News and Events - November 2011
A CENTURY OF THE LIVING FAITH IN A LIVING GOD
“There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the difference is great between the two paths.”
(The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles – Didache)
(The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles – Didache)
In the history of the Serbian people migrations have always occupied a very important role. For various reasons, economic, political, wartime and other, by force rather than of its own will, our people have often been forced to migrate. From the Congress of Berlin (1878) until the beginning of World War I (1914), a large number of Serbs moved to the North American continent. In leaving their homeland, our people were compelled to leave almost everything, including their loved ones, however, they brought along with them the most significant things: love for their Serbian Orthodox Church and love for their suffering Serbian people. As a fruit of that love, throughout America, many beautiful churches began to sprout. Thus, in the fall of 1911, a parish and church-school congregation was founded, and a year later a beautiful church dedicated to St. George the Great and Victorious Martyr was erected in Indiana Harbor.
This year, giving praise to our Lord, the Most Holy Mother of God and St. George our patron, our parish is celebrating its Centennial anniversary. One hundred years of sacrifice and effort, one hundred years of faith and love, a hundred years of celebrating Divine Liturgy, the most holy and most perfect community of God and man! One hundred years of gratitude to the Lord, the source and giver of all the good gifts, for the abundance of heavenly blessings He has graciously poured out on our parish. One hundred years of the living faith in the living God!
Having been filled with the strong and unwavering faith in the Lord, the faithful of this parish have clothed their faith in the most beautiful works of love and creativity. Inspired by the words of St. Paul the Apostle, “And let us not grow weary while doing good,” the faithful of our St. George Church did good to all, “especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal. 6:9-10) While building and nourishing their own spiritual home, at the same time they helped those in most dire need to build their homes overseas. In order to fulfill the words of the Holy Gospel, they used to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, receive the displaced and refugees, comfort the sick, minister to the imprisoned and those in need. In a time of great suffering of the Serbian people at a turn of the century mark, the members of our parish showed the brightest example of love and charity. The name of St. George Church in Schererville has become synonymous for benevolence and, as such, carried along the Serbs throughout the United States and the world.
In an early Christian document, the following words were recorded, “Do not be one who opens his hands to receive, but closes them when it is time to give.” The more the hands of our parish were generous toward others, the more the hand of God was generous to the family of St. George. More than three decades ago, our grounds were an ordinary field, and today it is a beacon of pride not only for us who belong to this parish, but for the entire Serbian Orthodox Church and its Serbian people. The crown of the faith and love of several generations of our members and parishioners is this most precious parish church dedicated to Saint George the Great and Victorious Martyr, decorated with the most beautiful frescoes and icons.
A beautiful church, a grandiose hall, a comfortable parish home and wonderful parish grounds clearly and undoubtedly point to the greatest and most precious value that our parish has - our good, pious and God-fearing people. Our spiritual and material wealth cannot be priced. It is a priceless gift of the Holy Spirit which, as an inexhaustible source, inspires and enlightens hearts and souls of generations of people who have labored before us, this present generation, and future generations. All these generations, past, present and future, drink water from the same source from which, when you drink, you do not thirst again, and that source is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Celebrating this great jubilee of our church-school congregation, we first of all remember prayerfully and gratefully, the benefactors and founders of blessed memory, who have planted their roots in the very foundation of this parish. May the good Lord give rest in His Kingdom to all our honorable ancestors, clergy, forefathers and fathers, brothers and sisters who have contributed to the growth and prosperity of the Body Of Christ’s Holy Church, and may He establish them in paradise granting them memory eternal. Their names are inscribed in the Book of Life eternal and by this will our holy and honorable ancestors recognize and accept them as one of their own and as worthy heirs of their legacy.
Every generation of Orthodox Christians is responsible to contribute to the building of the House of God. It applies to our generation as well. If we desire to be decorated with the epithet of the worthy heirs of our ancestors, we have the responsibility to endow our children with the works for which they will be both joyful and proud of us. Let us therefore sow the good seed, so that with God’s help our children may reap a bountiful harvest, just as we have harvested the fruits of our ancestors. St. Paul the Apostle writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (I Cor. 3:6) According to the Holy Apostles, he who plants, he who waters and he who reaps are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor, for we are all God’s fellow workers.
Celebrating the first century of life in our parish and always being grateful to our ancestors, it is our duty and obligation to lay the groundwork for the next hundred years. Mindful of the fact that the future of the family of St. George is in our children, we wish to remind the parents that the future of our children is also in the Church. Children are the most precious gift of God to parents and the Church, therefore, all of us should be looking after them. As the Holy Evangelist writes, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mk. 8:36). The souls of our children the Lord will seek out of our hands. In May of this year an honorable elderly lady, our beloved Danica Idukovic, a member of our parish, celebrated her 101st birthday. May the Lord grant that the children born and baptized this year in our holy church live to celebrate our Bicentennial anniversary. This would be the greatest achievement and most satisfying reward for our generation.
I am delighted to extend congratulations and best wishes to all our members and parishioners on the occasion of the Centennial anniversary of our parish and church-school congregation. I offer my humble prayers to the Lord to continually protect us and keep us on the only true path – the path which leads to Life. As the great Serbian poet Aleksa Santic wrote in 1907, the same time when the Serbian people settled in these areas, “We know our path, the path of the God-Man.” And as it is engraved in marble of the Cathedral Church in Belgrade, right above the icon of our Holy Father Sava, “Love Orthodoxy, love our Serbian nation.” May God grant that these holy and testimonial words of allegiance be forever engraved in the hearts of the members of our St. George parish.
V. Rev. Dobrivoje V. Milunovic