed by his previous actions against Pistis and Elpis, knowing that they were at last in the glorious company of their maker. She told Hadrian not to waste his time. With his mounting anger came mounting torments and the youngest received the greatest tortures of the three sisters. She was hanged, beaten, stretched to the point of dislocation, but remained steadfast in her love for God. Hadrian gave the order to throw Agape into a furnace of fire, to which the small child fearlessly chose to walk into, voluntarily. Her body remained untouched by the flames and she praised and thanked God for making an example of His awesome power before the pagan crowd. Seeing that nothing was working, they beheaded her.

The emperor, surely thinking it the greatest punishment for a mother to live alone with the memory of her daughters’ torments, released Sophia and she took up the bodies of her beloved children and buried them together. With rejoicing and the pain of a mother, her tears fell upon their grave for three days. At which time, her life was peacefully taken from her and her soul was reunited with her daughters. All received the crown of martyrdom, including Sophia for though she did not endure physical pain, she was dragged through the torments of witnessing the tortures handed to her daughters. The church remembers and celebrates these four glorious saints on September 17th.

www.childsaints.com Saint John the New Martyr of China In the year 1900 there lived throughout China several groups of Orthodox missionaries who, with great dedication, worked hard to preach the teachings of Christianity among the diverse population of Taoists, Buddhists and Confucians. They stayed focused on their mission and never allowed themselves to get involved in the worldly cares around them, amidst the Boxer Rebellion of that time.

Orthodox priest, Metrophanes Chi-Sung. His wife, Tatiana, and his son Isaiah (age twenty-three) were killed right in front of him. Then they killed Fr. Metrophanes himself, being stabbed in the chest by a crowd of rebels. Next was Maria, age nineteen, Isaiah’s fiancée, who was trying to help other Christians escape. Lastly, they showed no mercy as they inflicted the most severe torments upon Fr. Metrophaes’ son, John, who was eight years old. They cut him to pieces, starting with his nose, ears and toes. He remained calm and quiet, looking like an angel in the flesh. Some of the witnesses had pity on him and tried to comfort him. Gazing upon his dying, mutilated body, they asked if he was in great pain. Smiling and looking even more radiant, his sweet lips uttered, “It is not difficult to suffer for Christ.” Shortly thereafter, the Christ which this small child had confessed, welcomed John into the Kingdom of Heaven. Hundreds of other Chinese Orthodox Christians also met their martyrdom. These were among the first Chinese martyrs to confess and die for Jesus Christ. The church remembers them on June 11th.

www.childsaints.com/

Despite the fact that these missionaries were peaceful people, the Chinese revolutionaries were intolerant of any foreign ideas and on June 11, 1900, the persecutions of Christians began in the city of Beijing and spread throughout all of China. They destroyed nearly all of the Orthodox churches and demolished years of labors, right down to their libraries. But this was not enough to bring satisfaction. They went on to kill all of the Orthodox people. The first to be martyred was the family of the first Chinese

Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 7

From the President

St. George Serbian Orthodox Church - 2009 Calendar JULY

Dear Brothers and Sisters, respected Fathers:

SUNDAY LUNCHEON/EVENT DUTIES - MORAVA

Friday-Sunday

I am honored to address you all again. We have entered the summer of 2009 and our main challenge continues to be the renovation and expansion of our parish facilities. Many of you have answered the call, and as president I am deeply thankful for your participation – may it be material or physical. As you will read in this issue of the Voice, parishioners and friends of St. George have pledged over $100,000. This is a significant contribution. I truly believe that many more will do the same. Summer is a time of rejuvenation, often less burdened by the demands of fall, winter and spring. Whether through travel or rest, we see it as a time to recharge. Parishes often experience lower attendance during summers, as our drive to rejuvenate takes us away from our places of worship. Ironically, our spiritual home is a constant stable provider, able to recharge us should we choose it. I want to invite all this summer to find rejuvenation in our beloved parish. I urge you to keep our Liturgy a priority, as you plan barbecues and trips to the beach. Instead of letting summer distract us, take advantage of the extra hours it gives. Invest in your spirituality, for we all know that when we are spiritually rejuvenated all else will follow. With respect,

Nemanja Selezan, St. George Church President

17-19

Morava Folkfest

Sunday

19

Quarterly Stewardship Meeting

Sunday

19-8

Summer Camp Begins

AUGUST

SUNDAY LUNCHEON/EVENT DUTIES - AOF Friday

SEPTEMBER Friday-Sunday Saturday Sunday OCTOBER

14

Dormition Fast Begins

SUNDAY LUNCHEON/EVENT DUTIES - KOLO 5-7

Diocesan Weekend in Jackson Church Closed

12-13

Serbian Festival

20

KOLO Slava /Church School Begin

SUNDAY LUNCHEON/EVENT DUTIES - MORAVA

Saturday NOVEMBER

17

St. Stefan and Jelena (Stiljanovic)

SUNDAY LUNCHEON/EVENT DUTIES - CHOIR

Sunday

1

Quarterly Stewardship Meeting Stewardship Sunday

Sunday

26

Thanksgiving Day

27-6

Nativity Fast

Friday DECEMBER

SUNDAY LUNCHEON/EVENT DUTIES - AOF

DATES & LUNCHEON SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Draga Braco i Sestre, Drago mi je da vam se ponovo obratim. Ulazimo u leto 2009 godine i nas veliki izazov je renoviranje i prosirenje nase parohijske zgrade. Mnogi od vas ste se odazvali pozivu a ja kao predsednik sam duboko zahvalan na vasem ucescu bilo da je to materijalno ili dobrovoljnim doprinosom. U ovom izdanju “Voice of St. George”-a procitacete da su clanovi i prijatelji crkve Sv. Djordja obecali sumu od $100,000. Ovo je znatan doprinos. Ja sam potpuno uveren da cete i vi ostali da ucinite isto. Leto je vreme za odmore i cesto nas manje obavezuje od jeseni, zime ili proleca bilo da putujemo ili se odmaramo vidimo taj period kao vreme da se osvezimo. Parohije obicno imaju manje posete preko leta posto nas zelja za odmorom odvuce od crkve. Ironicno, nasa duhovna kuca je stalni stabilni snabdevac koji nam omogucuje i duhovni odmor ukoliko mi to zelimo. Zeleo bih da vas sve pozovem da nadjete duhovni odmor u nasoj crkvi. Podsecam vas da date prioritet liturgiji kada planirate druzenja i odlaske na plazu umesto da vas leto od toga odvuce. Iskoristite duze letnje dane. Posvetite se duhovnosti jer svi znamo kada smo duhovno podmladjeni sve ostalo ce samo po sebe da dodje. S postovanjem,

Nemanja Selezan

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 8

Continuing Our Legacy Summary I am providing a summary for the Continuing Our Legacy Stewardship Campaign to update the St. George parish as to the tremendous progress we’ve made in a few months time thanks to everyone’s caring efforts. 2009 Continuing Our Legacy Campaign Pledges March 29-May 19, 2009 OVERALL RAISED/Pledged: $103,934.25 The Pledged amount listed above is estimated for the full 3-year period of this project. This amount does NOT include the 2008 Easter Donations or any other donations made previous to hiring RSI. CONTINUING OUR LEGACY FUTURE RSI has provided St. George with a follow-up guideline for the 3-year period in which pledges are being collected. This program is called the BRIDGE PROGRAM and consists of a working model to follow for confirmation of donations, thank you letters, and quarterly updates for 3 yrs, etc. Quarterly Update letters & emails: The main bulk of the correspondence is in the Quarterly updates. These will be sent both via mail and email. Fr. Bratso will be providing the parish Quarterly updates regarding the building fund and amount raised to date. The purpose of these is to keep the Continuing Our Legacy Campaign in our parishioners minds (hearts & prayers too!) and so people will know automatically where St. George stands in regard to the overall project needs. Thank You Letters: Most of the people who have made donations should have received a Thank You letter by now. BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THE FAMI-

LIES AND INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE DONATED THUS FAR AND BEEN AN INSPIRATION TO OTHERS! GOD BLESS YOU! IDEAS for future efforts: DONORS’ WALL: This was discussed as an option but likely only done at very end of entire remodel, which gives parishioners time to make donations during the 3yr timeline. Will have names listed (and only if desired) under RANGES of pledged amounts only.

