The Administrator of the Raška and Prizren, Kosovo and Metohija Diocese Bishop Atanasije has visited today the clergy and the faithful in Kosovo Pomoravlje (Eastern part of Kosovo Province). Bishop Atanasije served the Holy Liturgy with eight parish priests and three deacons of the Gnjilane region at St. Elias church in the village of Cernica. In the village he was given a warm welcome by protoprebyter Fr. Dragan Kojić.After the reading of the Holy Gospel Bishop Atanasije gave a sermon on the Gospel as Word and Truth of the Eternal Life explaining that the Holy Gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Despite the difficult war and post-war years the village of Cernica in which 40 Serbian families live is demonstrating a true Serbian and Kosovo spirit based on faith and hope in the Lord. The people of Cernica offered their Bishop a warm hospitality, particularly the children whom the Bishop visited in their school, talked to them, made jokes and taught them.
At the village school Bishop Atanasije held an unforgettable lesson of history, geography, religion and the Christian ethics at the same time. In his previous visits to Kosovo Bishop Atanasije has been a frequent visitor of Cernica which became a symbol of Serbian suffering in Kosovo and Metohija.
Cernica and Binač
After his visit to Cernica Bishop Atanasije visited the church of the Holy Trinity in Parteš and the church of St. Nicholas in Binač. In Binač the people with their children and their parish priest warmly Zvonko Kostić warmly welcomed their Bishop. Their parish church has recently been reconstructed thanks to the donations of the parishioners despite their poverty and hard life. The Bishop with his priests also visited the destroyed monastery near Binač which was torched in 1999. and which will soon, God willing, be reconstructed.
Visit to Parteš
At the end of his pastoral visit to Kosovo Pomoravlje, Bishop Atanasije visited the church of St. Parasceva in Vitina.
