New rifts in Church ranks

SPC Bishop Artemije (FoNet)

24 August 2008 09:53 Source: B92

BELGRADE -- Disagreements among the dignitaries of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) have surfaced, reports say.

Raško-Prizrenski Bishop Artemije told B92 that he recently dismissed Lipljanski Bishop Teodosije due to a lack of discipline, accusing him of creating a dual authority in his eparchy.

"There are many examples of this behavior, especially when it comes to our lawsuit at Strasbourg, against the four European states that I have sued over the destruction of our holy places [in Kosovo], then the issue of a memorandum, which he [Teodosije] supported."

"Dual authority in the Raško-Prizrenska Eparchy had to end. Therefore our deeply thought-through decisions came, and then ensued open mutiny in Dečani," Artemije said.

The bishop explained that he and members of his delegation who came to the Dečani monastery to deliver the dismissal notice were physically assaulted, while the monastery's leadership told him they would not obey his decision.

Yesterday, the Holy Synod of the SPC said that Bishop Artemije's decision was "sudden and unexpected", and scheduled a regular meeting for Tuesday to discuss this.

The two bishops clashed over the process of reconstruction of the Serb monasteries and churches destroyed in Kosovo and over the cooperation with international representatives in the province.

Artemije previously criticized Teodosije for allowing Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu to visit the High Dečani monastery, and state authorities for not using force to defend the province.

Religion sociologist Mirko Đorđević reminds that while Bishop Artemije last year slammed President Boris Tadić and other Democratic Party state officials, including Dragan Šutanovac and Vuk Jeremić as traitors, Bishop Teodosije said that the Church in Kosovo is not strong enough to determine the status of the province, and that it should remain there and cooperate with authorities without necessarily recognizing them, "whether Kosovo is inside Serbia, an autonomy, or an independent state".

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