ARCHPASTORAL WORD ON THE CENTENNIAL OF THE FIRST SERBIAN ORTHODOX DIOCESE IN AMERICA & CANADA

IRINEJ BY THE GRACE OF GOD BISHOP OF EASTERN AMERICA OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH Most beloved Clergy and Monastics, Sons and Daughters, faithful Children of the Eastern American Diocese of our Most Holy Church! It is with abounding joy emanating from a paternal heart, that We greet you on this most radiant and auspicious occasion in our collective history, both sacred and secular: THE CENTENNIAL OF THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST DIOCESE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH 1921 – 2021 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens, I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet, no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 10-11 & 14)

Heaven and earth rejoice with us during this, the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the first Diocese of our Serbian Orthodox Church, here in the United States of America and Canada: for the Sun of the East has kissed the soil of the West. In these echoing conceptual thoughts of our founder and first administrator, the Holy Bishop Nicholai of Zhicha and Ochrid, we find the profound faith of Saint Sava, indeed, our Orthodox Christian faith, incarnate in our Serbian lands and hearts, uniquely through our culture and tradition. Now, the same has been firmly planted, here, in these United States of America and Canada. An ancient faith has now blossomed in a new land, and that which was scattered has been gathered, thus fulfilling the words of our Savior, “Behold