Congratulaltions and a special thank you to the Continuing Our Legacy Stewardship Committee Team for their dedication in kicking off our enormous capital improvement campaign. Please prayerfully consider making a pledge and/or contribution to meeting the campaign objective of raising $1.5 million dollars: Prayer Team: Deacon Paul Germain+; Frs. Draskovic and Petakovic Print Team: Mara Bosnak+, Melanie Milicevic+; Miro Copic; Diana Coso Administrative Team: Lindsey Boyce+ Web Team: Nemanja Selezan+; Vlastimir (Vlasta) Sindjelic Video Team: Marko Rakic+, Zeljko Milasinovic+; Dobrila Undheim Pascha Team: Tina Zivkovic+, Simona Trifunovic+; Vecki Miljkovic, Sonja Radic Cont Legacy Dinner:Fr. Bratso Krsic+, Jadranka Bozinovska+; Velimir Jovanovic, Lydia Rhoads (Milasinovic family donating all food & cooking); Vladan Trifunovic (arranging the “Re-Inventing Tesla” performance) Info Team: Vera Rakic+; Vladan Trifunovich (Choir luncheon Sundays-thank you) Distrib. Team:Protinica Lisa Krsic+ Program Leaders:Jennifer Milanovich+; Dragan Radic+ RSI Consultant: Roger Boatman

3-D Model Construction:Dragan Radoicic+; Nemanja Selezan, Marko Rakic

THERMOMETER to go UP AFTER MAY 3rd St. George Slava. A thermometer for fundraising will be put up in church hall near 3D model to show funds pledged/collected for remodel. Families/Individuals who can pledge larger gifts need to come forward. Part of why St. George missed the mark of making 2-3x annual revenue is that there were no really large donors ($30K, $50K, $100K donors). It’s not easy to ask for money during this economy; however, we need to ask and encourage our potential donors at this stage that might be able to participate with larger donations, as these types of donations are key to the success and future life

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blood of the St. George Parish. Grants and Going outside the St. George community Grants (such as money available for historic buildings, religious centers, or San Diego landmarks) might be an option. Also, sending a mailing or information to request donations from people that are outside the St. George or

Orthodox Church community is possible in order to widen our potential net to gather much needed funds for remodel/ repair of church grounds. Small fundraisers: Small fundraisers can't hurt our efforts; however, even several of these will not generate the kind of giving that we need. Yet I still believe it’s a good idea to donate several future smaller fundraisers/events towards building project if possible. Even though we didn't raise $200K$300K (let alone $1.5 Mill for the entire project), I stand behind the entire campaign process and the hiring of RSI to provide a frame work for our efforts. The entire Legacy team gave 100%, and I am proud of them! Given the economy and the fact that we have a small parish (esp. people who attend regularly), I believe we had a great success (~ 6x return on investment) even if it falls short of the entire project cost. It just may not be realistic at this time to raise this amount money and we need time for the economy to recover and our people to all get on board with the overall project/goal. That being said, I believe we can still do more- going after grants perhaps and

outside the church community as welland I have faith that St. George will continue to grow and we will be able to proceed with the remodel of the church hall at the very least. J And as St. George’s Church Board President, Nemanja, shared with me recently “Most important we have recovered funds spent on RSI consulting, received 3-year pledges and injected the sense of giving into our parish.” I agree! I am really proud of our team, our parishioners for their faith and supporting these efforts, and in St. George Church itself! May God Bless our EFFORTS and BLESS ALL St. George Parishioners and supporters for your loving gifts, stewardship, and hard work! THANK YOU ALL!! HVALA LEPO!! With Blessings and Faith in Continuing Our Legacy,

Jennifer Milanovich,Co-Chair Continuing Our Legacy Stewardship Capital Campaign

Calling All Tradesman Here is a chance to help your church with the renovation project. If you are in construction and are licensed, insured, and bonded in the State of California, we need your help. We are looking for people in the following fields: • Plumbing • Electrician • Mechanical (HVAC) • Framing • Concrete / Masonry If we choose a general contractor for the job, we will allow any subcontractors to bid the job and interview with the general contractor. A competitive bid would include dollar cost, and the subcontractor would have to meet time and quality requirements of the general contractor. Our goal is to create a Church Hall that will serve us for generations, I could think of nothing more appropriate than if we were able to do it with our own tradesmen. Please contact me at [email protected], if you are interested. Vladan Trifunovic

Continuing Our Legacy is Our Responsibility The Vision and the Gift 1 Chronicles 29

Carved into the face of Mount Rushmore, but – more than that – carved into the affection of American people, is the memory of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt first hurtled into the American consciousness with famous example of his “Rough Riders.” When all others were reluctant to take San Juan Hill, Teddy Roosevelt took charge. In the face of the intransigence of an older officer, he simply requested that his men be permitted to march through the senior officers’ ranks and charge the hill. Triumphantly “TR” charged up the hill in front of his men and into the forefront of American leadership. With that background, a later quote from Teddy Roosevelt rumbles with all the more authority: It is not the critic who counts, or how the strong man stumbled and fell or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion and spends himself in a worthy cause, and if he fails, at least fails while enduring greatly, so that he’ll never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Casting a longer shadow than that stands David of Israel, a pivotal person of human history. A man of passion, bright victory and bitter failure, he reminds us across 3,000 years of the influence of leadership and sacrifice in a cause of worth. At a crucial moment in the history of God’s people, David came forward to make a sacrificial gift that led many others to do the same. He too was one who stumbled, fell, rose up, dreamed, built, and triumphed. There are always those timid souls who wait for just the right moment before tak-

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ing the step of sacrifice. The temperature of circumstance must be at just the right degree, the humidity of the moment at the perfect percentage, and the barometric pressure of the challenge at precisely the appropriate millibar. If all is well, such bland leaders of the bland will move forward. Then there are those heroic souls who recognize the significance of the moment, the window of opportunity, and then the undeniable, unrepeatable challenge before them. They do not wait for perfection; in sacrifice they prefer action. Before our St. George parish in these days just such a moment shimmers in the transient morning of our opportunity. We all know the challenge before us. A door of unrepeatable opportunity for our parish opens before us. Today we are called upon to make sacrifices. The call of the moment does not beckon us to equal gifts but to equal sacrifice. Years ago Michelangelo found inside a marble block the famous statue of David. In another way we can quarry from this ancient text a lingering truth for life this moment. At the strategic moment, God’s people seize the moment to make a historic sacrifice. Sacrifice Begins With a Vision and a Task. We must envision building for God’s work. When King David had conquered his enemies, secured his borders, and brought prosperity to his people, his eager mind turned to building the house of God. The very Hebrew word dawid suggests someone who seethes or boils with passion. Nothing half-hearted characterized this great king. The motive of David’s vision was pure: “The temple is not for man but for the Lord God” (1 Chronicles 29:1). When the call is made for sacrifice, the motive for driving vision should be pure. Had the temple been a monument to David or merely an architectural reflection of Hebrew culture, the motive would have been unworthy if not blasphemous. Had the goal of David been merely another monument, the cost would have

been too extravagant. The motive was pure. What was sacrificed was to be given “not for man but for the Lord God.” The mighty, sacrificial offering belonged to God alone. How do we weigh the motive of sacrifice for the challenge before our St. George parish? It is not to honor an individual or group of individuals. Nor does the challenge before us call for a sacrifice to make a statement about our church culturally, socially, or economically. There emerges only one appropriate motive for the sacrificial giving required of us in this hour: the worship of Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We give that the name of God be honored, the word of god be taught, and by God’s grace, the church of God be built.

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When the voices of little children ring in the hallway of St. George hall and the steps of aged parishioners faithfully walk through these facilities, it will be because of a purity of vision that wishes to honor God and God alone. It is one thing to have a vision. It is another thing to have a vision and a task. We must make provision for the vision. Along with a vision is the task of paying for the vision. A task without a vision is drudgery. A vision without a task luxury. A vision with a task means victory. Because David wanted the vision to be reality, he made regular, planned gifts to the vision (v.2). Many parishioners of our St. George give faithful, weekly or monthly gifts to support the work of Christ in our parish.

But, David went a step further. At a time of unprecedented, unparalleled need he went “above and beyond” that which he had given before: “Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver” (v. 3). At the time, which called for unusual sacrifice, David gave an extraordinary gift that was personal, additional, and devotional. Sacrifice Continues With a Response. Each of our parishioners plays one instrument in the orchestra of what God is doing in our parish. Every one holds one piece of the mosaic of God’s activity at our cherished St. George parish. At the moment our gift is necessary; its proportion is the same as all other gifts in the eyes of God. Just as the musical triangle is not equal in sound but equal in significance, so also our giving is not equal in amount but is of equally significant proportion. Some may give with a larger amount and some with a smaller amount, yet giving the same proportion at the critical time is the giving that pleases God. It is indeed not equal gifts but equal sacrifice that matters.

You know you are Orthodox if: • You are more comfortable standing in church than sitting. • You're used to skipping breakfast on Sundays. • You wonder why the Pope crosses himself backwards.

If you did not already give to the Continue Our Legacy – Remodeling of our Church Property and Rebuilding Ourselves project, please consider doing so today.

• You wear comfortable shoes to church because you know you'll be standing a long time.

May our Lord, through the prayers of St. George, bless our efforts and sacrifice. Thank you very much and glory be to God for all things!!!

• Your Easter isn't Easter without an all-night party.

• You don't flinch when someone throws water at you. • You are experienced at removing wax from clothing. • You consider any service two hours or under, short. • Your priest is married. • You can differentiate between the eight different chanting tones. • You can say 'Lord have mercy' 40 times without making a mistake.

Fr. Bratso Krsic

• You can say "Christ Is Risen"/"Indeed He Is Risen" in at least 3 languages. • You've grown accustomed to the taste of wine because you've had it since you were a baby. • You wonder why others complain about having to "fast for 6 hours before a blood test". (6 hours....piece of cake!) • But most of all.....you're in awe every time you walk into an Orthodox church, no matter where in the world it is.....and you

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From the Treasurer’s Desk As we all know, the financial condition of our country and especially California is very worrisome. With the defeat of the latest propositions, California is in the midst of a $20 billion budget deficit, not to mention water rationing and apparent cuts we will see in services coming soon. This is in conjunction with a doubling of our vehicle registration, a significant increase in our income tax and in some cities almost a 10% sales tax. California has become the highest taxed state in the union, surpassing New York and New Jersey, which held the top positions for some time. We have some tough financial times ahead and we rely on our government officials to be fiscally responsible. Let us pray that the Lord will bless their efforts and find a solution to our budget issues. However, I would like to point out that the United States is the most charitable country in the world. Based on our Judeo-Christian heritage, we give in charity more freely and with love as demonstrated by our support of organizations like International Orthodox Christian Charities and even our beloved St. George. It is a great blessing from God to see, even with our friends and family struggling with unemployment,

lay offs, higher taxes, higher cost of everything, that we continue to see the support of our Church and its ministries with time, talent and treasure. As you will read about our Continuing our Legacy campaign, the charitable giving continues at St. George without fear and a clear love for our parish. As Orthodox Christians, we are clearly committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The first quarter financials were audited and approved by our stewardship at the Stewardship meeting in April. We are in good financial standing and have made some key decisions in order to maintain a strong portfolio going forward. The Investment Committee, headed by Miro Copic, with assistance from Sean Wright and Maria Kunac, was able to identify some high interest CDs so that we could take advantage of a greater than 2% return on our savings. This is significant, for we were getting <1% using our current bank. We also consolidated some of the accounts and this in turn had more money available for smart investment alternatives.

