Your Grace Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church,<\/p>\n
The Honourable Representative of the Archbishop of Zagreb,<\/p>\n
Esteemed Prime Minister, Honourable Representative of the President of the Republic of Croatia,<\/p>\n
Esteemed Deputy Mayor, Honourable Members of Parliament,<\/p>\n
Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps,<\/p>\n
Dear Guests and Attendees!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We wish all of you a Happy New Year, a year of peace where peace is absent, and a year in which peace will be preserved wherever it still prevails.<\/p>\n
I say \u201cwe\u201d because this wish arises from the spirit of this gathering, which for over three decades has brought together people of many differences \u2013 differences in faith and non-belief, ethnicity and nationality, political orientation and responsibility, experiences and perspectives \u2013 yet united in the spirit that gathers us here, the ecumenical spirit.<\/p>\n
Transforming this gathering on Orthodox Christmas Eve into a public celebration of the spirit of ecumenism, understood in its broadest sense as the celebration of life in its diversity, is something we at the Serb National Council regard as an important achievement. This has been accomplished together with everyone who has joined us over the past three decades in this city and this country. The most significant part of this achievement has been the preservation and strengthening of religious tolerance in general, and particularly the fostering of religious freedom, especially for Orthodox Christians who belong to the Serbian and other Churches. This forms the basis of our hope that, in this and the coming years, it will be possible to restore Orthodox places of worship such as the Pakra Monastery, the Church of the Holy Trinity in Bjelovar, the Pla\u0161ki Cathedral Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the historic wooden Church of St Elijah in Buzeta near Glina, the Church of St George in Medak, and the icon treasury in the Krka Monastery \u2013 to name just a few. Such restoration would further enhance religious tolerance and alleviate constraints on the freedom of Serbian Orthodox Church believers.<\/p>\n
This is a time of celebration \u2013 the celebration of Christ\u2019s Nativity by our Catholic fellow citizens according to the Gregorian calendar, the celebration of Hannukah by or Jewish fellow citizens, the celebration of the New Year, which we all mark, and the celebration of Christ\u2019s Nativity by Orthodox Serbs. This unique celebration in human history is one we greet with dignity, joy, and love for those closest to us, for every person, and for all that makes up our world.<\/p>\n
Thus, this moment calls for us to affirm that, in these times, as in any season of the year, no one should be greater than they are \u2013 neither an individual nor a people. Likewise, no one should be lesser than they are or could be \u2013 again, neither an individual nor a people. This principle should apply to everyone, everywhere, and this includes Orthodox Serbs, Serbs in Croatia, and Serbs from Croatia. They too have the right \u2013 and must have the right \u2013 in every aspect of their lives to be who they are, to ensure their children can be who they are, and to live without anyone making this a problem, not on festive days or on any other day of the year that we have just collectively welcomed.<\/p>\n
The essence of today\u2019s celebration and all that the Serb National Council does is to ensure that Serbs in Croatia and from Croatia believe in this strongly and without inhibition, to encourage them to be good neighbours, good fellow citizens, and to strive to make all of us better than we are and to make our societies better than they currently are. I am confident that such individual and social ethics would make the rights of Serbs in Croatia and from Croatia more accepted than they are at present. I also believe that, with such ethics, we can respond to those here who label cultural, educational, and community centres \u2013 built by Serbs as a newly established minority in cooperation with the Croatian Government in recent years \u2013 as Serbian intelligence hubs. Similarly, we can address those elsewhere who claim that travel documents, to which Serbs from Croatia are entitled, serve as proof of alleged espionage obligations to their country of origin.<\/p>\n
The words spoken so far about peace, the spirit of ecumenism, and the ethics of individual and collective rights would not be complete \u2013 at least not here and now \u2013 if we did not say something about the miraculous power of dialogue in every realm of interpersonal or public social engagement. By this, I do not mean dialogue among those who agree \u2013 as important and necessary as that is \u2013 but dialogue among those who disagree, especially the absent dialogue among those in conflict. We all know that this is a challenge not only for our society and its politics, for our region and its relationships, but for many places in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n
Based on my experience and knowledge, I am aware of how delicate and sensitive this topic can be. As someone who belongs to a religious, ethnic, and political minority with both dramatic experiences of dialogue\u2019s absence and rich experiences in its building, I will say only this on the matter today: I see two key obstacles preventing dialogue from replacing conflict. The first is the language used about those with whom one should converse. Private or exclusionary language cannot lead to dialogue. The second is the motivation behind creating and sustaining conflict. Private, entrenched, or partisan reasons also cannot lead to dialogue. The miraculous power of dialogue is built by those who save themselves and everyone around them from the high costs of power constructed on the language and reasons for conflict.<\/p>\n
Allow me now to greet you with the salutation that over thirty years ago in this city and country regained its dialogical and ecumenical strength, which seems undiminished to this day:<\/p>\n
\u201cPeace of God, Christ is born!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Zagreb, the 6th of January, 2025<\/p>\n Your Grace Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, The Honourable Representative of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Esteemed Prime Minister, Honourable Representative of the President of the Republic of Croatia, Esteemed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vijesti"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"