On 24 January 2023, His Holiness Serbian Patriarch kyr Porfirije, PhD, accompanied by Protopresbyter-Stavrophoros Velibor Džomić, PhD, and Protodeacon Dragan Radić, PhD, arrived on a working visit to the United States of America.

At the New York John F. Kennedy Airport, His Holiness the Patriarch was welcomed by His Grace Bishop of Canada kyr Mitrofan, PhD – member of His Holiness’s hierarchical entourage who arrived from Toronto the day before; Protopresbyter-Stavrophoros Živojin Jakovljević, PhD – Dean of the Cathedral Church of Saint Sava in New York and parish priest of New York; Archpriest Milan Dragović – parish priest of New York; as well as the dignitaries of the Church–School Congregation of Saint Sava in New York led by the President Mr. Veljko Dobrilović, parishioners and children.

According to an old folk custom, preserved and nurtured among New York’s Serbs, the children dressed in Serbian folk costumes welcomed their Patriarch with bread and salt.

Protopresbyter-Stavrophoros Živojin Jakovljević, PhD, having received a blessing from His Holiness the Patriarch, on behalf of the New York Serbs, welcomed the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the spiritual father of the Orthodox Serbs regardless of where they are, expressing his belief that the visit of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch kyr Porfirije will further strengthen the spiritual unity and harmony of the Serbian people on the North American continent.

In the afternoon, His Holiness, accompanied by the hierarchical entourage, paid a visit to the Cathedral Church of Saint Sava in Manhattan, which was destroyed in a fire on the Feast of Resurrection in 2016, and afterwards he held a meeting with the members of the Administrative Board of the Church–School Congregation of Saint Sava.