Total Asset Accounts Assets as of 3-09 $89,104 Overall Total Cash Assets as of 3-09 $292,011 *please see the minutes from the Q1 Stewardship Meeting for a full report.

I would like to especially thank Milos Belcevich for his tireless and dedicated help during the transition process. He has been invaluable and a true blessing as I learn how to manage our finances. Milos is an expert in accounting and I thank God for him and his knowledge. I also thank our Auditing Committee, Miro Copic, Sean Wright and Zeljko Milasinovic for their outstanding support and valuable advice. And for our Financial Secretary Lindsey Selezan for her organization and counting expertise! And of course I thank God for all of our Executive Board, our Church family, and everyone for their patience. I pray our God will continue to bless us with these gifts and I thank Him for all of His mercy upon us. In Christ our Lord,

Please find below a snapshot of what was presented at the first quarter Stewardship meeting: Total Bank Account Assets as of 3-09 $202,908

Naughton sisters on still another winning team From soccer to softball with plenty of academics inbetween, Mary & Avery Naughton, twin daughters of Pam Naughton, one of the St. George choir directors, and granddaughters of St. George steward and former treasure-financial secretary, Millie Mrja, continue to score all-star and league championships in San Diego North County. In May their softball team, the Star Strykers of Carmel Valley, won the North Shore Softball League 2009 season title. In the team photo, they are in the front row: Mary first from the left and Avery is third from the left. The girls attend La Country Day School, where they are both outstanding scholars as well.

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Deacon Paul Germain, St. George Church Treasurer

St. George Choir Trip to Phoenix Our choir traveled to Phoenix on February 13-15 to participate in the 50th Anniversary Concert and the choir Slava of the Stevan Hristich choir. We have a special relationship with this choir because they were the kumovi choir when our choir was inducted in the Serbian Singing Federation, and we have visited them many times, such as two year ago. They reciprocated on many occasions. Just like in the many earlier trips to Phoenix, we decided to travel by bus. We started early on Friday from our Church, picked up the passengers from North County at St. Petka Church, and continued to Phoenix. With many stewards joining our choir members, the bus was almost full. It was a pleasant trip with lots of singing, talking, food, and drinks. Everyone brought something to share: Vlado brought šljivovica, Tina sandwiches, Dobrila kept making mimosas throughout the trip, etc. When we arrived at the St. Sava Church hall, we were greeted by their choir members with šljivovica, followed by a welcome dinner and dance. Two other choirs took part in these festivities: the Kansas City choir, who were the honored guest choir (our choir was the honored guest choir two years ago), and the St. Sava choir from San Gabriel. On Saturday there was a picnic and lunch at a park, followed by the concert, dinner and dance at the church hall. The concert started with Oče Naš sung by the combined choirs directed by the Phoenix director Lazo Mihailovich, followed by Star Spangled Banner directed by Dobrila, and Bože Pravde directed the Kansas City choir director. Kate could not come to Phoenix because she had to sing with the San Diego Master Chorale that same weekend, as did another soprano Maja. Our choir sang two sacred and two secular pieces directed by Dobrila. We received a warm applause.

It was nice to see Martha and Slavko Dobrash, who used to live in San Diego before they moved to Phoenix area. Slavko and Martha used to sing in our choir, and they have been singing with the Phoenix choir for many years. It was also nice to see Rada Tierney, nee Krivosić, and her daughters and many other friends. After the concert, a Chicago lady, who has been going to such events for a long time, told me that our choir gave the best performance even though we were missing Kate and Maja. During the dinner and dance, Johnny Kangrga orchestra provided the entertainment. Sunday activities included the Divine Liturgy, Parastos for the deceased choir members, the choir Slava (Sretenje Gospodnje) celebration, and the banquet. The combined choir, directed by Lazo, sang Oče Naš and the responses during the Slava celebration. During and after the banquet we were entertained by the Jedistvo tamburitza orchestra. This turned out to be a double 50th anniversary celebration because on that Sunday was also the 50th wedding anniversary of Prota Velimir and Protinica Buba Petakovich. The Phoenix choir made a special cake for them and we all sang Mnogaja Ljeta. When it was time for our departure, the Phoenix choir followed us to our bus. They gave us a lot of food and drinks, including beer and a bottle of šljivovica, to take on our trip back, nice way to end this memorable trip. Our choir received a very generous donation from Dan & Dr. Vesna Radojevic for singing at the funeral of her father Tomislav Srdanovich.

Velimir Jovanovic, President of St. George Choir

Marija Milasinovic recording the bus trp

Christina singing along with the orchestra

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Kolo Sisters Our parish is so precious, and having such a beautiful place to worship and gather is truly a blessing to all. I have been attending St. George for more than 30 years, and have always felt welcomed. Having raised our children in such a rich spiritual and cultural environment has been a blessing. When I was asked to join Kolo many years I ago, I felt so honored. Now having been elected President, I hope that together as a group we can accomplish our goals that we will set forth. Please accept this as a personal invitation to join St. George's Kolo, and share your God given talent with us. I would like to share this thought of mine. Life is so fast paced, and making time for each other is somewhat challenging. but as we are going through our daily routines, and we have a thought of someone we know, the Lord is communicating to us. We can take a moment and pray for that person and their love ones. Their needs may be greater than we know. May the good Lord continue to bless all with good health and prosperity, as we continue to be of service to Him. Together we can continue to help our parish, and help others in need. I want to congradulate all of the past Presidents, Board members, and Kolo members, for all their hard work and efforts. I hope to honor you in this new role. I only ask for your patience and prayers. With love your sister in Christ, Sylvia Ivanovic, Kolo President Congratulations to Prota Velimir & Protinica Ljubinka Petakovich on the occasion of their Golden Wedding Anniversary, which they celebrated in Phoenix, Arizona, at the celebration of the 50th anniversary concert of the Stevan Hristich Choir. Housekeeping – Please help clear the tables! Sunday lunches are a wonderful way to socialize and share some fellowship after church. This is made possible by the many volunteers who, with love and dedication, prepare a meal to share with their church family. We kindly ask each and every one of you to clear your plate and/or your table completely. Remember, this is your second home. One of our church stewards shares a story where her Kuma belongs to a yacht club and at each club it is understood that each table is cleared by the members. This is to help keep costs down. It is an amazing thing to see people all dressed up and then everyone clears their table. What actually happens is that a couple of people volunteer to clean the whole table. If a yacht club can do this, so can a church club! Please help pass this information along and let’s all make this effort and have it become the norm, not only on Sunday lunches, but for all events, big or small! Hvala lepo!

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Religious Education Report, Spring 2009 With the coming of summer, the blooming of the flowers, the baby birds chirping in their nests, we find a renewal of God’s creation and our spiritual renewal following His glorious Resurrection. In the book of Acts we read about how the disciples of the Lord began their ministry, spreading the Word of God to those who wish to hear about salvation in Christ Jesus. With these joyous thoughts also come anticipation of summer vacations, barbecues and family time together as people of God. Our last day of Sunday School will be May 31. Upcoming events this summer include our Second Annual Summer Vacation Bible Camp at St. George, sometime in June. Last year we had over 20 children participate in the Matins, activities and fun. Also, the annual St. Sava camp is scheduled and awaiting registration. Please go to www.campstsava.org for more information. All of the forms and registration requirements are there. If you can’t access the website, please let myself or Fr. Bratso know and we will copy them for you. Also, remember that Fr. Bratso has to sign your forms prior to mailing to the camp.

Please help us encourage our children to attend and participate together as one family in Christ. St. Theophan the Recluse once said “Of all holy works, the education of children is the most holy.” The responsibility lies with us to make Christian education a reality for our children. We are responsible for making it a priority for them. Thank you for your help with this important ministry in our Church.In Christ our Lord, Deacon Paul Want to be able to reflect on your family's summer activities later in the fall and winter? Start a "funtime" book. Together with your siblings glue movie-ticket stubs, party invitations, drawings of vacation spots, and other memorabilia onto the pages of an album. Now when people ask you about your summer, they will get an earful - and an eyeful. [Ed. Note: If you make it to a monastery, be sure to take pictures of the chapel and the grounds and add them to your "funtime" book.] Another idea: Make an ever-growing travel journal. Choose and purchase a picture postcard of each place you visit during your vacation. Record a few key facts about the

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place on each postcard. Punch the left side of each card with two holes and add fastener rings to make the "growing" book. (You could also cut card stock the same size as the postcards [3 x 5 or 4 x 6] as filler pages for journal notes or to which the kids could attach other items.) Know God - No Fear No God - know Fear Fourth Annual Youth Retreat August 6 through August 10, 2009 Calling all Serbian Orthodox teens to share how God can influence how we live our lives now and for the future. We will explore the many ways in which our faith shapes the decisions we make. God leads us to paths that offer both opportunities and challenges; however, the direction we take is ours to choose. Come to this retreat and talk about these choices and how others have succeeded and failed in living the good life. This year's youth retreat will be held at Walsh College (www.walsh.edu), which provides the perfect setting for discussion, reflection, and recreation. Ask Father Bratso for additional information.

