Promotion of “the Christian Heritage of Kosovo and Metohija” in Oxford

On February 14, St Theosevia Centre for Christian Spirituality in Oxford hosted a promotion of a truly splendid production—monograph on The Christian Heritage of Kosovo and Metohija.

Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, Bishop Maxim of Western America and Prof. Olivera Popovic from Oxford University spoke about this volume.Bishop Maxim gave a clear and helpful introduction to the book and to its purpose describing it as “a work of love”. The book itself is very beautifully prepared, and most of the articles are very moving, bearing witness to the sufferings of the Serbian people but also to their desire for peace and the finding of a way ahead which conserves the spiritual tradition of the Church and acknowledges the long history of Kosovo as the cradle of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Kallistos welcomed everybody at the launching of this, as he said, “fascinating volume with many learned and informative articles but also colored illustrations of very high standard.” He recalled visits that he made to Kosovo (first in 1970 and in 2014). Although the history of Serbia from the 14th century is a history of martyrdom, the heritage has not been destroyed and he expressed his belief that the Serbian will continue to be faithful to its heritage, that the memory of Kosovo will continue to flourish. With reference to the testimony of the book, which according to him is “a definitive book on the Christian heritage of Kosovo and Metohija”, Metropolitan said that we need to remember that beauty is a quality of God and of Christian life. And there is much that is beautiful to which the book bears witness.

Metropolitan Kallistos presented the book to the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford and one of the oldest libraries in Europe.

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