Creator of all creation, who has dominion over the years and time, bless the crown of the year of Your goodness, and preserve our people in peace, O Lord, and through the prayers of the Theotokos, save us.
(Troparion of the Beginning of the Indiction)
Go and make disciples of all nations… (Matt. 28:19)
Missionary work, as the perfect form of service in the Church, holds a special and blessed place because it is founded on the Saviour’s command given to His holy Apostles, and through them, to all of us as members of the Church. Mission is a vitally important for the fullness of the Church as the fulfillment of the Lord’s commandment, realised through the proclamation of the Good News to the entire world. Mission is directed towards the sanctification, not only of man, but of all of God’s creation, in accordance with the words of the Godly- wise Apostle Paul: “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21-23). The goal of the mission in a broader sense is the deification of all creation, and in a narrower sense, it represents the striving for the incorporation of man into the Church for a new life in Christ. From this thought, the Orthodox missionaries derive the driving force for the initiative to establish missionary communities, which experience their fullness in the Liturgy as a prefigurement of the future Kingdom of God.
Following the need for more concrete missionary activity through information technologies, on the feast of the Beginning of the Indiction – the Church New Year, and on the day of the sacred memory of St. Symeon the Stylite, on September 1/14, 2024, the missionary portal “Kinonia” began its work, accessible at the address: https://kinonija.rs . This is the first official missionary project within the Section for Electronic Mission of the Missionary Department of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovci, which operates with the blessing of His Holiness, the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije. The editor of the newly established missionary portal Kinonia is catechist Branislav Ilić, a permanent expert associate of the Missionary Department of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovci and a longtime member of the editorial board of „The Orthodox Missionary“ (magazine).
The name of the missionary portal Kinonia, testifies to its primary and main goal, which is missionary work and directing people towards communion with the Lord, with all the saints, and with one another in the Holy Liturgy (the Eucharist). The portal’s logo was created by Emilija Milojković, a Religious Education student from the “Bojan Šuput“ School of Design in Novi Sad. The logo depicts a dome with a cross at the top, symbolising that the missionary endeavour of the Kinonia portal aims to lead its readers to the church community, which is only possible under the sacred arches of the church (the dome). The effective and successful mission is supported by a modern and user-friendly website designed by Marko Bakić, who used his exceptional knowledge, dedication, and care in the creation of the Kinonia portal.
The permanent contributors, and the authors of texts and other content that will be published daily on the Kinonia website are the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the catechists, theology graduates, as well as the scholars from the fields of philosophy, history, culture, music, fine arts, and more. Through written and spoken word, the Kinonia missionary portal will carry out its missionary work, its main goal being to spread the word of Gospel and the unaltered teaching of the Church, with the aim of guiding all towards the grace-filled life in the Church of Christ, and towards the Mystery of Mysteries – the Holy Liturgy. The Kinonia portal will only accept previously unpublished content for publication.
Following the concept that recognises the need for communion, the Kinonia missionary portal intends to collaborate with ecclesiastical magazines supported by the Serbian Orthodox Church.
In striving to serve the spiritual needs of contemporary people, especially the youth, alongside the missionary work of the portal, we are also launching the official Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as YouTube and Telegram channels, where only the partial or complete contents published on the Kinonia portal will be featured.
All those who wish to contribute to the Kinonia missionary portal with their texts and submissions, can send a message to the official email address:
info@kinonija.rs or urednik@kinonija.rs.
We hope that in the days ahead, the Kinonia portal will contribute to the mission of our Holy Church through the Section for Electronic Mission of the Missionary Department of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovci, within whose framework it operates. Placing our hope in the Lord, together with the Church hymnographer, we proclaim:
Through Your inexpressible wisdom, O Christ the Logos and God, You have composed all things; You have appointed for us the times and the years, therefore bless the work of Your hands, and make Your faithful people rejoice in Your power, granting them dominion over the ungodly, for You are the only good and Lover of mankind.
(Sticheron from the Praise Service of the Beginning of the Indiction).
On the Feast of the Beginning of the Indiction-the Church New Year, September 1/14, in the year of our Lord 2024.
