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

The parents of Saint Sebastian of Jackson came to San Francisco and America in 1853 from Sasovići, Herceg Novi, the Bay of Kotor (today’s Montenegro). The first of many churches that he founded in America was built in the miners’ city of Jackson in California in 1894. Many of the miners - church builders were from Herceg Novi and its surroundings.

In October of 2019, the parish celebrated its 125th anniversary together with the guests from Herceg Novi. One of the results of this grace-filled event and brotherly gathering was a spontaneously-proposed idea to establish a sister-city relationship between Herceg Novi and Jackson. It had no political motivation or connotation, but it was felt rather as a civilizational, cultural and historical act and fruit of love and prayers of the great man of God who with his wide-spread arms embraced these two beautiful cities on the two sides of the planet.

Only a few weeks later, the Jackson City Council proclaimed their letter of intent, which was given to our guest priest from Sasovići and Herceg Novi, who came to Jackson to celebrate with us Saint Sebastian Day at the end of November.

The return letter of intent recently came from Herceg Novi and was accepted by the Jackson City Council on Monday evening, February 24.

So, from today and on, Herceg Novi, Bay of Kotor, Montenegro, and Jackson, California, USA, are Sister Cities!

The representatives of the parish and the city of Jackson are planning to visit their Sister City of Herceg Novi in June this year.

SA

 

People Directory

Илија Шаула

Илија Шаула (Карловац, 4. децембар 1963) је српски књижевник, оснивач и председник Књижевне радионице „Кордун”. Пише поезију и прозу, које су до сада преведене на италијански, енглески, шпански, пољски и албански језик.

Детињство је провео на Кордуну, у селу Дуги Дол, основно образовање стекао у Крњаку, а средње у Карловцу. Са огњишта га је 1995. године отерала „Олуја”, те данас живи у граду Вест Честер, држава Пенсилванија, САД. Поезију је почео да пише као средњошколац, а неговао кроз чланство у карловачком Књижевном клубу „25 октобар” скоро од оснивања. Захваљујући клупским активностима, наступао је на песничким сусретима широм Југославије. Његов таленат запазиле су песничке величине оног доба, попут Десанке Максимовић, Танасија Младеновића, Весне Перун и Ђакома Скотија. Скоти му је чак помогао да уреди своју прву збирку „На згаришту самоће” 1989. Марта 1990. је био део оснивачке скупштине и потом члан главног одбора СКД „Сава Мркаљ" у Топуском.

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Publishing

Sailors of the Sky

A conversation with Fr. Stamatis Skliris and Fr. Marko Rupnik on contemporary Christian art

In these timely conversations led by Fr. Radovan Bigovic, many issues are introduced that enable the contemporary reader to deepen and expand his or her understanding of the role of art in the life of the Church. Here we find answers to questions on the crisis of contemporary ecclesiastical art in West and East; the impact of Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract painting on contemporary ecclesiastical painting; and a consideration of the main distrinction between iconography and secular painting. The dialogue, while resolving some doubts about the difference between iconography, religious painting, and painting in general, reconciles the requirement to obey inconographic canons with the freedom essential to artistic creativity, demonstrating that obedience to the canons is not a threat to the vitatlity of iconography. Both artists illumine the role of prayer and ascetisicm in the art of iconography. They also mention curcial differences between iconography in the Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism. How important thse distinctions are when exploring the relationship between contemporary theology and art! In a time when postmodern "metaphysics' revitalizes every concept, these masters still believe that, to some extent, Post-Modernism adds to the revitatiztion of Christian art, stimulating questions about "artistic inspiration" and the essential asethetic categories of Christian painting. Their exceptionally wide, yet nonetheless deep, expertise assists their not-so-everday connections between theology, ar, and modern issues concerning society: "society" taken in its broader meaning as "civilization." Finally, the entire artistic project of Stamatis and Rupnik has important ecumenical implications that aswer a genuine longing for unity in the Christian word.

The text of this 94-page soft-bound book has been translated from the Serbian by Ivana Jakovljevic, Fr. Gregory Edwards, and Andrijana Krstic. Published by Sebastian Press, Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Contemporary Christian Thought Series, number 7, First Edition, ISBN: 978-0-9719505-8-0