Patriarch Irinej: Kosovo is Serb Jerusalem

Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej on Thursday issued his message ahead of January 7, when Christmas in celebrated in Serbia.

The patriarch called on all believers to be one with the long-suffering Serb people who are faithfully safeguarding and defending every step of the holy land in Kosovo and Metohija, and said that Kosovo and Metohija is our Jerusalem, our Holy Land, "which has been, may we never forget, given to us by God as an eternal pledge."

In the epistle, published on the Serbian Orthodox Church website, he warned that "neither our country, nor beautified cities and villages, nor the economic growth to which we so aspire, nor all the goods of this world, will be worth anything if as a people we are gradually, but surely, disappearing, that is, if we have more deaths than births."

"The good news of Christ's nativity today is proclaimed to a world...