His Beatitude the Pope and the Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa visited the Diocese of Raška-Prizren, Visoki Dečani Monastery

His Beatitude the Pope and the Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa Theodore II visited today monastery Visoki Dečani in company of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej and members of the Church delegations of Alexandria and Serbia. The Primate of the ancient Alexandrian Church was greeted by Bishop of Raška and Prizren Teodosije with his clergy, monastics and the faithful people which gathered for this occasion. In the monastery church a doxology was served with chanting of our Prizren seminarians. In his address to the Patriarch Bishop Teodosije expressed his profound honor and joy on the occasion of the visit of the Patriarch of Alexandria and spoke about the Diocese of Raška and Prizren, her holy sites and the suffering of the Orthodox Christian people in the recent years. The Patriarch in his address expressed his joy over the visit confirming the deep spiritual bonds between the two sister-Churches. The Pope of Alexandria particularly spoke about the importance of monasticism from the ancient time, in the early Christian Egypt and now, saying that the monasticism is the soul of the Church. After the exchange of gifts, the primates, bishops and the clergy shared the lunch at the Monastery refectory. During the lunch a choir of Serbian children from Kosovo and Metohija sang a few old Serbian songs. His Beatitude Patriarch Theodore together with Patriarch Irinej and other dignitaries left Dečani Monastery travelling to Niš and continuing his pilgrimage to the Serbian Orthodox Church.