The Memory of the Flooded Church in Drinjaca has not been Faded Out
Church of Serbia – 30/5/2020
On May 24, 2020, His Grace Fotije, Bishop of Zvornik and Tuzla, officiated the Holy Archhierarchal Liturgy on the occasion of the 115th anniversary of the consecration of the church of Saints Cyril and Methodius at Drinjača, which was flooded over during the construction of the hydroelectric power plant in 1955.
In the new church dedicated to the Holy Deacon Habakkuk, the Bishop was concelebrated by protopresbyter-staurophor Vidoje Lukić, Bishop’s dean in Zvornik, protopresbyter-staurophor Slavenko Tomić, a parish priest in Zvornik, presbyter Mladen Pantić, a parish priest in Medjaš-Trnjača, and protodeacon Slavoljub Milosevic.
After the Divine Liturgy and the patron saint procession, a panichida service was officiated for parish priests: Timotije Popović, who built the church of Saints Cyril and Methodius at Drinjača with the faithful in 1905 and who died as a martyr being hanged by the Austro-Hungarians in 1914; protopresbyter Milan Petković, who died as a martyr in the Dachau CC in 1945, as well as for all the innocent victims and deceased locals of the Drinjačka parish.
His Grace Fotije blessed wheat and broke the festal loaf together with the sponsor of this year’s patron saint festivity Mr. Zoran Ilic from Novo Selo. Appreciating great merits and material assistance during the renovation of the church in Drinjača His Grace Bishop awarded by a Hierarchal Charter of Gratitude Mr. Zoran Stevanović, Mayor of Zvornik; Mr. Bojan Ivanović, Deputy Mayor of Zvornik’ Mr. Miladin Mijatović from Drinjača and Desanka Mićić from Đevanje. Afterward, the agape meal was offered at which the parish priest made familiar the present guests with details of church life throughout the history of Drinjaca, with the construction and consecration of the Cathedral Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the sufferings of the priests and faithful at Drinjaca.
Diocese of Zvornik and Tuzla
For Info Service of the SOC translated into English by Sanja Simic de Graaf
