After easing the restrictive measures, Bishop Siluan of Australia and New Zealand of the Serbian Orthodox Church made a canonical visit to Victoria in order to see the priests and pious faithful people again.
For Christmas holidays the borders were closed, and Saint Sava’s Assembly in the monastery of Saint Sava was not held due to stricter state regulations concerning public gatherings in large numbers.
Also, the Sretenje church-people’s assembly at the Church of St. Stefan in Keysborough was not held because complete isolation with a ban on movement was in force.
In previous years, Bishop Siluan spent the mentioned holidays in Melbourne, which certainly influenced the holidays to be happier and more solemn.
As this was not possible this year, the Bishop, although physically prevented from visiting Victoria, constantly followed the events and was in contact with priests and the people at times when unprecedented temptations occurred, when a person needed to be spiritually empowered, in the written word in the epistles he comforted and encouraged his spiritual flock not to give up spiritually and to intensify prayer, both in the church and personally, to place their hope and burden on Christ so that they could more easily endure all difficulties.
After the liturgical gathering, Bishop Siluan, together with Archimandrite Petar, parish priests Aleksandar Savić and Dejan Milosevic, deacons Miodrag Tomic and Nenad Vujasinovic and the faithful, continued the weekly gathering in the church hall at an agape feast prepared by members of the Circle of Serbian Sisters.
Source: Serbian Orthodox Church
