On January 30, the Center for Geostrategic Studies organized a conference on the topic: „Identifying the Factors Destroying the Church: Who threatens the faith and how can we fight for its preservation?“ at the Belgrade Press Center of the Association of Journalists of Serbia. The organizers note that the continuous attacks on the traditional Church and religious communities, as well as the violation of people’s religious rights, have become a burning problem of the international community, but that this issue is not given enough importance and is completely ignored by many institutions.
The following spoke at the conference: Dragana Trifković, Director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies, Fr. Jovan Plamenac, Priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Diogenis Valavanidis, Director of the Center for the Protection of Christian Identity, Dejan Mirović, Professor of International Law, and Vasilijana Merheb, Theologian from Bulgaria.
Dragana Trifković, Director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies, informed the public that this organization is launching a campaign called “ Blocking the aggression against the church“ in order to gather support from citizens and submit a citizens’ initiative to the UN Human Rights Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe.
In his presentation at the conference, Fr. Jovan Plamenac highlighted the problems that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) is facing. He stated that the Church today suffers from spiritual weakness: „In the past the Church suffered in the physical world in order to survive in the spiritual world, today the Church suffers in the spiritual world in order to survive in the physical world.“ He noted that the Church is not protecting the people from aggressive LGBT, gender and other agendas being implemented by the Euro-Atlantic lobby through the puppet government. „Due to the compromise attitude towards the political regime in Serbia, which is subordinated to the collective West, there was no active response of the high clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church to the insidious recognition of Kosovo as a state by this regime. The compromise also led to the recognition of the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The official cooperation of the Serbian Orthodox Church in several dioceses with Roman Catholic schismatics is also a compromise. The Christian life is not about compromises, but about holding on to the truth,“ Father Plamenac said.
At the end of his speech, Father Jovan Plamenac concluded that the salvation of the Serbian people, as well as of other peoples, lies in repentance, but not in empty words about repentance: „The clergy are primarily called to repentance, the higher the position in the Church, the more zealous the repentance.“ To whom God has given more, he also asks more“.
In her speech at the conference, Dragana Trifković pointed out the problem of the captured state’s relationship with the Church and the aggression against the traditional Church. „With the illegal change of regime in Kyiv, militant nationalist structures came to power that identified the traditional culture, religion and language of their own citizens as an „enemy element“. Here it is necessary to mention the fact that the colored revolution in Kyiv was financed and supported by the ruling structures of the USA and the EU, which the officials of these countries do not hide,“ said Trifković.
According to her, the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) culminated in an attack on the clergy and the confiscation of the property of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate: „In the churches and monasteries of the UOC armed policemen can be seen conducting searches. Violent invasions of churches are being organized, using smoke bombs and other means so that radical elements can occupy the churches. Priests and bishops are arrested and mistreated, they are tried on false charges“.
Dragana Trifković concluded that this is a systematic attack on Orthodoxy, which is part of the geopolitical fight of the USA against Russia, aimed at weakening and dividing the unity of the Orthodox Church in the territories of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the Balkans, Central Asia and the Baltic states.
Diogenis Valavanidis spoke of tearing the „living tissue“ of the Serbian Orthodox Church by granting autocephaly to the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), which was opposed by Patriarch German as well as Patriarchs Pavle and Irenaeus. The publishing house Pešić&sons recently published Valavanidis’ book „The Truth about Patriarch German and the Problem of the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church“. He was critical of the Serbian public’s lack of reaction to the MOC’s autocephaly: „The Serbian Orthodox Church, like all politicians, has become speechless. The government and the opposition were speechless. All the intellectuals at the head of the Serbian Academy of Sciences, the Association of Writers of Serbia, in a word, everyone,“ Valavanidis said.
Continuing his speech, he pointed out that the Macedonian Orthodox Church is a project aimed at destroying the Serbian Orthodox Church and Orthodoxy as a whole. He informed the public that as the director of the Center for the Protection of Christian Identity he had requested an appointment with the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije to get an answer from the Serbian Orthodox Church as to why it gave the tomos to the artificial creation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but he did not receive any answer. In this connection, at the conference, he asked Patriarch Porfirije whether this procedure was a suicide of the Church and why it was done? Was it done under the influence of geopolitical, eastern papist or local secular reasons? Whatever it is, it will have serious consequences for the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian people as a whole, Valavanidis concluded.
He noted that Patriarch Bartholomew no longer uses the term Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) in his address to the public, but rather the Orthodox Church of Serbia, and asked whether this indicates that Bartholomew is moving forward and intends to bring the entire SOC diaspora outside the officially recognized borders of Serbia under his jurisdiction.
Professor of international law Dejan Mirović spoke about the problem of disregard for human rights and freedom of religion, which is most evident in the attack on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the regime of Vladimir Zelensky. He recalled that Metropolitan Onufrije supported the processions in Montenegro in 2020, when the Serbian Orthodox Church was under attack by the regime of Milo Đukanović, and that we have a moral obligation to help the UOC. Mirović criticized the actions of the wife of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who visited the Kiev Pechersk Lavra with the OCU schismatics, and the silence of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which did not comment on the scandal.
In connection with the disregard for religious rights in Kosovo and Metohija and the legal status of the SOC in the southern Serbian province, Mirović asked who authorized Aleksandar Vučić to negotiate the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija: „Article 7 of the Franco-German plan defines that two parties (one of which is Aleksandar Vučić, who verbally agreed to it) will regulate the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the so-called independent Kosovo. Who authorized Aleksandar Vučić to do this? The Church, the Holy Synod of Bishops, the Patriarch or Bishop Bački? It is said that the basic agreement between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the authorities in Pristina is about to be signed, and the Serbian Orthodox Church is not responding to the request of the delegation of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija to receive them in the Patriarchate,“ Mirović emphasized.
Vasilijana Merheb, a theologian from Bulgaria, spoke about the attack on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church: „In 2018-2019, against the will of the people of God of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, an unprecedented non-canonical „tomos“ of „autocephaly“ was forcibly prepared for the schismatic structure of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The supporters of the OCU are not even schismatics in the classical sense of the word, because not only do they not have apostolic succession, but some of them are not even baptized, they are cheats, conspirators, self-proclaimed self-righteous.
„The OCU, which bears all the signs of a totalitarian sect, is a hybrid creation, the result of a conspiracy between the Ukrainian political authorities and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew. Bartholomew, by collaborating with the schismatics of the OCU and handing over the false tomos on 01.06.2019. confirmed his downfall as an Orthodox Patriarch, who instead of preaching Christ and His peace with his works, dethroned himself, leading the „Church Maidan“ in Ukraine, stated Vasilijana Merheb.
In conclusion, Merheb noted that institutional terrorism has been established in Ukraine: „Since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation, the UОC has donated more than 140 million hryvnia (more than 3 million euros) and about 7 thousand tons of humanitarian aid for the needs of civilians who died during the fighting, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine. Despite all efforts of the UOC to cooperate with the authorities in every possible way, the tactics failed and the repression against the UOC intensified“.
Center for Geostrategic Studies, February 4, 2024.