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

Vlade Divac

A first round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1989 NBA draft, Vlade Divac went on to become one of the first European players to have an impact on the NBA.

In 1985, Vlade Divac was one of 15 young boys from Slovenia, Bosna, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia that won the gold medal in the University Games. This would prove to be a basketball team that is considered among the best ever assembled. They went on to win a gold medal at the European Junior Championships in 1986, a gold medal at the FIB A World Junior Championships in Bormio, Italy in 1987 (defeating Team USA twice in that tournament), and a silver medal representing Yugoslavia at the 1988 Olympics.

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After being drafted by the Lakers in 1989, Divac went on to enjoy a 16 year tenure as one of the game's best centers. A highly popular figure on and off the court, he put together an impressive resume playing for the Lakers, the Charlotte Hornets and the Sacramento Kings.

He started his career by being named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team and he finished it having joined Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar as the only players in NBA history to amass 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots.

Along the way he also managed to lead Yugoslavia's teams to a silver medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, gold medals at the 1990 and 2002 FIBA World Championships, and gold medals at the 1989, 1991 and 1995 European Championships.

In the early morning hours on September 16th, 2005 a truck driven by Divac arrived at an emergency response center hosted by St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Houston, Texas. The truck contained items collected by volunteers in Sacramento, various items such as paper plates, paper towels, toilet paper, baby diapers, wipes, baby formula, baby food, school supplies and toys; donations which would provide a little comfort and normalcy to children and families who had traveled far from their homes in search of safety.

But Vlade Divac was no ordinary volunteer. In conjunction with an organization he helped found, he put together the collection effort in Sacramento. That organization is Group Seven, a Children's Foundation that provides care for children who suffer from isolation, poverty and displacement. The founding members of Group 7 include: Vlade Divac, Predrag Danilovic, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Zarko Paspalj, Zeljko Rebraca, Dejan Bodiroga, and Zoran Savic. These athletes have joined together to offer care and comfort to children suffering from the isolation, poverty and displacement inherent to the break-up of Yugoslavia. 

He has also worked on projects for the International Orthodox Christian Charities, another organizer of the Sacramento volunteer efforts. He has helped the IOCC provide half a million dollars in humanitarian assistance to his homeland since 1997. For his years of distinguished service in support of the humanitarian mission of IOCC, he received their Good Samaritan Award.

Divac also created a fund through the St. John Foundation to help raise money for children affected by the war in Yugoslavia. 

He and his wife have four children, two of which are war orphans, from Bosnia and Kosovo.


SA

 

People Directory

Bishop Firmilijan (Ocokoljić)

(1963–1992)

Te Right Reverend Dr. Firmilian, Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Midwestern America, was born on the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, according to the Julian Calendar, on the 7th of January 1910. Born into a clerical family in Kaona, Serbia, he was the son of many generations of priests, specifically, born in the family of the protopresbyter Uros Ocokoljich and his mother, Darinka, nee Plazinic, also the daughter of a priest. To the delight of this family, the parents were blessed with the birth of twins, named at baptism, Stanko (later, Firmilian) and Ranko. Stanko was the tenth child.

Having completed his elementary (in the place of his birth) and secondary education (Gymnasium, High School, in Čačak,) young Stanko was admitted into the Orthodox Seminary in Sarajevo, Bosnia, from where he graduated in the year 1930. After having served the Armed Forces of his country, Stanko was married to Nadežda Popović. Following their marriage, Stanko was ordained to the diaconate and then to the priesthood, being assigned as assistant to his father, protopresbyter Uroš, in the Village of Kaona. He was ordained to priesthood in 1930 by Bishop Jefrem Bojović, brother of well-known Vojvoda Petar Bojović. Tragically, within the first year of his marriage, Father Stanko lost both his wife and son, during childbirth.

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Publishing

Prayer Book

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Western America is pleased to announce the publication of a beautiful pocket-size, full-color, English-language Prayer Book, which has been compiled and designed by our newly enthroned His Grace, Bishop Maxim, and printed in Serbia. The book contains prayers commonly used by Orthodox Christians, lists of Scriptural Commandments, and brief articles on the precepts of Faith, proper conduct in church, and the meaning and practice of prayer. It is adorned with striking icons and illustrations by Fr. Stamatis Skliris, a parish priest in Athens who is renowned as an iconographer and as a writer and lecturer on Byzantine iconography. Full-color on coated stock throughout, 36 pages, 3¾" × 5½" format, paperback, saddle-stitched.