50,000 at Church Rites in Yugoslavia

An estimated 50,000 Serbian Orthodox Christians attended a church reconsecration ceremony here Sunday in one of the largest non-political gatherings in Communist Yugoslavia’s history.

At the climax of the ceremony, Patriarch German, 86, spiritual leader of Yugoslavia’s estimated 9 million Orthodox believers, placed a charter in the foundations of St. Sava Church, which is still under construction.

Construction began in 1935, but it was halted at the outbreak of World War II and remained stalled under postwar Communist rule until last year, when the government of the Republic of Serbia gave the go-ahead for it to be resumed. Completion is expected in three to five years.