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

Serbs of the Apollo Space Program Honored

Serbs of the Apollo Space Program Honored

On the 50th anniversary of the first lunar landing of the Apollo 11 mission, the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade is organizing a series of briefings and presentations by Mr. David Vuich. Mr. Vuich is one of the seven Serbs – affectionately known as the “Serbo 7” – who helped develop the Apollo Space Program.

The “Serbo 7” Apollo Spacecraft Launch Team was comprised of Milojko “Mike” Vucelic (Director, Systems Engineering) of Garesnica, Slavonija, Danilo Bojic (Engineer, Stress Analysis) of Lipovo near Kolasin, Paul Duich (Engineer, Data Analysis) of Centerville, Iowa whose family emigrated from Mrkopolje in Lika, Milos Surbatovich (Mechanical Engineer, Docking Systems) of Niksic, Peter Galovich (Engineer, Systems Design Hudson) of Wyoming whose family emigrated from Lika, Slavoljub “Sam” Vuich (Engineer, Electronics Systems RDT&E) of Fenj in Banat, and David Vuich (Program-Project Management) of Midland, Pennsylvania, whose family hailed from Okucani, Slavonija.

Mr. Vuich is the last living member of the “Serbo 7.” He will be travelling to Belgrade, in the latter half of July, where over the course of several days he will speak to both the public and experts in Serbia about the contributions of American-Serbian scientists, engineers, and management executives to the development of the Apollo space program.

Mr. Vuich is a lifelong member of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Starting in his town of birth, Midland, PA where he served as an altar boy in the church, Mr. Vuich treasures his Orthodox faith and Serbian heritage to this day. The Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Luke in Washington, D.C. is proud to have him as one of our distinguished parishioners.

As we join in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo monumental achievement in carrying out the first lunar landing, we wish Mr. Vuich many more fruitful years! To the other members of the Serbian Apollo team, may God rest their souls and may their memory be eternal!

Source: Eastern American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church

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Bishop Maxim (Vasiljević)

His Grace Bishop Maxim

(2006–)

For the last eleven years the ruling bishop of the Western American Diocese is Maxim (Vasiljević,) well known in academic circles since he holds several academic titles and is professor of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Belgrade. Maxim (secular name Milan Vasilje¬vić) was born on June 27, 1968 in Foča, Yugoslavia, into a family of a priest. His father Lazar is a priest and mother Radmila, nee Todorović.

After finishing elementary school in Sarajevo (1983), he studied Seminary school in Belgrade (finished in 1988), served the army, and enrolled into the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in the same city.

He was tonsured a monk in Tvrdos Monastery, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on August 18, 1996, by Bishop Atanasije of Herzegovia, who also ordained him a deacon (1996) and priest in 2001.

Bishop Maxim graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Belgrade in 1993. He completed his Masters of Theology at the University of Athens in 1996, and then three years later, in 1999, at the same University, he defended his doctorate in the field of Dogmatics and Patristics with the title, “Participation in God” in the Theological Anthropology of St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Maximus the Confessor.

Publishing

Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection

Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection

Proceedings of the Symposium on St. Maximus the Confessor

The present volume is a collection of presentations delivered at the St Maximus the Confessor International Symposium held in Belgrade at the University of Belgrade from 18 to 21 October 2012. The Belgrade Symposium brought together the following speakers: Demetrios Bathrellos, Grigory Benevitch, Calinic Berger, Paul Blowers, David Bradshaw, Adam Cooper, Brian Daley, Paul Gavrilyuk, Atanasije Jevtić, Joshua Lollar, Andrew Louth, John Panteleimon Manoussakis, Maximos of Simonopetra, Ignatije Midić, Pascal Mueller-Jourdan, Alexei Nesteruk, Aristotle Papanikolaou, George Parsenios, Philipp Gabriel Renczes, Nino Sakvarelidze, Torstein Tollefsen, George Varvatsoulias, Maxim Vasiljević, Christos Yannaras, and John Zizioulas. The papers and discussions in this volume of the proceedings of the Belgrade Symposium amply attest to the reputation of Saint Maximus the Confessor as the most universal spirit of the seventh century, and perhaps the greatest thinker of the Church.