UNITY IS BLESSING FROM GOD

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 28 /SRNA/ - Unity is a blessing from God, but it cannot be achieved without spiritual values, His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije has said.

"Unity cannot be achieved without Christ," Patriarch Porfirije stressed.

Following his visit to Australia, the Serbian Patriarch told RTV Slovo Ljubve that community is a fundamental human need.

"Being one is woven into our nature; that is how we were created. That is why the Lord says that they all may be one, or that we all may be one. This unity does not mean a faceless group of individuals, but implies diversity," the Serbian Patriarch said.

He noted that unity implies the distinctiveness of each part of the community, and that everyone within that unity bears their own particular mark.

And that mark, he added, is nothing other than a gift from God.

Reflecting on his visit to Australia, Patriarch Porfirije said that Serbs living on that distant continent always remain connected with their homeland, precisely because they gather for the liturgy.

He said the liturgy is the presence of the Kingdom of God on earth and offers an experience of the Kingdom of God, where all present are together with the Lord and gathered around Him.

He said the new generations of Serbs in Australia, descendants of immigrants, are fully integrated and have no problems with the society they live in.

"They feel that this is their soil, their country, but at the same time and to the same extent they have a deep sense that they are Orthodox Serbs, followers of St. Sava, and that they have something more, which they can not only be proud of, but also use to contribute to that culture," Patriarch Porfirije said.