TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

In Serbia, the Catechism was introduced into schools 10 years ago and afterfive years the children were tested in religious instruction . There were 16,000different responses ; the most typical were selected for publication . Here arethree very good responses :(1) A Seventh Grade girl said : 'Religious instruction in school is a goodthing, because we now learn at school what we don't learn at home ."She suggested that parents and grandparents should also receivesome religious instruction .(2) A boy said : "In our first lesson in the history class, we were taught thatwe descended from monkeys, then when we had religious instructionwe learned that man was formed in God's image . This is notconsistent, he complained, but we are still young ; when we grow up,maybe we will understand this better."These religious instruction classes have now been brought into schools inSerbia . Hopefully they will extend to all elementary schools . There are 2classes per week, for grades one, two and three at elementary school andgrades one, two and three at high school . Next year, they will be extended to4th grade at both levels .On departure the Archbishop Pavle sent his regards to all in Australia . Thedelegation was most grateful and honoured to be granted the opportunity tomeet with his Excellency the Archbishop Pavle . The Attorney-Generalexpressed his gratitude for being able to attend a Sunday liturgy whilst there .He pointed out that there are more than 4,000 speakers of Serbian in theState of South Australia . The Serbian Orthodox community in Adelaide islucky to be serviced by two churches and has a very active community life .The Serbian community in South Australia is also blessed with an outstandingparish priest in Father, Milorad Jovic . His two sons are in Serbia doingtheological training, so a new generation of Serbian-Australian priests is beingtrained .Travel Report, Hon . Michael Atkinson, MP. and Ms. Vini Ciccarello MP ., August, 2004 98