Esteemed Father Sergei!

We sincerely congratulate you with this important and joyously momentous day in your life – the day of your priestly ordination! On this day you commemorate with piety and warmth how the Lord by His mercy and love gave you the inestimable joy of standing before God's altar table, obediently serving the Mother Church, and building up your parish. Your wise spiritual guidance and erudition, prayerful sentiment, firmness and sternness in confessing the faith, and fervor for God are an example of the word and form of priestly service and demonstrate an invigorating faith. Your heartfelt and kind participation in the matter of the salvation of others, as well as your diligent efforts, bring an even greater number of Orthodox Christians into a life of communion with God. You fervently offer priestly prayers before God's altar table, trusting in that the Merciful Lord hears every entreaty and grateful glorification which you offer for the faithful. You are an example to your flock“in word, in life, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” You do your best to place your hope in God;s grace, which heals human frailties and compensates for people's shortcomings. Everything around you is joined by love – love for God, love for the church services, and love for your flock, so that a feeling of a spiritual family is formed. We prayerfully wish you, our dear Father, good mental and bodily health, spiritual joy, a peaceful state, and to labor with humility and joy in the field of pastoral service and in caring for the beauty of the Orthodox church. May our merciful Lord Jesus Christ fortify your spiritual and bodily forces in your humble pastoral service to the people of God and for the glory of His Holy Church for many blessed years!

With love in Christ, the parishioners of the parishes of the Zozulyany church of St. Paraskeva of Serbia and the Rybnitsa church of St. Lazarus.