On March 2, 2021, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel meet with Serbia’s new Ambassador to Romania Stefan Tomašević at the Patriarchal Residence in Bucharest.
At the beginning of the meeting, Ambassador Stefan Tomašević thanked the Patriarch for the warm welcome. He stressed the importance of the fraternal ties between the two peoples and Orthodox Churches, which, throughout history, have gone through similar trials together.
The Serbian Ambassador to Bucharest noted that he was blessed by Patriarch Irinej of blessed memory before taking up his duties in Romania.
At the same time, the Ambassador thanked for the message of condolences that the Patriarch of Romania sent, on behalf of the Romanian Orthodox Church, at the funeral of the former Serbian Patriarch Irinej.
Regarding the new Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Porfirije, His Excellency expressed his conviction that he will continue to develop good relations with other Churches and Christian peoples, as he did as Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel thanked for appreciation and evoked the personality of the new Patriarch of Serbia, a promoter of dialogue and Orthodox brotherhood, peace and friendship between different nations.
His Beatitude stressed that it is desirable to intensify relations between the two sister Orthodox Churches and the two neighbouring peoples.
Also, the Patriarch of Romania highlighted the Serbian State’s unique role in supporting the Serbian Orthodox Church for building and painting St. Sava’s Cathedral in Belgrade, noting that the Romanian Patriarchate is also in the process of painting, in mosaic technique, the National Cathedral in Bucharest.
The two Orthodox peoples’ faith and dignity are shown through these Cathedrals after the difficult years of the atheist communist dictatorship.
At the end of the meeting, the two interlocutors mentioned the problematic period that all humanity is going through due to the new coronavirus’s pandemic. This period can be overcome by intensifying prayer, Christian philanthropy and solidarity with all those in difficulty.
Department for inter-church and inter-religious relations and external church communities
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu
