A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Jubilee Celebration of the Western American Diocese: Freedom to Pursue the Faith

Alhambra, CA – On August 30 through September 1, 2013, the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America will hold its annual Diocesan Days gathering. This year Diocesan Days will mark several momentous anniversaries: 50 years of the founding of the Diocese, 150 years of the birth of Archimandrite Sebastian Dabovich, Holy Apostle to the Americas, and 1700 years of the Edict of Milan.

Events will include a Saturday morning symposium, which will focus on the freedom to pursue our faith since the time of Constantine 1700 years ago and how to better live a spiritual life. Symposium speakers will be Hieromonk Iakovos of Simonopetra, Mt. Athos, the V. Rev. Dr. John Erickson of St. Vladimir Seminary, and Dr. James Skedros of Holy Cross Seminary. An open question and answer session will follow their presentations.

.

"We look forward to welcoming our Diocesan community and all interested persons to our celebration," said Bishop Maxim. "This promises to be a time filled with fellowship and spiritual reflection. Diocesan Days event provides space for celebration, dialogue and reflection through common prayer and symposia, theological conversations, workshops, the American landscape exhibit, the wine and beer symposiums…"

"The programme is made up of a rich offering of events intended to maximize sharing among participants – to deepen their experience of faith and fellowship, to increase their knowledge of ecclesial truths and to provide space for entertainment."

Other highlights of Diocesan Days will be an exhibition of recently completed American landscapes in an abstract Byzantine style by Fr. Stamatis Skliris as well as music, folk dance, and artisanal beer and wine tastings. Also, Dr. Michael Pravica, University of Nevada, Los Vegas, will give a special presentation on the work of Nikola Tesla, son of a Serbian Orthodox priest and scientist extraordinaire.

All events will take place on the grounds of St. Steven's Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, 1621 W. Garvey, Alhambra, CA 91803.

For more information please visit http://www.westsrbdio.org/en/events/diocesan-days

About the Western American Diocese

Founded in 1963, the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America serves 32 parishes and 5 monasteries and sketes in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Mexico. Since 2006 the Diocese has been shepherded by His Grace the Right Reverend Bishop Maxim.

diocesan-days-2013-flyer-page-1

diocesan-days-2013-flyer-page-2


SA

 

People Directory

Vuk Kulenović

Vuk Kulenovic (born 1946) is a contemporary composer and teacher based in Boston, Massachusetts. He teaches counterpoint, orchestration and directed study at Berklee College of Music. He actively composes and has commissions from around the world. His influences are wide-tanging, including jazz, Indian ragas, Balkan folk music, rock and many other contemporary styles. He has written over 100 works for symphony orchestra, solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choral and vocal pieces, ballet, and scores for film and stage music.

.
Read more ...

Publishing

My Brother's Keeper

by Fr. Radovan Bigovic

Rare are the books of Orthodox Christian authors that deal with the subject of politics in a comprehensive way. It is taken for granted that politics has to do with the secularized (legal) protection of human rights (a reproduction of the philosophy of the Enlightenment), within the political system of so-called "representative democracy", which is limited mostly to social utility or to the conventional rules of human relations. Most Christians look at politics and democracy as unrelated with their experience of the Church herself, which abides both in history and in the Kingdom, the eschaton. Today, the commercialization of politics—its submission to the laws of publicity and the brainwashing of the masses—has literally abolished the "representative" parliamentary system. So, why bother with politics when every citizen of so-called developed societies has a direct everyday experience of the rapid decline and alienation of the fundamental aspects of modernity?

In the Orthodox milieu, Christos Yannaras has highlighted the conception of the social and political event that is borne by the Orthodox ecclesiastical tradition, which entails a personalistic (assumes an infinite value of the human person as opposed to Western utilitarian individualism) and relational approach. Fr Radovan Bigovic follows this approach. In this book, the reader will find a faithful engagement with the liturgical and patristic traditions, with contemporary thinkers, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, all in conversation with political science and philosophy. As an excellent Orthodox theologian and a proponent of dialogue, rooted in the catholic (holistic) being of the Orthodox Church and of his Serbian people, Fr Radovan offers a methodology that encompasses the above-mentioned concerns and quests.