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Bishop Jefrem of Banja Luka receives the DECR vice-chairman and a delegation of the Foundation for Support of Christian Culture and Heritage

Bishop Jefrem of Banja Luka receives the DECR vice-chairman and a delegation of the Foundation for Support of Christian Culture and Heritage
Version for print
9 December 2021 year 13:20

On December 7, 2021, Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, and a delegation of the Foundation for Support of Christian Culture and Heritage led by the Foundation executive director Ye. I. Skopenko visited Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Bishop Jefrem of Banja Luka received the guests in his residence and has a warm and long conversation with them. They were joined by Archpriest Vitaly Tarasjev, rector of the Belgrade Representation of the Russian Orthodox Church; A. Yu. Khoshev, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations; and staff members of the Foundation for Support of Christian Culture and Heritage. 

Archpriest Nikolay Balashov conveyed to the hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church greetings and best wishes from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the DECR chairman. Bishop Jefrem expressed joy over the visit of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, stating in his talk with them the need to strengthen the unity of Orthodoxy on the basis of faithfulness to the canonical church order and the ever important friendship between the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches and the fraternal peoples of which these Churches take pastoral care. In this connection, the archpastor shared his remembrances of the years when he studied at Moscow Theological Academy from 1971 to 1975. It was noted that students from the Diocese of Banja Luka come for training to theological schools of the Russian Orthodox Church. He also spoke about the tradition of Russian-Serbian brotherhood preserved in his diocese, which has found their expression in the idea of building a Russian-Serbian church in Banja Luka.

Archpriest Dragan Maksimovic, rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in the Diocese of Banja Luka, took the guests on a tour of the construction site of the Russian-Serbian church in Banja Luka and a Religious-Cultural Center of the Diocese of Banja Luka and introduced them to the design of the buildings and the progress of the construction work. The church was designed in 2017-2018 by specialists of the Moscow Architecture Institute on the basis of the architecting of the Chudov Monastery in Moscow with its three side chapels, one of them to be dedicated to the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers. 

In the church of the Holy Trinity in Banja Luka, the guests venerated the relics of the Holy Martyr Bishop Platon of Banja Luka who was foully murdered by the Ustashe in 1941 and who is the heavenly patron of the Diocese of Banja Luka. Then the guests visited the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour restored after it had been destroyed by the Ustashe in the same year.

DECR Communication Service/Patriarchia.ru

Version: Russian, Greek