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

SA

 

People Directory

Metropolitan Christopher (Kovačević)

(1963–1978)

Bishop Christopher came at the helm of the Eastern American and Canadian Diocese when the Diocese was well organized by his two predecessors. He focused on the Church schools and religious education of adults. There was already an Education Department with developed plans and programs. In addition to the Church Educational work during the period of Bishop Christopher’s administration, new Church School Congregations and parishes were organized; new Churches and other facilities were built.

In 1910, Petar Kovacevich left his town of Grahovo and after a lengthy and arduous journey he arrived in the southern part of America, on the shore of the Gulf Coast in the city of Galveston where the oldest organized Serbian parish in America originated in 1862–1864. After four years, in 1914 on St. Vitus Day (Vidovdan), his bride Rista nee Vujačić, a native of Grahovo, arrived and together through hard physical labor they gave birth and raised twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. The ninth born child, Velimir, was born on 25 December 1928, according to the new calendar, which he, despite his baptized name Velimir, was nicknamed Chris by his American friends, by which he was known to his circle of friends and acquaintances.

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Publishing

Holy Emperor Constantine and the Edict of Milan

by Bishop Athanasius (Yevtich)

In 2013 Christian world celebrates 1700 years since the day when the Providence of God spoke through the holy Emperor Constantine and freedom was given to the Christian faith. Commemorating the 1700 years since the Edict of Milan of 313, Sebastian Press of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church published a book by Bishop Athanasius Yevtich, Holy Emperor Constantine and the Edict of Milan. The book has 72 pages and was translated by Popadija Aleksandra Petrovich. This excellent overview of the historical circumstances that lead to the conversion of the first Christian emperor and to the publication of a document that was called "Edict of Milan", was originally published in Serbian by the Brotherhood of St. Simeon the Myrrh-gusher, Vrnjci 2013. “The Edict of Milan” is calling on civil authorities everywhere to respect the right of believers to worship freely and to express their faith publicly.

The publication of this beautiful pocket-size, full-color, English-language book, has been compiled and designed by Bishop Athanasius Yevtich, a disciple of the great twentieth-century theologian Archimandrite Justin Popovich. Bishop Athanasius' thought combines adherence to the teachings of the Church Fathers with a vibrant faith, knowledge of history, and a profound experience of Christ in the Church.

In the conclusion of the book, the author states:"The era of St. Constantine and his mother St. Helena, marks the beginning of what history refers to as Roman, Christian Empire, which was named Byzantium only in recent times in the West. In fact, this was the conception of a Christian Europe. Christian Byzantine culture had a critical effect on Europe; Europe was its heir, and then consciously forgot it. Europe inherited many Byzantine treasures, but unfortunately, also robbed and plundered many others for its own treasuries and museums – not only during the Crusades, but during colonial rule in the Byzantine lands as well. We, the Orthodox Slavs, received a great heritage of the Orthodox Christian East from Byzantium. Primarily, Christ’s Gospel, His faith and His Church, and then, among other things, the Cyrillic alphabet, too."