Here’s what’s new in MORAVA’s corner 2009 has been a busy year for Morava. From Christmas forward, we have been busy practicing, performing and serving our parish at various holidays and functions. Over Valentine’s weekend, Morava accompanied St George Choir on a 48-seater bus to Phoenix, Arizona to celebrate Stevan Hristich’s 50th Anniversary. We had a wonderful weekend of karaoke, barbeque and hiking at Papago Park and a concert and performance Saturday evening at the hall. Of course, there was never a dull moment on the bus ride – it was always full of fun and surprises!

The festival this year will be held July 17, 18 and 19, 2009, with the performance on Saturday, July 18 at 1:00 p.m. at UCSD Mandeville Auditorium. We are producing another commemorative book, and we are relying on our community to support us on our endeavor, as this is our main function and fundraiser of the year. We are thrilled to have new groups coming to our festival this year and are eager to see what they will perform! Please mark your calendars and RESERVE THAT WEEKEND to celebrate with us! For more information and/or to be included on an email mailing list, please email [email protected].

Marija Milasinovic, Director & Choreographer, MORAVA FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE

At the end of February, our Golubici (youngest group) and Junior Morava joined Senior Morava by practicing on a new night, Fridays. This night has brought together many families and provided an opportunity for our community to meet at the end of our hectic weeks to socialize and work on various activities (such as baking for upcoming church functions). Our moms rolled 900 sarmas for Easter in the matter of 3 hours! Morava served the meal for our church’s “Continuing the Legacy” dinner in April, which was a beautiful dinner and evening filled with inspiring speeches and video showing us just what we are working towards…a newly renovated hall and church, where we can continue to propagate our faith and culture for generations to come. Next, Senior Morava participated in the Annual Linda Vista Multicultural Fair, held on April 26. We were surrounded by numerous other cultural groups from all over San Diego, proudly showcasing their heritage. May 16, the senior group trekked up to St Stevan’s in Alhambra to participate in their annual Kolobration, which was another success, garnering compliments from guests on our singing and dancing. Memorial weekend took us to our sister parish of Sv. Petka in San Marcos to participate in their annual Kolofest, which hosted many groups and was a night filled with great dancing and many kolos! Avala was a good host, as always, and all three of our groups were a hit. We are preparing for our 20th Summer Folkfest on July 17-19, 2009 (not to be confused with our 20th anniversary of the FOUNDING of Morava two years ago)! We have some exciting groups participating this year, some new groups and some good, old friends. Our honored guests are coming to us from Milwaukee, Wisconsin – ST SAVA. Our other good friends, ZAVICAJ from Houston, Texas will grace our stage with their presence and talent. Two new groups, RASTKO from Irving (Dallas), Texas and SRPSKI OPANAK from Edmonton, Canada will grace our stage with their presence. Likewise, local groups from Arizona and California will honor us with their showmanship.

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Church Family News

Congratulations to Radomir & Jelena Plavic who celebrated their family Slava on the site of their newly constructed condo quadplex in Hillcrest. Designed by architect Petar Perisic, who unexpectedly passed away recently, the structure presents an arrangement units of that merges artistic sense with functionality.

Congratulations to George & Julie Stojadinovic whose older son, Alex, was promoted to Colonel at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in April. Alex was married in St. George Church several years ago. As well as being an accomplished physician, Alex is also a gifted accordian player in the Serbian tradition. He and his wife Tanja have one son, Nicholas. We are all very proud of you for serving our country, Dr. Alex, including your parents and brother, Petar.

Marian Pavlovich returns after spending year in Europe. Marian Pavlovich, daughter of Socorro Pavlovich and the

late Adam Pavlovich, has completed an Ambassadorial Rotary Scholar servicestudy program in which she was located in Budapest, Hungary. During her year in Europe she met countless foreign diplomats, brushed up on her already multilingual skills, was involved in an assistance project in Romania, and traveled extensively. She was able to visit her father’s relatives in Montenegro several times. She returns to UCLA to complete her university degree in 2010.

Congratulations to the Rhoads-Petric Family. Michael Rhoads, son of Howard and Lydia Rhoads and grandson of Milovan and Jelena Petric, graduated with a JD from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC. He is spending the summer preparing to take the bar exam at the end of July and will begin work in August as a Graduate Law Clerk with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. Quinceanera in Mexico. Marsha & Misha Jovanovic attended the 15th birthday party of Lucero Salas Lopez, stepdaughter of Dragan Popovic (above right), in Mexico City in April. Lucero is the only child of Dragan’s wife, Luz del Carmen Lopez Rivera, who is active in the PRI political party in Mexico. Marsha & Misha shared their table at the festivities with the Serbian Ambassador to Mexico, Milisav Pajic and his wife, Vesna.

Congratulations to the Radojevich Family. Natasha Radojevich, daughter of Dan & Dr. Vesna Radojevich, and granddaughter of Protinica Nada Radojevich, graduated with a Masters degree in Psychology from Long Island University in New York on May 14.

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Sandra Skendzic, now graduating from Rancho Buena Vista High School, filled her senior year with several extra curricular activities. While maintaining a high GPA in school, she also maintained her job at Grand Pacific Palisades Resort and her internship at Taylor Made Adidas Golf in the marketing department. Sandra will finish up her summer working at Grand Pacific, enjoying the time left she has left with her family and friends. In the fall, she will be attending the University of California, Santa Barbara where she will continue her studies with the drive and ambition she holds now.

All graduates are honored at St. George’s annual Vidovdan Celebration on June 28

Gina Ivanovic graduates from high school. The youngest child of Sylvia & Mirko Ivanovic, Gina says, “Now it's my turn to make some serious decisions as to which profession I would like to choose. I feel that the area of medicine is what interests me most at this time, and I'm looking at becoming a nurse. It is a career where I can be of service to others, and feel fullfilled.” Gina will be attending college in the fall.

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 19

Congratulations to our own Father Bratislav Krsic, who somehow found time to complete a Doctor of Ministries degree in May while being a full-time parish priest, busy father of three, and active participant in nationwide Diocese activities.

ST. GEORGE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ANNUAL FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 12-13, 2009 Planning has begun!!! Our first meeting was held on Friday, June 26th at 7pm in the St. George Social Hall. Thank you to those who attended. There are still plenty of positions to be filled. Silent Auction: Chairperson needed! Start looking to see what you can contribute to this event. Suggestions are: Timeshares, Mileage points and Vacations, Electronics, Golf Clubs, Professional Services, Artwork, Jewelry, Autographed Memorabilia, etc. can be offered and would be much appreciated for our silent auction. Torte: Please, please, please ladies (and gentlemen) bring traditional homemade torte to be sold at the festival. This was a huge success last year. We received so many compliments on all the wonderful torte that everyone so graciously made and donated. Any kind of Serbian torta accepted – any size, any shape.

CHAIRPEOPLE WE NEED YOU!!! We still need help in many areas. Clean-up this year will be a big task and will require maybe even a vacation day off from work on Monday. Plan early so that you can come and assist.!!! We definitely need someone to work on getting & supervising a crew there the next day. So once again, let’s pull together and make this the BEST YEAR EVER! We will start having sign-up sheets in August. If you have any questions or would like to chair something please feel free to give one of us a call. Simona - 760-224-2375 ([email protected]) or Tina - 760-533-6713 ([email protected]) Thank you for your continued support!

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 20

Save the Date!

November 14, 2009

Cevap Challenge - Rostiljada Back by Popular Demand! A Smashing Success last year! Pravi Hit! Entertainment provided by the ever-popular Boban Marjanovic! More Challengers! More Cevaps! Distinguished Panel of Judges!

Svi Nam Dobro Dosli!

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 21

From the Stewardship Chair Since our last issue of the Voice, 11 families have made their 2009 pledge to St. George. I thank each and every family for making their commitment to our church. The updated the list of 2009 stewards is listed here. Again, if I have inadvertently left off your name or misspelled your name, please let me know. I remind you that the concept of stewardship is not new to St. George. One of our past Presidents, Wayne Papac, introduced the program more than ten years ago. Stewardship is the giving of Time, Talent, and Treasurers. With your faith and support, we continue to build on this concept. Being a steward of St. George is more than making a financial commitment to the Church. Of course, we need your financial commitment to keep the church doors open every Sunday, but being a steward is also someone who gives of their time and your talent. Painting the flag pole, cooking meals, teaching Sunday School, these are all contributions that you can pledge as a steward. Our yearly operating expenses are approximately $175,000, about $465 per day. This figure does not include any of the costs for the renovation of the church property. You also should know that 100% of the operating budget comes from your donations. Without your donations, we could not exist. I encourage each and every one of you to make your 2009 pledge if you have not already done so. I am very excited to let you know that you can make your weekly, monthly, or yearly donations on our website: http://saintgeorgeinsd.com

If you have any questions about stewardship, please contact either Father Bratso or myself. Lydia Petric Rhoads, Stewardship Chairperson

St. George Stewards—June 7, 2009

• Leff, Kathryn Thickstun

• Alemany, Lazar and Linda

• Lukich, James and Petka

• Andolsek, Tonska D.

