Current location:	Tshwane, Gauteng
Entry tags:	golden freedom, kosovo, orthodox mission, serbia, vidovdan

Vidovdan in Gauteng
Our congregation at Tembisa seems to have disintegrated -- the people who originally asked for an Orthodox Church there have scattered. About half were Zimbabweans, and they seem to have returned to Zimbabwe and not been able to get visas to come back to South Africa. A couple of others got jobs, and their work took them away. The main leader is in jail, or so we have been told.

For the few who remained, it hardly seemed worthwhile to take them to a cold and empty school classroom for a reader's service when 20 minutes drive in the other direction there is a proper church where they can experience the Divine Liturgy -- St Thomas's Church in Sunninghill Park, served by two monks from the Black River monastery in Serbia, Fr Pantelejmon and Fr Spryidon.

And today at St Thomas's was the celebration of Vidovdan, to commemorate the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, when Serbia was invaded by the Ottoman Turks, and lost its independence for 500 years. The battle took place on St Vitus's Day, hence the name Vidovdan. St Vitus's day was actually last Wednesday, but today was the nearest Sunday, so we had the Divine Liturgy, and a Requiem Service, and lunch afterwards, and the congregation was three times its usual size.



As usual on such occasions, the children read verses about the battle and St Prince Lazar who was killed in the battle. Some of our group read the story in English as well.



One of the things that is often said about this commemoration is that while other nations have parades and speeches and such to commemorate their great military victories, the Serbs, almost perversely, it seems to some outsiders, commemorate their greatest defeat, in which they lost their freedom for half a millennium.

The reason is that on the eve of the battle an angel appeared to St Prince Lazar in the guise of a grey falcon, and said there are two kinds of freedom: ordinary freedom and golden freedom. The Battle of Kosovo took place several hundred years ago, but the message of the grey falcon is one that we would do well to heed today:

Thereupon the angel continued: "Golden freedom, however, is closely tied to the honourable cross. Through the honourable cross, golden freedom was revealed to men. For gold is a symbol of truth. Golden freedom therefore means freedom that is true and unchangeable. We immortal spirits have the freedom in the heavenly kingdom -- this internal spiritual freedom. When someone among mortals acquires this freedom, he, and he alone, is truly free. He is free of worldly cares and cravings; free of delusions of worldly glory and fleeting fame; free of the world, of men, of demons; free also of himself, of his lower, unspiritual being. Bearing this golden freedom in his breast, he feels free whether he is living in external freedom or external slavery. This freedom cannot be increased by his country being free any more than it can be decreased by his country being deprived of its freedom. It is a treasure hidden within the soul, a treasure which thieves cannot steal, tyrants cannot destroy, fire cannot burn, and death cannot annihilate. True freedom is freedom whether one is in a prison or in a palace. Without it a prison is a tomb and a palace is a prison. Without this internal freedom of the children of God, the freedom of the spirit and the heart, man is always a slave no matter what the external circumstances of his life are. This freedom makes external slavery unbitter and external freedom sweet. It is salt for external freedom, and protects it from abuse and corruption; it is light for external bondage, providing light and warmth to enslaved people".

For more on this, and how it relates to more recent events in both South Africa and the Balkans, see my article on Nationalism, violence and reconciliation