His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije served the Holy Liturgy on March 2, 2025, on Forgiveness Sunday, in the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar and on that occasion ordained Deacon Nemanja Kalem to the order of priests.

– The Apostle Paul says that he who does not eat fatty foods does not despise or judge those who eat them, because if we abstain from certain foods and fulfill certain fasting rules, but despise those who are next to us and judge them, we already know what that is. This is what is very well and vividly described in the examples of many Pharisees who fulfilled the law – they should have fulfilled it and that was right – but what was wrong was that they wanted confirmation and praise here and now and even an eschatological reward, i.e. they expected a reward from God himself. They did not perceive a correct way of life as a normal path, as something that is taken for granted, but they did it in order to boast and exalt themselves in relation to others. Therefore, it is important that we have the correct attitude towards fasting, to see it as a spiritual exercise, and not as a goal; to see it as fulfilling the law of God and as a response to the love of God, as an expression of our personal need, as an expression and confirmation of our love for God and for our neighbors – said Patriarch Porphyrios, whose sermon you can read in full HERE.

At the end of the Holy Liturgy, His Holiness Patriarch Porphyrios gave another fatherly instruction:

– May prayer and Holy Communion be for health and salvation, brothers and sisters. And let us repeat once again: today is Forgiveness Sunday, tomorrow begins Great Lent, Great Lent. May it be blessed by God, may it be for salvation for all, for spiritual renewal and spiritual transformation so that we may come to the joy of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ. We are called to forgive one another, because that is also the thunderous message of today's Gospel: if we do not forgive one another, the Lord will but cannot forgive us. He cannot, because we have closed ourselves off in ourselves and our selfishness. Therefore, let us forgive one another. I ask you all to forgive me first for any word or deed that has in any way hurt, confused, or injured anyone; to forgive all your brother bishops; to forgive the clergy and the priesthood; to pray for us and, first of all, for the worst and most sinful of all – me; as, be assured, I first, and also all my brother bishops and all the clergy of our Church, pray for all of you. May all things be simple for God and may we all be one! May we understand this world through Christ, and may this coming Lent be filled first with our repentance, may it be filled with prayer, may it be filled with forgiveness, so that in the end, celebrating the Resurrection of Christ, His victory over our enemies who are called death, sin and the devil, may His victory be our victory and that we may participate in it, because it is such in itself. Forgive and may God forgive everyone, and you gathered here, and the fullness of our Church, as we once again ask the fullness of our Church to forgive us in everything. May the upcoming Lent be blessed!

The following concelebrated with His Holiness the Patriarch: His Eminences, Vicar Bishops Alexej of Hvostan and Hilarion of Novo Brdo; Archpriests-Staurophores Radivoje Panić and Jovica Vicentijević; Archpriest Đorđe Stojisavljević, Head of the Cabinet of the Serbian Patriarch; Archpriests Ivan Štrbački, Nenad Jovanović, Nenad Kalem, Dragan Šovljanski; Priests Dejan Vujić, Borislav Petrić, Branislav Kedžić, Miroslav Vasić, Dalibor Stojadinović, Pavle Matulić and Nemanja Kalem; Archdeacons Dragan Radić, Radomir Vrućinić and Mladen Dimitrijević; as well as Deacon Vasilije Perić.

The newly ordained priest Nemanja Kalem was born on May 29, 1984 in Mostar to parents Njegoslav and Milanka Kalem. He completed primary school in Kotor, and graduated from the Theological Seminary of St. Peter of Cetinje in Cetinje in 2003. He successfully completed his basic academic studies at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade in 2008. In the same year, he enrolled in specialist academic political science studies of religion at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, where in 2013 he defended his specialist thesis on the topic "Macedonian Schism in the Serbian Orthodox Church" with the highest grade and earned the title of specialist political scientist in the field of political science studies of religion. Meanwhile, on September 1, 2012, at the proposal of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, with the consent of Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, of blessed memory, as the competent hierarch, the Holy Synod of Bishops appointed him as a professor-trainee at the St. Sava Theological Seminary in Belgrade, and the following year, on September 26, given that he had a master's degree at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, he was also appointed as a professor at that seminary. In the same year, he married Dragana Simeunović from Guča. On Midsummer's Day 2016, in the church at the Central Cemetery in Belgrade, he was ordained to the rank of deacon. In the same year, he was appointed as an honorary deacon at the Temple of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in Belgrade.

Source: Serbian Orthodox Church