• Lukic, Milos

• Aud, Matthew and Laurie

• Markley, Scott and Nada

• Barron, Zorka

• Melnick, Stanley and Pauline

• Belcevich, Milos

• Mijailovic, Goran

• Benesh, Kathryn

• Mikler, Zora

• Bulic, Branislav

• Milanovich, Jennifer

• Copic, Miro

• Milasinovic, Zeljko and Marija

• Cronemeyer, Zorica

• Miljkovic, Milan and Diane

• Denton, Natalie

• Miljkovic, Miodrag and Vecki

• Drakulich, Persida

• Milicevic, James and Melanie

• Draskovich, Father Bozidar and Protinica

• Milovancev, Miroslav and Mira

• Freeman, Lillian

• Mitrovich, Predrag

• Fulton, Jeff and Radmila

• Mrja, Millie

• Gavrilov, Gleb

• Nedic, Sava and Spomenka

• Germain, Deacon Paul and Natalija

• Nikolic, Dragan and Gordana

• Grba, Svetozar and Christine

• Novakovic, Drago and Dana

• Gregovich, Ljubica

• Papac, Wayne and Sandie

• Grijakovic, Vladomir

• Pantovich, Nada

• Hyduke, David • Ilic, Boris

• Petakovich, Father Velimir and Protinica

• Ilic, Petar and Rosa

• Petric, Alex

• Irick, Olga

• Petric, Milovan and Jelena

• Ivanovic, Mirko, Sylvia, Marko and Gina

• Plavsic, Mara-Seja

• Jaich, Dennis and Rhonda

• Popa, Cornelia

• Jojic, Dobrinka

• Popovich, Dolly

• Jojic, Vesko and Julie

• Popovich, Ella

• Jovanovic, Martha

• Pugh, Zachary and Milica

• Jovanovic, Milivoj and Verica

• Purlia, Sam and Gloria

• Jovanovic, Misha

• Radjenovic, Mirjana and Milica

• Jovanovic, Velimir and Mira

• Radojevich, Dan and Vesna

• Kennedy, Ken and Sonia

• Radojevich, Protinica Nada

• Kinach, Alex and Seka

• Radovanovic, Dragoslav and Ljiljana

• Kostic, Tordis

• Raicevic, Vladimir and Silvana

• Krsic, Father Bratso and Protinica

• Rakic, Marko and Vera

• Kukich, Branislav

• Rhoads, Howard and Lydia

• Kunac, Dusan and Maria

• Rhoads, Michael

• Leff, Dylan

• Saathoff, Ron and Stephany

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 22

• Mitrovich, Jelena

• Plavsic, Milan and Ljubica

• Savchuk, Nikolaj and Olga • Selezan, Nemanja and Lindsay Boyce

(Fiscal Q1, 2009 Audit)

• Serder, Sophie

St. George Serbian Orthodox

• Smith, Justin and Zorana • Srbich, Alexander and Mrs.

April 20, 2009

• Srdanovic, Tom To Our Stewards and Executive Board Members:

• Stanojevic, Andja • Tepavcevich, Ladislav

This report is to advise you that the Audit Committee of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church has examined the financial register and corresponding bank statements and the related work papers pertaining to cash flows of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church, San Diego California for the period from January 1, 2009 through March 31, 2009.

• Trifunovic, Vladan and Milica • Trifunovich, Robert and Simona • Undheim, Robert and Dobrila

Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the financial records based on our audits, as provided by to us by the current Treasurer, Deacon Paul Germain.

• Vasich, Branko and Ruja • Vasic, Milica

We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted accounting principals in the United States of America. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. Our audit included the examining of individual transactions and supporting documentation as reflected in the financial state ments. We believe that our audit provided a reasonable basis for our opinion.

• Vladic, Milorad and Vladanka • Vlasovich, Milanka • Vukotich, Danica • Vukotich, John and Jean • Vukotich, Stefan and May

In our opinion, the financial statements of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church, present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position for the above referenced period and the results of its operations and its cash flows. We note a few policy recommendations below this opinion but these did not materially affe ct our audit.

• Vuksanovic, Dusan • Vulovich, Filip • Wright, Sean and Svenja

Audit Committee Members:

• Zivkovic, Jovan and Tina

s/ M iro Copic s/ Jack Milasinvoic s/ Sean Wright ƒ

STOLE REPORT JANUARY —JUNE 2009

Funerals Grant, O, Lord, Memory Eternal to: • Olga Medigovich-Cox • Tomislav Srdanovic

Weddings O, Lord our God, crown them with glory and honor! – God grant you many years! • Kiril Emilov Yanakiev and Daniela Huerta Rodriguez

Baptisms-Chrismation Servant of God____is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! God grant you many years! • • • • • • • • • • • •

Nicholas Dorin Shaternik Daniela Eva Milicevic Maksim Svetlan Komatina Natalia Righeliss Martin Ivan Gounev Mane Kaurin Adrian Nicholas Vasiliu Blake David Miller Mark G. Miller, Jr. Eric Dimov Deliivanov Nikolaj Daniel Krsic Damian Nicholas Slavkov

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 23

Srebrenica — The History of Salon Racism “In the West, the popular mythology about 7,000-8,000 Muslim men being executed in Srebrenica in 1995 is still alive and well, but independent research shows some 2,000 Bosnian Muslim fighters were killed in battle for Srebrenica and that is the number of bodies Hague investigators were able to find”, said Swiss researcher Alexander Dorin, who has been investigating Srebrenica events for the past 14 years. In his latest book titled “Srebrenica — The History of Salon Racism” (Srebrenica — die Geschichte eines salonfahigen Rassismus) published this month in Berlin, Dorin focuses on manipulations with the number of Muslims who lost their lives in Srebrenica. “Regarding the events in Srebrenica in 1995, the media manipulations still reign in the West, claiming that after the town fell to Serbian hands some 7,000 to 8,000 of Muslim fighters and male civilians were killed. However, the researchers around the world have shown this bears no relation to the truth,” Dorin told Srna News Agency.

ing through to Tuzla in several groups, in fierce fighting.” “There is no way the Serb Army could have captured seven or eight thousand Muslim fighters and male civilians and execute them somewhere, partly because that was technically impossible,” Dorin said. He explained that, among else, there was never enough Serb soldiers who could carry out a crime on such scale. In his research, Dorin was using various sources, including statements by the Muslim fighters and commanders, as well as testimonies given by Dutch UNPROFOR troops who were stationed in Srebrenica at the time. He pointed to a very interesting investigation carried out by the Bulgarian reporter and author Germinal Civikov, who wrote a book about the case of Croat Dražen Erdemović, former member of the Bosnian Serb Army, whose testimony represents the key Hague “evidence” of “Srebrenica massacre”, who claimed that his commander Milorad Pelemiš “ordered him and few other soldiers to execute some 1,000-1,200 Muslim POWs”. But the analysis of that case, said Dorin, proves Erdemović invented most, if not all of that story.

According to data he had gathered, Dorin discovered that at least 2,000 Muslim fighters were killed in battle for Srebrenica. He added the facts are showing that neither civilian nor military leadership of Republic of Srpska (Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina) ever ordered execution of the Muslim fighters and POWs.

Dorin explained that director of the Belgrade Center for Investigation of War Crimes Milivoje Ivanišević analyzed the lists of alleged Srebrenica victims. Ivanišević discovered that, a year after the fall of Srebrenica, some 3,000 Muslim men who were supposedly killed in 1995, were voting in the Bosnian Muslim elections.

“2,000 is approximately the number of bodies Hague investigators were able to find up to this day. To that number the Muslim side added several hundred Muslim fighters, most of whom came from abroad, who were killed in battle few years before the fall of Srebrenica, in Han Pijesak and Konjević Polje,” Dorin said, adding that this is evidenced even by the Muslim documents captured by the Bosnian Serb Army.

In addition, at least 1,000 of the alleged 1995 “Srebrenica massacre victims” have been dead long before or after Bosnian Serb Army took the town over.

Bosnian Serb Army Fought Against Orić’s Cutthroats, Not Against Muslim Civilians “Prior to the fall of Srebrenica, Naser Orić’s troops withdrew from this small town, leaving 25,000 civilians behind, although a certain number of civilians, some of whom were armed, was withdrawing together with Orić’s fighters,” Dorin said. He said that Bosnian Serb Army “did not kill a single Muslim civilian of those who remained in Srebrenica or Potocari, while it did engage Orić’s column, which was break-

“It is perfectly clear that Muslim organizations listed as Srebrenica victims all the Muslim fighters who were killed in the fights after the fall of Srebrenica,” the Swiss researcher said. According to Dorin, some Western reporters wrote back in 1995 that part of Srebrenica Muslim population, after the town’s takeover, migrated to other countries. This includes an American journalist who wrote that around 800 Srebrenica Muslims went abroad — from Serbia. “It was not possible to conduct an in-depth investigation, since no one can search the entire world to pinpoint each and every name [from the lists of alleged Srebrenica victims]. Still, the available evidence already shows there were immense manipulations at play,” Dorin said.

