New Members of the Central Committee of the Conference of European Churches

The last day of the session of the 13th Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in Lyon, members of the Central Committee, the most important part of the CEC,  were elected by secret voting. Thanks to the effort of our delegation , the SOC got two places in this Committee, where in nest 6 years, will directly decide in bringing decisions of this European organization. His Grace Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Hercegovina and Julija Vidovic, Th.D. in Paris, were elected as the members of the Committee of the CEC.

Furthermore, the SOC delegation managed to explicitly add in the official public document of the Assembly of the CEC an issue of violating human rights of believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija, especially in the field of religious freedoms. 

The accepted directions of the Assembly, which should strengthen a question of dialogue of the CEC towards the EU institutions, human rights and religious freedoms, as well as an issue of relations of the churches, members of the CEC and states on which territories the churches exist and act, also enable active and successful activity of the church diplomacy of the SOC. In this way this year's participation of the SOC delegation and the election in the business group and the Central Committee of the CEC after the well-known events in past years, again brings back the Serbian Orthodox Church within the international testimonies and activities, equally with other Local Orthodox Churches and other churches and religious organizations which function in Europe.