On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, on the feast day of Saint John Vladimir, King of the Serbs, the church bearing his name in the Medaković district of Belgrade celebrated its patronal feast with great solemnity.
On this occasion, Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia presided over the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy.
In his homily on the Gospel reading, Patriarch Porfirije, among other things, stated: “For us Christians, the fundamental, most important, and the only truly decisive and salvific rule is the one written in the Gospel, revealed to us by the Lord, and lived out through the centuries by the Saints of God and the Church of Christ in its sacred experience. These rules are very simple, they are the commandments of God. And God’s commandments are not orders, but guiding principles; they are not commands that restrict our freedom, nor our healthy nature, nor our proper way of being.. The commandments of God are an expression of His love toward us; they are supportive means.
Therefore, every other law, regardless of its source, we measure against God’s law; every other word, no matter who speaks it, we judge by the word of Christ, the word of the Gospel, the word of the Church. And if that word aligns with the Gospel, with the voice of the Church, then we accept it; but if it contradicts the Gospel, that is, the Church’s teaching, then we are, at the very least, not interested in it – it does not concern us.
The Lord came and established His Church; and though it is not of this world, it is in this world so that it may be a sign of eternity, a mirror, to transform this world through our faith and by the grace of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit, which becomes present through the holy Church of Christ in this world and transforms the world.
The Church, therefore, exists so that we may be saved, and so that it may transform the world, not to conform to it; not to indulge it, not to flatter it, not to seek applause and praise from this world, but to love the world, to love all of God’s creation and to call it into the Kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, yet is truly present in this world” emphasized Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia.