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 24

A number of photos of Muslim fighters taken during their breakthrough to Tuzla, which Dorin obtained from the Muslim sources, show Izetbegović’s fighters in uniforms, with many of them wounded. “On these photos one can see a number of wounded fighters who survived the battle against the Serb Army. Muslim side is now presenting its fighters who did not recover from their wounds as the victims of an execution”, said Dorin. He pointed out that some Muslims have admitted at least 2,000 of their Srebrenicabased fighters were killed in the battle. Dorin also reminded of the statements by the Muslim politicians given to media about an “offer” American president Bill Clinton made to Bosnian Muslim war leader Alija Izetbegović back in April 1993, to have “the Chetnik [Serb] forces enter Srebrenica and massacre 5,000 Muslims, which would result in the [US-led NATO] military intervention” against Bosnian Serbs. At the same time, Dutch UNPROFOR troops testified that Serb Army treated Muslim civilians in an entirely correct manner, while Srebrenica Muslim warlord Naser Orić with his fighters was massacring Serb civilians in the most monstrous fashion for years in Srebrenica municipality, and pillaging and destroying their property all the while. … For Those who Want to Know the Truth About Srebrenica Despite all the evidence about what really took place in Srebrenica and the fact there was no ‘massacre’, Dorin doubts the Hague verdicts in regards to Srebrenica events can be contested or overturned, being that this “so-called tribunal has convicted a number of people for the alleged Srebrenica massacre without any evidence whatsoever”. He cited a case of the Serb Vidoje Blagojević, convicted to a long prison term even though he had no connection to Srebrenica events, while “the mass murderer Naser Orić was acquitted of all responsibility for killing the Serbs”. “That court routinely discards everything that proves Serbs are not the monsters they have been made out to be. That tribunal has a purely political function. It has no relation to the justice and truth”, Dorin told Srna. The Swiss researcher does not expect his book about Srebrenica events will be able to break down the stereotypes. He said the book was written for those who wish to learn the truth about the events Western mainstream media sold as “Srebrenica massacre” and

even “genocide”, in order to justify their war against the Serbs. Dorin added that mostly left-oriented Western newspapers and organizations have shown an interest in his latest book and have offered cooperation. Alexander Dorin’s book about Srebrenica events is expected to be translated both into Serbian and English language. (http://de-construct.net/e-zine/?p=6082) Alexander Dorin , May 23rd, 2009, by DeConstruct.net

“Uniting” Bosnia, Smoking in the Arsenal At a time when the U.S. power and authority are increasingly challenged around the world, the new team sees the Balkans as the last geopolitically significant area where they can assert their “credibility” by postulating a maximalist set of objectives as the only outcome acceptable to the United States , and duly insisting on their fulfillment. We have already seen this pattern with Kosovo, and now we see an attempt to stage its replay in Bosnia under the demand for constitutional reform, i.e. centralization. The advocates of unitary Bosnia studiously ignore the fact that similar U.S. policies contributed to the war 17 years ago. In the spring of 1992 the late Warren Zimmermann, the last U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia before its breakup and civil war, materially contributed—probably more than any other single man—to the outbreak of the war in BosniaHerzegovina. The facts of the case have been established beyond reasonable doubt and are no longer dosputed by experts. Nine months earlier, in June 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence, a move that triggered off a short war in Slovenia and a sustained conflict in Croatia where the Serbs refused to accept Tudjman’s fait accompli. These events had profound consequences on Bosnia and Herzegovina , that “ Yugoslavia in miniature.” The Serbs (34%) adamantly opposed the idea of Bosnian independence. The Croats (17%) predictably rejected any suggestion that Bosnia and Herzegovina remains within a Serb-dominated rump Yugoslavia . Alija Izetbegovic had decided a year earlier that Bosnia should also declare independence if Slovenia and Croatia secede. On 27 Febru-

ary 1991 he went a major step further: “I would sacrifice peace for a sovereign BosniaHerzegovina, but for that peace in BosniaHerzegovina I would not sacrifice sovereignty.” The process culminated with the referendum on independence (29 February 1992). The Serbs duly boycotted it; just 62 percent of voters opted for independence, Muslims and Croats; but even this figure was short of the two-thirds majority required by the constitution. This did not stop the rump government of Izetbegovic from declaring independence on 3 March. Simultaneously one last attempt was under way to save peace. The Portuguese foreign minister Jose Cutileiro persuaded the three sides that Bosnia-Herzegovina should be independent but internally organized on the basis of ethnic regions or “cantons.” The breakthrough was due to the Bosnian Serbs’ acceptance of an independent Bosnia , provided that the Muslims give up their ambition of a centralized, unitary one. Izetbegovic appeared to accept it but when he returned from Lisbon , Zimmermann flew post haste from Belgrade to Sarajevo to tell him that it was a means to “a Serbian power grab” that could be prevented by internationalizing the problem. State Department subsequently admitted that the US policy “was to encourage Izetbegovic to break with the partition plan.” The New York Times (August 29, 1993) brought a revealing quote from the key player himself: The embassy [in Belgrade ] was for recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina from sometime in February on,” Mr. Zimmermann said of his policy recommendation from Belgrade . “Meaning me.” … Immediately after Mr. Izetbegovic returned from Lisbon , Mr. Zimmermann called on him in Sarajevo … “He said he didn’t like it; I told him, if he didn’t like it, why sign it?” After that moment Izetbegovic had no motive to take the ongoing EC-brokered talks seriously, just as the Albanians had no motive to negotiate with Belgrade after President Bush declared in Tirana that it would become independent. After his encounter with Zimmermann Izetbegovic felt authorized to renege on tripartite accord: the U.S. would come to his assistance to enforce the independence of a unitary Bosnian state. The motives of Zimmermann and his political bosses in Washington were not rooted in the concern for the Muslims of Bosnia as such, or indeed any higher moral principle. Their policy had no basis in the law of nations, or in the notions of truth or justice. It was the end-

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 25

result of the interaction of pressure groups within the American power structure. Thus the war in the Balkans evolved from a Yugoslav disaster and a European inconvenience into a major test of “ U.S. leadership.” This was made possible by a bogus consensus which passed for Europe ’s Balkan policy. This consensus, amplified in the media, limited the scope for meningful debate. Just as Germany sought to paint its Maastricht Diktat on Croatia ’s recognition in December 1991 as an expression of the “European consensus,” after Zimmermann’s intervention Washington ’s fait accomplis were straightfacedly labeled as “the will of the international community.” Europe was resentful but helpless when the United States resorted to covert action to smuggle arms into Croatia and Bosnia in violation of U.N. resolutions. Zimmermann’s torpedoing of the EU Lisbon formula in 1992 started a trend that frustrated the Europeans, but they were helpless. Cutileiro was embittered by the US action and blamed Izetbegovic for reneging. Had the Muslims not done so, he recalled in 1995, “the Bosnian question might have been settled earlier, with less loss of life and land.” Cutileiro also noted that the decision to renege on the signed agreement was not only Izetbegovic’s, as he was encouraged to scupper that deal and to fight for a unitary Bosnian state by foreign mediators.”

THE SETTING - At the outset of the crisis in 1990-91 most inhabitants of BosniaHerzegovina did not want to become “Bosnians” in any political sense; but they were unaware of the extent to which their future depended on events beyond their republic’s boundaries. The ruling League of Communists of Yugoslavia literally disintegrated in the first months of 1990. The resulting power vacuum was felt in Bosnia-Herzegovina more keenly than in other republics because the Party rule there was more rigidly doctrinaire. When the first multi-party election since 1938 finally took place in November 1990, the voters overwhelmingly acted in accordance with their ethnic loyalties that proved more enduring than any ideological differences between them. When the Bosnian election results were tallied, they effectively read like a census plain and simple. The overwhelming share of the vote—80 percent—went to the three parties that had grounded their appeal in the ethnicnational identity and issues. The apparent ability of the three “nationalist” parties to cooperate in the aftermath of the election was

based on one thing they all had in common: the desire to break free from the Titoist straightjacket. Had Yugoslavia not been breaking up in 1991-92, this emphasis on traditional identities would have passed as a natural democratic readjustment to reality. The truth is that there was no internal, Bosnian threat to peace at the beginning of 1991: when it came the threat was from outside. The SDS and the SDA were not simply in coalition: they were natural allies while Bosnia remained at peace, although they would become just as natural enemies if Yugoslavia fell apart. The Serbs of Bosnia wanted, overwhelmingly, to preserve the status quo. As they had no desire for the destruction of Yugoslavia , they were forced into reactive posture vis-àvis those who willed the Federation’s disintegration. Their argument—even if seldom stated with simplicity and coherence—was clear when freed from rhetoric: they had lived in one state since 1918, when Yugoslavia came into being. They reluctantly accepted Tito’s arbitrarily determined internal boundaries between the six federal republics—which left one third of them outside Serbia-proper—on the grounds that the Yugoslav framework afforded them a measure of security from the repetition of the nightmare of 1941-1945; but they could not swallow an illegal ruse that aimed to turn them into minorities, overnight and by unconstitutional means, in their own land. Even without the vividly remembered trauma of the Second World War, they reacted in 1991-1992 just as the Anglophone citizens of Texas or Arizona might do if they are outvoted, one day, in a referendum demanding those states’ incorporation into Mexico . They demanded the right that the territories, which the Serbs have inhabited as compact majorities long before the voyage of the Mayflower, not be subjected to the rule of their rivals. In the same vein the Protestant Ulstermen demanded - and were given - the right to stay apart from united Ireland when the nationalists opted for secession in 1921. In the same vein the state of West Virginia was created in 1863, incorporating those counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia that refused to be forced into secession. The Loyalists of Ulster and the Unionists of West Virginia were just as guilty of a “Joint Criminal Enterprise” to break up Ireland , or the Old Dominion, as were the Serbs of BosniaHerzegovina who did not want to be dragged into secession.

