Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Serbian Bishop Warns of Possible Church Schism; "Division Will Not Follow Boundary of Kosovo"

A schism in the Serbian Orthodox Church is a possibility, says one of its bishops based in Bosnia, the Orthodox Church Info blog reports today (October 19, 2010).

Zahumlje and Herzegovina Bishop Grigorije told Belgrade's Politika daily that he had warned the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) ranks of this possibility in a letter he sent them two years ago.

In discussing a new organizational structure of the Serbian Church's eparchies, he said, "If there is a division of the Raska-Prizren Eparchy, it will not follow the administrative boundary of Kosovo."

The Raska-Prizren Eparchy has been under temporary administration since the removal of Bishop Artemije. Bishop Grigorije said he was not certain as to whether he would take over Bishop Artemije's former position.

Insofar as the Serbian Church's relations with other religious communities is concerned, Bishop Grigorije considered them good, although he did say that the leader of one of Serbia's rival Islamic communities, Muamer Zukorlic, was viewed as "an exception, an isolated case." He added that he believed the Islamic community also felt the same way about this mufti.

No comments:

Post a Comment