17.10.2013.

Consecration ceremony at the temple at the General Staff

His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, with concelebration of Bishop Porfirije of Jegar, the bishop in charge of the religious service in the Armed Forces, His Grace Bishop Jovan of Lipljan and other high priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church, performed the great consecration of the worship space in the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff.

Consecration of the temple of the Great Martyr George and hierarchical Liturgy were attended by the Chief of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic with his closest associates .

- Today's liturgical consecration of the temple of the Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, with this act that will be entered in the history of our nation, we confirm that the army belongs to the people and shares its fate. The army is part of the life of the people, and part of the life of the people are also the priests, whom, by God's will and people's desire we are to re-introducing to the Serbian Armed Forces. This is a great historical event. By this holy act, great consecration of the temple we return to our history and our culture. This enables the believers among our people in the military to have their representatives, representatives of Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim faith. A soldier is part of the people, regardless of his or her religion. The Army has always served its people, and now, after a break of seven decades, the introduction of chaplains reaffirms this truth – the Patriarch Irinej of Serbia said, addressing the assembled members of the General Staff.

After the liturgy in which members of the Serbian Armed Forces could pray and approach the Holy Communion, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia presented Grammate for a large contribution to the introduction of the religious service in the Serbian Armed to Major General Sladjan Djordjevic, Head of Human Resources, Colonel Petar Boskovic, Head of Public Relations and Stevica Karapandzin and the Secretary in the Ministry of Culture Igor Jovicic.

At the specially organized reception for members of religious service, general Dikovic spoke about the importance of religious service and the expected impact on the operational capability of the Serbian Armed Forces.