A FORMER chaplain in Belgrade, the Revd Graham Doyle, has asked for support for the Anglican church in the city. It is currently unable to cover the stipend of its priest, the Revd Robin Fox.
Fr Fox, who has been chaplain in the Serbian capital since 2004, subsidises his ministry by working as a teacher of English. As well as being the only Anglican representative in Serbia, he also pays pastoral visits to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Skopje in Macedonia, and is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The parish in Belgrade still covers the cost of Fr Fox’s accommodation and pension, but has not been able to pay his stipend for the past three years.
Fr Fox said that his stipend was initially covered by a three-year grant from Lambeth Palace, which he managed to stretch to cover five years. “We’ve been self-funding for the last three years, and I’ve been teaching: it does impact on the amount of time I can spend on chaplaincy matters. I spend half to three-quarters of my working time teaching.
“It’s demanding, but I’m enjoying it enormously, as it allows me to meet new people in the expat and local community.”
The church worships at St Mary’s, a former Roman Catholic convent, and has a Sunday congregation of about 40, covering a mixture of nationalities, including British people, Americans, Ghanaians, Australians, and Indonesians.
The congregation was initially formed after the First World War, when many Serbian soldiers married Scottish Episcopalian nurses who had cared for them during the conflict and settled in the city.
“We have a wide range of nationalities and denominations, but, unlike other chaplaincies in Europe, like the south of France or south of Spain, we do not have a large expat congregation. Belgrade is not on the ‘retirement map’,” Fr Fox said.
“But I feel very strongly called to be here in Belgrade: it’s a very important place to be. Serbia is changing very much, and struggling with the ideas of national identity and church identity, and I think it’s important to have an Anglican representative. It will also have a growing international population, as it is in the process of joining the EU.”
The Revd Graham Doyle, now Rector of Athlone in Ireland, was chaplain in Belgrade from 1993 to 1997, during the civil war, and returned there after it was bombed by NATO in 1999; he was the last chaplain in the former Yugoslavia. He contacted the Church Times to raise awareness of the current situation, and make an appeal on its behalf.
Resources at the chaplaincy had always been “meagre”, he said. The congregation had given as sacrificially as it could, but was struggling in the current recession. “They are a worthy and faithful part of the Anglican Church, and they need help.” Mr Doyle described the chaplaincy’s continued existence as “a beacon of light” for peace and unity.
www.stmarysbelgrade.org
www.stmarysbelgrade.org
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