Bishop Atanasije serves Liturgy in Sokolica Monastery, gives lecture for religion teachers in Kosovska Mitrovica

Bishop Atanasije, the administrator of the Diocese of Raška-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija, served Holy Liturgy today in Sokolica Monastery with the concelebration of protopresbyter-stavrophor Milija Arsović. Also taking part in the Holy Liturgy were Bishop Teodosije of Lipljan, Abbess Makarija and her sisters and about twenty faithful who took communion.

Bishop Atanasije delivered a homily on the Sunday of the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea and the High Priestly Prayer of Christ which, he emphasized, shows that the purpose of the entire order of salvation and union with the Holy Trinity.

After a lunch that was prepared for the guests by Mother Makarija, Bishop Atanasije gave a seminar for religion teachers in the amphitheater of the University in Mitrovica on "The Divine Order as the Framework and Content of Religious Education". The lecture was attended by about sixty religion teachers and priests from the Diocese of Raška and Prizren.

During the lecture Bishop Atanasije spoke about the order of salvation (oikonomia) as God's plan for salvation that is not limited only to redemption but includes self-realization, completion and fulfillment, constant growth in the fullness of the union of man and God. Later in lecture the Bishop explained that the pre-eternal intention of the Holy Trinity, as the Eternal Council, was to make the created world a coparticipant in the communion of Divine nature and the eternal glory of God and that is why the figure of the Incarnate God the Logos, Christ the God-Man is at the very center of the Divine order of salvation. The world was created in order to enter into most intimate community with the Holy Trinity through the hypostasis of the Son of God in which the secular and the heavenly unite in the Church as the Body of Christ in which we as the members of Christ become part of the same body of Christ and coparticipants in His eternal glory.

During today's lecture Bishop Atanasije announced that soon, as he had already requested during the Holy Assembly of Bishops, he would withdraw from the position of Administrator of the Diocese of Raška and Prizren for health reasons and that the Holy Sznod of Bishops would soon appoint a new administrator until the election of a regular diocesan bishop.