Serbian Orthodox Church leader Porfirije held a mass at the Milosevac monastery in the northwestern Bosnian town of Prijedor on Saturday, where he said that “may everything that we want for the Bosniaks, the Croats and other peoples happen to us as well.”

Drasko Stanivukovic, the Mayor of Banja Luka, administrative centre of Bosnia's Serb-majority region Republika Srpska who attended the ceremony, said this was the crucial message conveyed during the event.

“I entirely share the same thought, as a young man who wants a better future but also a better Republika Srpska,” said Stanivukovic.

The mayor stressed he is ready to serve equally to everyone and that he makes no divisions among people which, he added, he proved in his work.

“It is my obligation and duty to fight for my own people and for everything that belongs to my people,” he added.

Patriarch Porfirije visited the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo and neighbouring Istocno Sarajevo on October 16 and 17. After serving a mass at Sarajevo Orthodox cathedral, he walked the streets of Sarajevo's Old Town.

“Sarajevo has been an open city for centuries, and Orthodox Serbs in this city have been living in it since at least the 14th century and praying to God. The Church of the Holy Archangels testifies to this. But other nations that believe in the same God, but pray to that one God in different ways, have not only established their existence, but permeate each other in a true community,” he said while in Sarajevo.