On Monday, July 27, 2015, Bishop Maxim met with the Most Blessed John X (Yazigi), Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East and presented as a gift the book on Christian Heritage of Kosovo and Metohija. Patriarch John thanked the Serbian Bishop and compared the persecution of Serbs in Kosovo, the cradle of Serbian people, with the suffering of Christians in the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity. Yet so many instances of persecution against Orthodox and other Christian populations both in Syria and in Kosovo have gone unnoticed and unreported by our media. In these countries Christians are at best second-class citizens, and are sometimes even treated as aliens in their own countries, denied basic civil rights and the protection of law.
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His Beatitude remains mindful of the situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija, and the difficult circumstances which our Serbian Orthodox brothers and sisters endure there. Bishop Maxim pledged his continuing support to all of our suffering brothers and sisters in the Middle East, and to all those who still remain as refugees from their hearths and homes.
