Bishop: Serbian Church could Split

His Grace Grigorije - Bishop of Zahumlje and Herzegovina

19/10/2010

BELGRADE — A schism in the Serbian Orthodox Church is “not impossible”, says one of its bishops based in Bosnia.

Zahumlje-Hercegovina Bishop Grigorije told Belgrade’s Politika daily that he previously warned about this in a letter to the top SPC ranks, sent two years ago.

Discussing also possible new organizational arrangements of the Church’s eparchies, he said that “if there is a division of the Raška-Prizren Eparchy, it will not follow the administrative boundary of Kosovo”.

He also noted that he did not know if this decision would be made at the next session of the Holy Assembly of the SPC.

The Raška-Prizren Eparchy has been under temporary administration since the dismissal of Bishop Artemije, and Grigorije said he did not know whether he would take over his role.

As for the Church’s relations with other religious communities, Grigorije deemed them good, but said the leader of one of Serbia’s rival Islamic communities, Muamer Zukorlić, was viewed as “an exception, an isolated case”, adding that it seemed to him the Islamic community viewed the mufti in the same manner.

Commenting on the recent Belgrade gay parade violence, the bishop said that both those who are “inside the Church and those who are not” should feel bad about it.

“Policemen that were stoned are our brothers. Those who protested against the parade are our children and our brothers. And, believe it or not, in that parade, there were also our brothers and sisters, regardless of (their) sin. We can and must reject sin, but not the sinner, since it is our task to view a person as they can and should be,” the SPC dignitary concluded.

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