news-record.com

Three Belgrade artists made the international flight to Kernersville to glue canvas paintings of their saints to the wall of the St. Basil of Ostrog Serbian Orthodox Church, which was consecrated this past weekend.

The building on Ogden School Road in Kernersville is one of the few Byzantine-style churches between Pennsylvania and Florida. The consecration ceremony drew the denomination’s archbishop for the eastern United States and Canada, as well as other leaders.

The church primarily serves formerly displaced refugees from Bosnia and Serbia.

“The services are all in Serbian, so they have a place to come to meet socially and culturally, as well as spiritually,” said Larry Coffey, who attends services at the church along with his wife, who serves on the board of trustees.

Many who attend have been in the country for nearly 20 years but always felt they were missing something, Coffey said.

“It gives them a cultural foundation,” he said.

The church has been a decade in the making. Shaped like a cross, with a cupola and an altar facing east, the building is reminiscent of those in the Serbs’ home country, part of the former Yugoslavia.

The congregation, which totals 200 families, started in the living room of a member about a dozen years ago.

Before moving into the church, they last met in a frame house on N.C. 66 South.

A developer was willing to swap the land for the Ogden School Road property, which also includes a cemetery.

The congregation continues to share priest Dragan Zaric with a parish in Charlotte.

“The people in Charlotte had the same dream, but the people here were luckier,” Coffey said.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin @news-record.com