ARCHIMANDRITE NEKTARIOS SERFES
Fr. Nektarios
Serfes - For children in Kosovo with loving
heart
Wherever he went, Fr. Nektarios brought joy and hope
with him, not because he gave great and unrealistic promises but because
he demonstrated true Christian concern and love toward every single
person, showing that brotherly love knows no differences in language or
nation. As an Orthodox Christian from
America, Fr. Nektarios brought with him a message of brotherly love
from ordinary, everyday Americans who live far away from the world of
politics and power, and who are truly worried about the fate of fellow Christians in this long suffering
region
![]( "http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/Data/page.htm?5,0")
Fr. Nektarios Serfes with Serb children in martyred
Cernica
(click on photo to enlarge -
2MB)
Photo gallery with pictures from the recent village to
Kosovsko Pomoravlje can be viewed at http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/index.htm
KIM Info
Service
Decani, October 5,
2006
What always captivates both
young and old who meet Fr. Nektarios Serfes, a Greek-American Orthodox archimandrite
from Boise Idaho (USA), is the
warmth of his heart and the constant smile on his face. A man of broad
Orthodox spirituality from the far away North American continent, he will
always be remembered in the hearts of many Serbs in Kosovo. This Orthodox
American, whose father is from north Greece by origin and whose mother is
Scottish, has developed deep ties with the Serbian Orthodox people in
Kosovo and Metohija, whom he selflessly aids by collecting donations for
the poorest and most at risk.
In long ago 1998, reading
the newsletters of the KIM Info Service, then Protopresbyter Demetrios
Serfes, who would soon be tonsured and receive the name of St. Nektarios
of Aegina, contacted Visoki Decani Monastery by internet, asking how he
could help the suffering people of Kosovo and Metohija. With the blessing
of Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren and Fr. Nektarios' superior,
Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, the Decani Monastery Relief Fund
was founded and since then has been headed by Fr. Nektarios and
the abbot of Decani Monastery, Vicar Bishop Teodosije. Just before and
during the war, funds collected by Fr. Nektarios through the Decani
Monastery Relief Fund enabled the Decani brotherhood to
assist families in the most difficult of circumstances in Metohija
with food, medicine and hygienic supplies regardless of their ethnic or
religious differences.
![]( "http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/Data/page.htm?12,0")
Fr. Nektarios, Bishop
Teodosije and Presbytera Svetlana Stevic
with children in the village
of Prekovce near Novo Brdo
(click on photo to
enlarge - 2MB)
The work of Archimandrite Nektarios intensified
after June 1999, when he issued numerous appeals by internet and
statements for the ecclesiastical press in the USA calling for aid to the
suffering Orthodox Christians in
Kosovo. By summer 2006 Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes collected
almost 400,000 US dollars, which was distributed to the most vulnerable families, and monasteries, in
Kosovo.
Since last year Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
began to regularly visit Kosovo and Metohija. During his visits he never
neglected the opportunity to visit the poverty-stricken Serb families in
different parts of Kosovo and Metohija, offering aid and kind words of
solidarity. With his loving heart and
gracious sympathy, particularly towards children, Fr. Nektarije
immediately captured hearts of all whom he
meet.
In this brief summary of the noble work of Fr.
Nektarios Serfes we include several photos taken during his visit to
Kosovo at the end of September 2006. Wherever he went, Fr. Nektarios
brought joy and hope with him, not because he gave great and unrealistic
promises but because he demonstrated true Christian concern and love
toward every single person, showing that brotherly love knows no
differences in language or nation. As an Orthodox Christian from America, Fr. Nektarios
brought with him a message of brotherly love from ordinary, everyday
Americans who live far away from the world of politics and power, and who
are truly worried about the fate of fellow Christians in this long suffering
region.
![]( "http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/Data/page.htm?6,0")
Fr. Nektarios
Serfes in his element - joking with
children in Cernica village
(click on photo
to enlarge - 2 MB)
![]( "http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/Data/page.htm?13,0")
Greetings
for our friends in the USA
Fr. Nektarios Serfes "teaches class"
in Serb school in Prekovci, Novo Brdo
(click on
photo to enlarge - 2 MB)
![]( "http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/Data/page.htm?14,0")
Mandatory distribution of miniature icons to the
children - Fr. Nektarios in Kosovsko Pomoravlje
(click on photo to enlarge - 2
MB)
![]( "http://www.kosovo.net/images/serfes01/Data/page.htm?4,0")
"Long live Serbia"
- Fr. Nektarios says in front of the Serbian flag in one of Kosovo Serb schools
(click on photo to enlarge - 2
MB)
