Radio KIM reported that Serbian Orthodox Church Visoki Decani Monastery marked yesterday the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Displaced persons from Djakovica and Decane were among attendees. The Liturgy was also attended by the US Ambassador in Kosovo Philip Kosnett with his wife Alison and the US General Shaun Harris with his colleagues, Monastery wrote on its Twitter profile.
The Presidency of the Association of Kosovo Historians ‘Ali Hadri’, the Decani branch, harshly reacted to statements by, as they assessed, an anti-Albanian priest – Abbot Sava Janjic, who has been serving in the Albanian Orthodox monastery of Decani, a monastery usurped by Serbian occupiers – since the medieval period. They gave the statement last night for the Voice of America news program.
A group of senior officials of the German Christian Democratic Union, led by European Parliament Vice-President Reiner Wieland, visited the Visoki Decani Monastery today where they talked about the current situation in Kosovo, as well as about the monastery itself with Abbot Sava Janjic.
In the most recent report of the State Department on International Religious Freedom in 2018 particular attention was paid to violations of religious and property rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) in Kosovo, Raska-Prizren Eparchy said in a statement posted on its web-site.
Even though the paving of a road in the Decani gorge –which leads to the mountains of this municipality and the border with Montenegro and partly passes through a special protected zone – was stopped in May last year, the Decani municipal authorities continued with the road construction.
The US Ambassador in Pristina Philip Kosnett and EU Office Head Nataliya Apostolova sent an appeal to the Kosovo authorities to implement the 2016 decision of the Constitutional Court which confirmed ownership of Visoki Decani Monastery over 24 hectares of land, KoSSev portal reports.
Following 16 years long dispute the Constitutional Court made decision in May 2016 confirming the previous decision of the Supreme Court from 2012 on Visoki Decani monastery’s ownership rights over 24 hectares of land.
The monks of the Serbian Orthodox Church Monastery of Visoki Decani expressed their deep solidarity with all Christians and citizens of France regarding the fire that ravaged Notre Dame on Monday. „May God grant the speedy reconstruction of this beautiful church so that it may rise again in all its splendor,“ they said.
A group of pilgrims drove six hours from Belgrade into the former Serbian province of Kosovo – to pray at this church. It is one of the most revered Serbian Orthodox Churches in the world, the 14th-century – Visoki Decani. It houses the tomb of King Stefan Decanski, considered by Serbs – a holy monarch. VOA reporter Jamie Dettmer has recently brought the story to U.S. viewers from the UNESCO protected Serb and world heritage site.
A negative campaign against the high-ranking Decani Abbot, father Sava Janjic continues with the accusations of Sima Spasic from the Association of Families of the Abducted and Missing, reports portal Vesti.
Representatives of other associations do not support Spasic's actions, stating that he should not be involved in politics but in clarifying the fate of the missing.
Kosovo has a duty to fully adhere to its legislation on Special Protective Zones and not to commence work on the road until the bypass route is fully planned and funded – the EU Office wrote in a statement, following the visit of EU Heads of Mission to the Special Protective Zone at the Visoki Decani Monastery, KoSSev portal reported.