"Struggle for the faith"
A group of priests from Cacak, in their disagreement with the regulations of the Church and the spiritual authority of the leadership in the Church, have formed an electronic forum known as “Borba za veru” (“Struggle for the faith”), so that by means of this site they might allow the public to know of their opposition to the Serbian Church. Here we must instantly cite the words of the Apostle Paul from Holy Scripture which are compulsory to all, which state: “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves” (Rom. 13:1-2). This was said during the time of pagan rule. It was meant directly for the governing rulers, and all the more to the spiritual, church rulers. What rulers are these? The Church is, by succession from Christ our Lord, apostolic. And by its conformation, through the Apostles, it is episcopal, under the leadership of the bishops.
The highest ruling body of a local Orthodox Church is the Holy Assembly of Bishops, in which all hierarchs of that Church, in a conciliar fashion, make decisions regarding all the issues and problems of church life. This Assembly, to an extent, can be compared to the role of a country’s national assembly.
The Holy Synod of Bishops is the executive body of the Holy Assembly of Bishops. This is church government, similar to civil government. The president of the Holy Synod, as well as the Assembly of Bishops, is always in our church the Patriarch. Members of the Holy Synod are four hierarchs from our church, while the secretary of the Holy Assembly of Bishops and the officers, as the support staff, carry out the administration of the Synod.
Each diocese is administered by a bishop, who has the fullness of the archpastoral grace in liturgical serving, teaching and ruling of the Church in his diocese. The priest has all of this in his own parish, but to a lesser degree, depending on the blessing of his bishop.
All the faithful of the Orthodox Church are to fulfill the requirements of their Church with love and obedience. The Church awards those very zealous faithful. If the need arises to assert warnings, reprimands or other disciplinary measures (epitimija – penance), it is carried out by the governing church rulers.
The Holy Synod is in charge of the bishops and in the final instance the Holy Assembly of Bishops.
The diocesan bishop is in charge of clergy and monastics of his diocese.
The diocesan bishop issues congratulatory citations, warnings, reprimands and other epitimija to the faithful as members of the Church.
The state does the same, except it will use force, or even weapons, on unruly citizens.
The Church, however, does not do that. When God created first people He gave them freedom, reason and a moral law, to know how and for what purpose will they use that freedom. If they abuse it, then follows, according to the words of Christ, an evangelical warning from the clergyman who is in charge. If this is not sufficient, they take two persons (not just whoever) as two witnesses. If even then they do not listen and repent, then they are to tell it to the Church – which in practice signifies the higher, hierarchical rulers. If they do not even listen to the Church then, with no coercion, they are excommunicated from the Church, for whom, until they come to their senses and repent, they are treated as pagan, godless. But if they realize their sin and violation and they sincerely repent and seek forgiveness, the Church, as a good Mother, will accept them with love and their error and sin she will forgive according to the Lord’s commandment: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand…”.
Up until World War II all Orthodox Christians of our Church who, with good intentions, wrote about the Church or discussed something regarding the life of the Church, did it with the blessing of their diocesan bishop or the Holy Synod, under whose jurisdiction was all church education and published materials. Under the many years of communist rule, that practice and rule came out of practice. And so today anyone will write whatever they wish and say whatever they want, whether that be for the Orthodox faith or their own on behalf of Orthodoxy, whether it be for or against the Church in which they were baptized, these self-proclaimed critics, with a multitude of ignorant comments, as a truth of their own, they will drag their readers and listeners into fallacy. This is done in some extreme vain desire of theirs to falsely portray the Orthodox Church in Serbia, and even in Russia and other places, as if it is supposedly falling apart and so they are forced to take the rudder, without the bishops or clergy, in order to “save the Church”.
They do not know, nor do they want to know what the Church is, what church hierarchy is and what our Orthodox faith is about.
They do not know, nor do they want to know, that Christ our Lord is God and the Son of God, that He is infallible, that He descended from the heavens and was incarnate on earth to teach us with the teachings of His Gospel that we live and find our salvation by it. They do not know that the Christ’s Church is also infallible and indestructible as Christ is. They do not know that we Christians are saved in the Church and through the Church: She saves us and not we Her.
People who criticize the Church and its representatives on earth, without the authority to do so, pour fire on their heads, for they do not know, nor do they want to know, that Christ is the Judge over all mankind and not them, they are especially not called to judge the archpastors of Christ’s Church on earth.
For this reason the group of citizens in Cacak who have named their non-church forum “Borba za veru” (“Struggle for the faith”) should know, as well as everyone else, that it is neither a part of the Church nor was it launched with the blessing of the Church but it was founded by a group of sectarian minded rebellious citizens to battle against the Church, her elders and its liturgical and disciplinary order. For all those things which have been done away during the time of our enslavement to the Turks, or wartime enslavement, as well as any other abnormal difficulties and troubles, it is the obligation of the Church to, in time, bring to normal order. The local Orthodox Church – each one, as well as ours – is controlled and is judged by the ecumenical Orthodox Church, and not a sectarian minded group of rebels who are obsessed with themselves, their vanity and their ignorance of themselves, their Church, their duties and responsibilities and place in the Church.
All such sectarian minded, spiritually unsound and misguided critics, if they could see and face their errors, would be ashamed and would rush to make peace with themselves and their souls with their Church and would rush all the more to bring peace, unity and love both in their souls and their surroundings instead of rebellion; which is the opposite of what they have now done, towards the end of December 2012, as they showed with their rebellious and blasphemous lies against a number of bishops, as well as against a candidate who as a priest peacefully defended his doctoral thesis.
Here it is good to remember that folk wisdom: don’t run in front of the thill or the wagon will run you over. The Lord, through the Church, has given us everything we need for our salvation. The fulfillment of that He Himself has affirmed with the human body which He took upon Himself. Furthermore, without any bargaining with us, He keeps silent and waits. His Church does the same. There is no rush to eternity in Heaven. They wait for us and watch to see with what will we fill the span of our lives here on earth with. In respect, love and obedience with patience for our Creator and His holy Church or in rebellion and pride which had once turned an angel into Satan and rejected God and His Church. God is not the God of many but the chosen. He who makes an effort to seek out the wisdom of Holy Scripture, should understand and comprehend that.
Archimandrite Jovan
Translation: V. Rev. Milovan Katanic