Yugoslavia was a flawed polity, and there could have been no rational objection to the striving of Croats, and even Bosnian Muslims, to create their own nation-states. But equally there could have been no justification for forcing over two million Serbs west of the Drina to be incorporated into those states against their will. Yugoslavia came together in 1918 as a union of South Slav peoples, and not of states, or territorial units. Its divorce should have been effected on the same basis; the boundaries of the republics should have been altered accordingly. This is, and has been, the real foundation of the Yugoslav conflict ever since the first shots were fired in the summer of 1991. Even someone as unsympathetic to the Serb point of view as Lord David Owen conceded that Josip Broz Tito’s internal administrative boundaries between Yugoslavia ’s republics were grossly arbitrary, and that their redrawing should have been countenanced: Incomprehensibly, the proposal to redraw the republics’ boundaries had been rejected by all eleven EC countries… [T]o rule out any discussion or opportunity for compromise in order to head off war was an extraordinary decision. My view has always been that to have stuck unyieldingly to the internal boundaries of the six republics within the former Yugoslavia … as being those for independent states, was a folly far greater than that of premature recognition itself. Of the three ethnic-religious parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Muslim party—the SDA—was the most radical, in that it alone advocated a fundamental restructuring of the Bosnian society in accordance with divine revelation. It attempted to do so not on Bosnia’s own terms, not within the Republic’s own local paradigm, but within the terms of the global-historical process—as its leaders saw it—of the global Islamic renaissance. Many in the West have been in a state of denial for years about the nature of Alija Izetbegovic’s long-term program, preferring to believe their own assurances that Izetbegovic’s blueprint is not “Islamist” but “multicultural.” Not unlike Islamist parties elsewhere—notably the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey —the SDA had a public, “secular” front, and an inner core of Islamic cadres that remained semi-conspiratorial in the early days. This is vividly described by one of the party’s founders who had previously made a successful business career in the West, Adil Zulfikarpašić. He was appalled by the “fascist” methods of the SDA and by its “conservative, religious, populist” orientation.

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 26

Izetbegovic was an advocate of Sharia law and a theorist of the Islamic Republic long before the first shots were fired. His early views were inspired by the teaching of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Al Husseini, who toured the German-occupied Europe preaching that the Third Reich and the Muslim world had a natural community of interests. Izetbegovic’s ideas subsequently matured into a comprehensive, programmatic statement in the Islamic Declaration – his de facto political platform: The Islamic movement must, and can, take over power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non-Islamic power, but also build up a new Islamic one… There is no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions. This was a political program par excellence. The author’s contempt for Western values is evident in his dismissal of the Kemalist tradition: “ Turkey as an Islamic country used to rule the world. Turkey as an imitation of Europe represents a third-rate country the like of which there is a hundred in the world.” Elsewhere, he accepts the “achievements of Euro-American civilization” but only in the area of “science and technology… we shall have to accept them if we wish to survive.” In a revealing sentence, Izetbegović discusses the status of non-Muslims in countries with Muslim majorities: “The non-Muslim minorities within an Islamic state, on condition that they are loyal [emphasis added], enjoy religious freedom and all protection.” He advocates “the creation of a united Islamic community from Morocco to Indonesia .” Izetbegovic’s views are unremarkable from a traditional Islamic point of view. The final objective is Dar al Islam, where Muslims dominate and infidels submit. That is the meaning of Izetbegovic’s apparent generosity to the non-Muslims, “provided that they are loyal”: the non-Muslims can be “protected persons” only if they submitted to Islamic domination. In his daily political discourse Izetbegovic behaved throughout the 1990s as a de facto nationalist, fostering narrowly-defined Bosniak nationalist feeling and seeking to equate the emerging “Bosniak” identity with an imaginary supra-ethnic “ Bosnia .” He was juxtaposing the construct with the two traditionally Christian communities—Serbs and Croats—whose loyalties were alleged to lie elsewhere, with Belgrade and Zagreb respectively. The two sides of Izetbegovic’s personality were not at odds, since within his terms

of reference the Bosniak ethnicity was defined by religion. To have Alija Izetbegovic, with his record and his vision, as the head of a democratic, pluralist state anywhere in the world, is of course simply unthinkable. But for his peculiar vision to be applied in practice, Bosnia-Herzegovina had to be taken out of Yugoslavia and proclaimed independent and sovereign. Izetbegovic’s chief concern was to find a pretext for the intended separation from Yugoslavia —any Yugoslavia —and to use the Croat tactical alliance in pursuit of that goal; the day of reckoning with the HDZ could come later. Izetbegović was willing to risk the war. In the 1990 election campaign he said that the Muslims would “defend Bosnia with arms.” In February 1991 he declared in the Assembly: “I would sacrifice peace for a sovereign Bosnia-Herzegovina, but for that peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina I would not sacrifice sovereignty.” By May Izetbegovic went even further, saying that the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina probably could not be avoided because “for a state to be created, for a nation to be forged, it has to endure this, it is some kind of fate, destiny.” This statement echoed his Islamic fatalism. When the Bosnian Serbs took control of the Serb-majority areas and connecting corridors in 1992, they were well equipped and officered. But the numerical advantage lay with the Muslims, who hoped to win in the end with international help. Radavan Karadzic never understood that this was, indeed, Izetbegovic’s grand strategy, and that time was not on the side of the Serbs. In addition Karadzic personally and the Serbs collectively were severely damaged by the western media handling of their mistreatment of Muslim prisoners and the expulsion of non-Serb civilians in the summer of 1992. Similar atrocities by Croats and Muslims against Serbs and against each other, while no less common, were less conspicuous and deemed unworthy of Western attention. The media call for intervention, launched in its early stage, made the Bosnian war the subject of international debate to an extent unknown since Vietnam . Many Europeans were inclined to support a compromise peace, a federalized Bosnia , and a real arms embargo; whereas the United States disliked European peace plans, broke the arms embargo starting in late 1993, and overtly supported the Muslims. Plus ca change! The end of the war was the result of a transatlantic compromise: London and Paris reluctantly agreed to let NATO bomb the Serbs, while the United States reluctantly accepted

the sort of settlement the Europeans had wanted in 1992-3. The chief outcome of the war was a transformed NATO, and the renewal of American leadership in Europe to an extent not seen since Kennedy. It established that America wanted to lead, and to be indispensable, in the process of European reorganization after 1989. In Bosnia itself the war took longer than it would have done but the settlement that followed Dayton is not unlike a plausible compromise that seemed within reach in Lisbon in April 1992. Richard Holbrooke, the chief U.S. negotiator in 1995, boasted a year later: “We are reengaged in the world, and Bosnia was the test.” This “we” meant the United States , not “the West” or “the international community.” Indeed, no nation-state started and finished the Bosnian story as a political actor with an unchanged diplomatic personality. Each great power became a forum for the global debate for and against intervention, the debate for and against a certain kind NATO, and an associated, media-led international political process. The interventionists prevailed then, and their narrative dominates the public commentary on Karadzic’s arrest now. The current clamoring for unitarization raises an old question that remains unanswered by the Bosnifiers: If the old Yugoslavia was untenable and eventually collapsed under the weight of the supposedly insurmountable differences among its constituent nations, how can Bosnia —the Yugoslav microcosm par excellence—develop and sustain the dynamics of a viable polity? As for the charges that the RS is founded on war crimes, we need not hypothesize a prewar “joint criminal enterprise” to ethnically cleanse and murder, to explain the events of 1992-5. The crimes and violations of human rights that followed were not the direct result of anyone’s nationalist project. These crime, as Susan Woodward notes, “were the results of the wars and their particular characteristics, not the causes.” The effect of the legal intervention of the “international community” with its act of recognition was that a Yugoslav loyalty was made to look like a conspiratorial disloyalty to “Bosnia”—largely in the eyes of people who supposed ex hypothesi that if there is a “Bosnia” there must be a nation of “Bosnians.” In 1943-44 Tito was able to force the Anglo-Americans to pretend that his struggle was not communist revolution. In 1992-95 Izetbegovic forced the West to pretend that his jihad was the defense of “multi-ethnicity.” Both pretenses were absurd.

