Patriarch Porfirije warns of frequent hatred

NEWS 02.06.202213:44
Beta/Amir Hamzagić

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Porfirije, warned on Thursday of misunderstandings and frequent hatred in the world.

“We worry about misunderstandings in the world, events that we never took part in and that maybe don’t depend on us, yet we are mutually exclusive, and often filled with hatred,” he said after a church service on Ascension Day.

The Patriarch said: “We all know that we sometimes cannot resist condemnation, gossip and exclusion. That is why we have the secret of forgiveness and the secret of repentance.” The service was held in the Church of the Ascension in Belgrade to mark the saint’s day of the City of Belgrade.

The Patriarch said that the church isn’t there to save transient things. „In history everything is changeable and relative, some of us who are older have the same addresses as the day we were born yet we have changed many names of our state. But Christ’s church is intransient because God is eternal”, said the Patriarch, adding that “no one should tell us how to live”.

Patriarch Porfirije will lead the Ascension Day procession later in the afternoon from the Church of the Ascension to the Saint Sava Temple, where he will say a prayer for peace.