A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Joint Letter of the Serbian Orthodox Bishops in the United States of America

Deputy Secretary John J. Sullivan
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

March 27, 2018

Dear Deputy Secretary Sullivan:

We, the bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Dioceses in the United States, are writing to express our grave concern over yesterday’s assault by the Kosovo Police on Marko Djuric, Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, as well as journalists and unarmed citizens. Our concern is particularly heightened noting that this brutality seems to be an integral part of an orchestrated campaign against Kosovo's Serbian population, coming in the wake of the assassination of Oliver Ivanovic.

In a provocative show of force, the police force stormed a meeting between citizens and government officials fully-armed and with shock bombs. Over 34 people were seriously injured requiring hospitalization, while Marko Djuric was unlawfully arrested, beaten, and paraded through Pristina before jeering crowds.

Yesterday’s events demonstrate once again that the Kosovo Albanian authorities are unwilling to assure the minimum of basic civic and human rights, including the right to peacefully assemble, to the Serbian population living in its own land. Moreover, these actions show a wanton disregard for the obligations Pristina has itself undertaken to implement essential human and civil rights standards as part of its Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU, in addition to contravening the letter and spirit of the Brussels dialogue.

We call on you, Mr. Deputy Secretary, to show that the United States remains committed to protecting the most fundamental rights and basic human dignity of the Kosovo Serbian population by condemning yesterday’s police brutality in Kosovska Mitrovica, and by making clear to the authorities in Pristina that the United States will never condone beatings of peaceful citizens, journalists, and public officials.

Respectfully yours,

Rt. Rev. Bishop Maxim
Rt. Rev. Bishop Longin
Rt. Rev. Bishop Irinej

Bishop Maxim

Bishop Longin

Bishop Irinej

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Stella Jatras

Stella Louis Jatras

Stella Louis Jatras (nee Katsetos) from Camp Hill, PA, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, as the fourth and youngest daughter of Louis (Leonidas) and Marina Katsetos, originally of Sparta, Greece, and later of Harrisburg and Carlisle.

Stella was quite literally a daughter of Sparta - and her father's name was Leonidas, no less. As Julia Gorin noted, she was Sparta, truly worthy of that heroic heritage. Axia!

In addition to the U.S. Department of State, her professional work included service with the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and the Veterans Administration.

In 1953, she married George Jatras, also the offspring of Greek immigrant parents, and began a long and varied life as the wife of a career U.S. Air Force Officer.

As a career military officer's wife, Stella traveled widely and lived in several foreign countries where she not only learned about other cultures but became very knowledgeable regarding world affairs and world politics. She lived in Moscow for two years, where she worked in the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy. She also lived in Germany, Greece, and Saudi Arabia. Her travels took her to over twenty countries.

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The Church at Prayer

The Church at Prayer

by Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

Publisher’s note

Many readers of the addresses of Elder Aimilianos, which have been published in the five-volume series, rchimandrite Aimilianos, Spiritual Instructions and Discourses (Ormylia, 1998-2003), have frequently expressed the wish for an abridged and more accessible form of his teaching. In response, we are happy to inaugurate a new series of publications incorporating key texts from the above-mentioned collection. Other considerations have also contributed o this new project, such as the selection of specific texts which address important, contemporary questions; the need for a smaller, more reader-friendly publication format; and the necessity for editing certain passages in need of clarification, without however altering their basic meaning.

Above all, the works collected in this volume reflect the importance which the Elder consistently attached to prayer, spirituality, community life, worship, and liturgy. Thus the experientially based works "On Prayer", and "The Prayer of the Holy Mountain", which deal primarily with the Prayer of the Heart, appear first, followed by the summary addresses on "The Divine Liturgy", and "Our Church Attendance". These are in turn followed by the more socially oriented discourses on "Our Relations with Our Neighbor", and "Marriage: The Great Sacrament". Finally, the present volume closes with the sermons on "Spiritual Reading" and "The Spiritual Life", which in a simple and yet compelling manner set forth the conditions for "ascending to heaven on the wings of the Spirit".

It is our hope that The Church at Prayer will meet the purpose for which it is issued and will serve as a ready aid and support for those who desire God and eternal life in Him.

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