By Mladen Aleksic
The Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Hrizostom, got vaccinated on March 25 in the Health center in Sokolac (Republic of Srpska). As far as is known, he is the fourth bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church who gets vaccinated.
Metropolitan Hrizostom is well known as a bishop who supports vaccinations. In an interview for Serbian web portal nova.rs, he spoke about the importance of vaccinations. He noted that the SOC underestimated Covid19. “While in Europe or Canada only six or ten believers were allowed to enter the church, in our country there were tens and hundreds of people,” he said.
The first bishop who got vaccinated was the Archbishop of Ohrid, Metropolitan of Skopje, and the head of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric, Jovan. He received the vaccine on January 11 and on that occasion he said it is important to take care of our neighbor. “We must prevent someone else from becoming infected through us,” he noted.
On January 19, the bishop of Sabac, Lavrentije, the oldest bishop in the SOC (86), got vaccinated. He added that vaccination has saved the world several times. “It’s our duty to be careful, to take care, and to listen to those who protect human health.”
As we reported earlier, vicar-bishop Stefan got vaccinated on March 19. This was announced on a promo-video by Belgrade Deputy Major, Goran Vesic, who thanked bishop Stefan for joining the campaign of the City of Belgrade to invite people to be vaccinated.
On that occasion, vicar-bishop Stefan said: “I was vaccinated to serve you. Get vaccinated too, above all to save your life.”
Serbian Orthodox Church has lost bishop Milutin of Valjevo, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro, bishop Atanasije as well as Patriarch Irinej from Covid19. Also, many priests, monks, and faithful died of Covid19. So far, many bishops overcame this virus and successfully recovered.