Department for External Church Relations
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Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk delivers a lecture at the University of Belgrade
On 18 February 2020, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), who is in Belgrade on a two-day visit with a blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and invitation of Patriarch Irenaeus of Serbia, visited the department of Orthodox theology of the University of Belgrade to deliver a lecture on “Orthodox Liturgy as a School of Theology and Theonoesis”.
The dean of the faculty, Rev. Dr Zoran Rankovic, addressed the high guest with a speech of greetings.
The lecture was attended by a great number of professors and students of the University of Belgrade, of which Metropolitan Hilarion is an honorary doctor. Among the attendees were Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb and Ljubljana, Bishops Irenaeus of Bac and John of Shumadia, and Mr. D. Kruglov, cultural attache, Russian embassy in Belgrade.
In his lecture, Metropolitan Hilarion noted in particular that the liturgy brings the faithful into mysterious communion with the Lord and imparts them the grace-giving gifts of the Holy Spirit. His Eminence also stressed that the Orthodox liturgy is a synthesis of arts as everything in it is intertwined and everything has its meaning. The church architecture and frescoes, icon-painting, liturgical texts and church music – all this is merged into a one service of God. Precisely for this reason the Orthodox liturgy does not allow of arbitrary interventions and interpretations.
‘I wish that we all could love and study our Orthodox liturgy and cherish this treasure given by our forefathers, that we could love our churches and adorn them and hand down our love of the Orthodox liturgy to the generations of the faithful to come – the generations of our children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren’, he said.
After the lecture, Metropolitan Hilarion answered questions from the audience.
His Eminence presented the theological department with his book “Liturgy. Historical and Theological Commentaries to the Liturgies of John Chrysostom and Basil the Great”. “In this book, I spoke about the history of the Liturgy, considered its text and tried to give a theological interpretation to each word,” he said and expressed hope that this study would be in demand to Serbian readers as well.
After the lecture, Metropolitan Hilarion had a brief meeting with the dean and professors of the faculty.
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