The fourth regular Assembly of Metropolitanate of Australia-New Zealand was held on premises of the Cathedral church of Holy Great-martyr in Cabramatta, Sidney on September 5-7, 2019.
The Assembly began with invocation of the Holy Spirit in the church, whereupon Assembly members proceeded to the church hall where the working part of the Assembly started in presence of many priests, representatives of church communities and councils of some missionary parishes as well as of delegates from entire Metropolitanate.
Diocesan Bishop Siluan welcomed the participants of the Assembly and shared his joy of having organized it in the year of great jubilees of the Serbian Church. The first day of the Assembly was concluded with a solemn academy in Castle Hill. The second working day started with the Holy Liturgy. After the morning session, Bishops Longin and Siluan performed a memorial service for the repose of the soul of Protopresbyter-Staurophor Milan Zbiljic.
The Assembly finished with a central liturgical celebration of the 800th autocephaly and 70 years of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Australia and New Zealand on the property of the College of Saint Sava.
With a blessing of Bishop Siluan of the Metropolitanate of Australia-New Zealand, a solemn academy on the 800th anniversary of the autocephaly and the 70th anniversary of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Australia and New Zealand was held in Pioneer Theatre in Castle Hill on September 5, 2019.
“We observe the way of Saint Sava, which is also a way of our ancestors and which is always contemporary because the word of Christ is contemporary and saving,” Bishop Siluan noted.
Next to many dignitaries from the church and political life of New South Wales, the most distinguished guest of the evening was Archimandrite Metodije, Abbot of the Imperial Laura of Chilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, who in his address reminded the present of the Life of Saint Sava and pointed out that his merits were so great that even after eight centuries we have still been reaping the salvific fruits of his spiritual labour even on this farthest continent, Australia.
SOURCE: Serbian Orthodox Church
