On May 13, a religious procession took place in Belgrade, in which Serbian believers from the Vidovdan Pilgrimage organization took part, Pravblog reports. Their goal was to pray for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and draw public attention to the problem of persecution of the UOC, from which temples and shrines are taken away with the help of violence. This event is reported by Pravblog.

The organizer of the procession, Hadji-Milan Ivankovich, separately focused on the fact that the procession was held under the slogan “We will not give up our shrines.”

“After all, the same Kiev-Pechersk and Pochaev Lavra are shrines for all Orthodox, including Orthodox Serbs. That is why the Vidovdan Pilgrimage organization decided to dedicate its 17th pilgrimage to Kosovo and further to Athos to our Orthodox brothers and sisters from Ukraine. During the 1,100 km of our journey, we will pray for them and that they, having endured all persecution, continue to stand firm in the Orthodox faith,” Ivankovic stressed.

Crusaders in T-shirts with the image of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God and the emblem “We will not give up our shrines” passed along the route the Church of St. Sava in Vracar – the Embassy of Ukraine in Serbia – the monastery of Vavedenje. At the head of the procession they carried a cross, which the Vidovdan Pilgrimage organization repeatedly took with them on religious processions to Kosovo, Jerusalem and Mount Athos. The believers held copies of miraculous Serbian icons in their hands, and also read the Psalter during the procession. At the end of the move, a prayer was made to the Most Holy Theotokos for the strengthening of Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

In addition, the crusaders read out an appeal about the situation with the UOC. In it, on behalf of their organization, they asked the bishops and priests of the Serbian Church to follow the example of Patriarch Porfiry, a number of other authoritative bishops of the SOC, and publicly raise their voice in defense of the trampled rights of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The procession participants also called on professors, students and theologians of Serbian Orthodox faculties and seminaries to come out in support of the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary of the UOC.