New SPC Patriarch Porfirije: I am a Serb, but above all I am a Christian and I love all people

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Metropolitan of Zagreb-Ljubljana Porfirije is the new patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, it was officially announced on the SPC website.

He was elected today at the session of the SPC Assembly held at the Church of Saint Sava.

Born in 1961 in Bečej. His secular name is Prvoslav Perić.

According to his official biography, he finished elementary school in Čurug and the "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" Gymnasium in Novi Sad.

He graduated from the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrade in 1986, when the late Bishop of Raška-Prizren, and later Serbian Patriarch Pavle, ordained him a hierodeacon at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Mušutište.

He stayed in Athens for postgraduate studies from 1986 to 1990, when, with the blessing of Bishop Irinej of Bačka, he came to the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Kovilj, where he was ordained a priest-monk and appointed abbot."

He earned his doctorate in 2004 at the Faculty of Theology in Athens on the topic "The Possibility of Knowing God in the Apostle Paul according to the interpretation of Saint John Chrysostom".

His biography highlights that a multitude of young monks and novices come to the monastery in Kovilj after him.

At the regular session of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade on May 14, 1999, he was elected Bishop of Jegar, vicar of the Eparchy of Bačka.

He was the first bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church entrusted with the care of organizing religious life in the Serbian Army (2010 – 2011).

In 2005, the National Assembly of Serbia elected him as a member of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) as a representative of all churches and religious communities, and the Council elected him as its president in 2008.

He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade. He speaks Greek and English, and knows Russian.

"I am a Serb, but above all I am a Christian, and that is a universal value, and therefore I will preach and bear witness to Christ. I love my people, but I also love and will love all other peoples, every person, every icon of God," is one of his earlier statements.

The bells of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade rang around 3:40 PM, which is practiced to mark the election of a new patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

According to Beta's reporter, the word "worthy" was also heard from the church in Greek, which is said after the election of a patriarch.

The rules stipulate that the names of candidates who receive more than half of the Synod's votes are placed in three envelopes.

After that, an abbot specifically designated for the occasion comes to the Church and draws one envelope with the name of the new patriarch from the Gospel.

The session was closed to the public today, as on previous occasions.

The procedure provides for first establishing a list of bishops eligible to be elected, with the condition that they have managed an eparchy for at least five years.

After that, the voting begins to determine the three candidates for patriarch with more than half of the votes, and then one of the three envelopes with the name of the new head is drawn by lot.

The session was chaired by the bishop with the longest tenure, in this case Bishop Vasilije of Srem, as Bishop Lavrentije of Šabac was prevented from attending due to health problems.