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 27

The campaign against the RS is detrimental to what America should stand for in the world. It seeks to give further credence to the myth of Muslim blameless victimhood, Serb viciousness, and Western indifference, and therefore weaken our resolve in the global struggle euphemistically known as “war on terrorism.” The former is a crime; the latter, a mistake. Yet there is no true debate in Washington on the ends and uses of American power, in the Balkans or anywhere else. The ideologues’ resistance to any external checks and balances on the exercise of that power is upheld. Obama’s team and Bush’s may differ in some shades of rhetoric, but they are one regime, identical in substance and consequence. Its leading lights will go on disputing the validity of the emerging balance-ofpower system because they reject the legitimacy of any power in the world other than that of the United States , controlled and exercised by themselves. They will scoff at the warning of 1815, 1918, or 1945 as inapplicable in the post-history that they seek to construct. They will confront the argument that no vital American interest worthy of risking a major war is involved in Russia ’s or China ’s near-abroad with the claim that the whole world is America ’s near-abroad. It is vexing that the demand for rekindling the Bosnian crisis comes at a particularly dangerous period in world affairs: the return of asymmetrical multipolarity. Following a brief period of post-1991 full-spectrum dominance, for the first time after the Cold War the government of the United States is facing active resistance from one or more major powers. More important than the anatomy of the South Ossetian crisis last August, or the Taiwanese crisis three years from now, is the reactive powers’ refusal to accept the validity of Washington ’s ideological assumptions or the legitimacy of its resulting geopolitical claims. At the same time, far from critically reconsidering the Bushies’ hegemonsitic assumptions and claims, the key decisionmakers in the Obama Administration will continue to uphold them. Their ambition, unlimited in principle, will remain unaffected by the ongoing financial crisis, just as Moscow ’s Cold War expansionism was enhanced, rather than curtailed, by the evident shortcomings of the Soviet centrally planned economy. Come what may, they will not allow the reality of global politics to interfere with their world outlook, “neoliberal” or “neoconservative,” but hegemonic and irrational at all times. Srdja Trifkovic, at The Lord Byron Foundation conference, May 27, 2009

Patriarch Kirill to visit Turkey in July Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia will start visiting other local Orthodox churches in early July, a spokesman for the Secretariat for Inter-Orthodox Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, said. "These visits will be performed in line with the authorized list, the diptych," he told Interfax-Religion on Wednesday. By tradition, the head of one Orthodox Church visits the territories of others as they are listed in the diptych. The diptych currently has 15 Church jurisdictions: the Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russian, Georgian, Serb, Romanian, Bulgarian, Cypriot, Greek, Albanian and Polish Orthodox churches, the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia, and the Orthodox Church in America. The Russian Patriarch will first travel to Turkey.

Patriarch Kirill says Russia has a long way to go until today's formally Orthodox laity becomes committed believers Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes that the Church should help people who formally consider themselves Orthodox to become committed believers. Patriarch said that people often think of themselves as Orthodox by virtue of their cultural origin. "It often begins that way. A person eventually grows into such identity and becomes closer to the Church. We should be aware that Orthodoxy is the crucial factor of our cultural identity," he said answering students' questions at St. Petersburg Ice Palace on Friday.

"Theory should be in close contact with practice. The Church plays a very important role in this respect. Its major objective is to help those who consider themselves Orthodox out of tradition to become Orthodox by their way of life. This is what may be called people's true religious devotion, when their actions are inspired by ethical reasons," Patriarch said.

These fully accredited educational institutions plan to begin the implementation of this project as soon as the Fall 2010.

Therefore, he believes that Russia "still has a long way to go, until the present formally Orthodox laity becomes committed believers."

The Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, on its session on May 21, 2009, by the number ABno, 49/ord. 147, brought this decision:

"This is our challenge, and we shall rely on the civil society to meet it. It is important to engage young people and student community because we are now referring to our country's future. Russia will become a great country only when it learns to match spiritual essence and material nature, temporal things and eternity," Patriarch added.

Upon the clause 16 of the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and with the established suggestion of the Episcopal Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America and two members of the Holy Assembly of Bishops (His Grace Bishop Hrizostom of Zhicha and His Grace Bishop Irinej of Bachka), to execute the redistribution of existing dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church: Midwestern American, Eastern American, Western American and Canadian of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the USA and Canada; and Dioceses for America and Canada of the Metropolitanate of New Gracanica, with certain renaming of their titles and moving of their seats, in order to the canonic territory of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the territory of the North and South America now is consisting of:

Closer academic relationships between St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and the Theological Faculty of the University Discussions on closer academic relationships between St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade, Serbia, took place in Crestwood, New York, on June 2 and 3, 2009. Recognizing mutual academic and ecclesial benefits, the representatives of two institutions (Professor Fr. Vladan Perisic and Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic from Belgrade and Fr. John Behr, Fr. Chad Hatfield and Prof. John Barnett from St. Vladimir's) discussed formal relationship guidelines and conditions for a joint enterprise on master level. Among the programs being considered are: a) student exchange program b) of visiting professors for both schools c) joint conferences and d) joint publications

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 28

Decision of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church redistributes dioceses in the Americas

1. The Metropolitanate of Libertyville and Chicago, with a monastery of St Sava as a seat in Libertyville (consists of monastery of St Sava in Libertyville and Cathedral church of Resurrection of Our Lord with three parishes), whose Metropolitan is going to be the president of Episcopal, Church-People's and Central council, and ex officio representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church in this area. 2. The Diocese of New Gracanica and Midwestern America, with a monastery of New Gracanica as a seat (consists of all parishes based in Chicago except the previously mentioned Church of Resurrection of Our Lord and other states of the Midwest which

were part of previous Midwestern Metropolitanate, as well as all church-school communities and parishes of the previous Diocese for America and Canada of the Metropolitanate of New Gracanica on the area of previous Midwestern Metropolitanate) 3. The Diocese of Eastern America, with a Pittsburg/Mars as a seat (consists of all parished of the current Eastern American Diocese and parished and church-school communities of the previous Diocese for America and Canada of the Metropolitanate of New Gracanica on the territory of Eastern America). 4. The Diocese of West America, with Los Angeles/Alhambra as a seat (consists of all parishes of the previous Diocese of Western America and parishes and church-school communities of the previous Diocese for America and Canada of the Metropolitanate of New Gracanica on the territory of Western America). 5. The Diocese of Canada, with a seat in Toronto/monastery of Milton (consists of all parishes of the current Canadian Diocese and parishes and church-school communities of the previous Diocese for America and Canada of the Metropolitanate of New Gracanica on the territory of Canada). The clause 8th article 1 of the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America is changed by this decision, so with it previous names will not be used anymore: " Midwestern American Metropolitanate" and " Diocese for America and Canada of New Gracanica Metropolitanate", and there are being established new borders of Dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America. Also, in this way the Clause 15th of the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church is changed and is revised

Articles selected by the editor from the Serbian Orthodox website www.spc.rs

President Barack Obama met with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul during his April visit to the Middle East.

Ecumenical Patriarch active in world issues

may be bestowed by the Legislative Branch of the United States government.

His All Holiness, Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, has been active internationally in many issues. One of his first focuses has been on rebuilding the once-persecuted Eastern Orthodox Churches of the former Eastern Bloc following the fall of Communism there in 1990. As part of this effort he has worked to strengthen ties amongst the various national Churches and Patriarchates of the Eastern Orthodox Communion. He has also continued the reconciliation dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church started by his predecessors, and initiated dialogue with other faiths, including other Christian sects, Muslims, and Jews.

Bartholomew I, after his attempts to celebrate the Liturgy in remote areas of the country, thereby renewing the Orthodox presence, which was absent since before 1924, has now come under intense pressure from Turkish nationalist elements. The patriarchal Seminary of Halki in the Princes' Islands remains closed since 1971 on government orders.

Perhaps most unusually, he has gained a reputation as a prominent environmentalist, putting the support of the Patriarchate behind various international environmental causes. This has earned him the nicknames "the Green Patriarch" and "the Green Pope" and in 2002 he was honored with the Sophie Prize. He has also been honoured with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award which

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2009 29

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's tenure has been characterized by interOrthodox cooperation, inter-Christian and inter-religious dialog, as well as by formal trips to Orthodox and Muslim countries seldom previously visited. He has exchanged numerous invitations of Church and State dignitaries. His efforts to promote religious freedom and human rights, his initiatives to advance religious tolerance among the world’s religions has been widely noted.

Wikipedia & Wikimedia

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Our Bookstore has many items on sale! Don’t forget to shop in our church bookstore. We have many items: gold crosses, gold chains, prayer books, books on various topics, tapes, video tapes, DVDs, icons, prayer ropes, etc. Stewardship Pledges Did you forget to submit your stewardship card or perhaps misplaced it somewhere, or do you simply need some more offering envelopes? Call our church office 619-276-5827 and we will immediately send you a stewardship card/s and envelopes. Thank you, everyone! Fr. Bratso would like to thank all of our stewards, Executive Church Board members, and supporters for the many ways you bring Gospel values into your homes, workplaces, and civic communities. “Well done good and faithful servant…” God bless you all! We appreciate you all!

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Info: 858-552-1360 www.artofsaving.net MORAVA “Oldies” end 20082009 season Morava has finished the 2008/ 2009 soccer season in the Huff”n” Puff League. After 12 played games, the Morava “Oldies” ended their worst season in years. After a relatively good start the team won only 3 games, drew 4, and lost 5 games. The opponents outscored the team by 31:26 goals. The main reason for a bad showing this season was a lack of a good goal keeper. If anyone knows someone who is at least over 45 years of age and wants to be a goal keeper, call Misha Jovanovic at 619-8077755. The next season starts at the end of September.

VOICE OF ST. GEORGE • SUMMER 2008 30

Girls to Marry painted in 1983 in the village Vranovac near Jagodina, Serbia. Artist Ljubiša Jovanović, called Kene, was born in 1956 in Vranovce near Svetozarevo/Jagodina (Serbia) in a family of small farmers. He finished 8 grades of elementary school and is still living in his birthplace where he is shaping his mysterious naive world of dreams. His story is not a pleasant one nor it is lively sentimental. Light was dimmed in father’s home. His parents did not love each other. He was twelve when they separated. The boy felt he had to create and paint his life. He started painting early. He, off course, saw Breughel’s and Bosch’s paintings and especially old orthodox icons in churches. In essence, his paintings resemble some other icons, in which saints and demons could be characters in his village community. The intensity of his colors, drawing distinctness of his brush speak on splendor extracted from the bottom of his soul.

Misha Jovanovic

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Director Marija Milasinovic & the three different age groups of the MORAVA FOLKLORE ENSEMBLE

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