Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
September 6, 2002

The heads of all the Churches and religious communities in Yugoslavia furnished today the Commission for Constitutional Charter - which sets foundations for the future unity of Serbia and Montenegro - with a joint proposal concerning the position of a body in charge of the relations with the Churches and religious communities.

Bearing in mind that the cooperation between religious communities and the federal state, more precisely – the Federal Ministry of Religions/Federal Secretariat for Religious Affairs, has been very successful in the past, the heads of the Churches first requested from the Constitutional Charter Commission that the Federal Secretariat for Religious Affairs should keep its present status. In addition to that, they also proposed that a special section for religious affairs should be established within the newly founded Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, as well as that that a new position should be introduced in the cabinets of the President of the Federal State, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Minister for Defence – the position of advisor for religious affairs.

Such a proposal was backed by numerous international documents signed by the representatives of our country, and by the fact that the issue of religious freedoms is one of the most important issues for the international community when monitoring human rights and freedoms.

The heads of Churches and religious communities also stated other reasons important for undertaking suchlike steps:

• both federal units, members of the federal state, have the same Churches and religious communities, and their role and importance in the process of reconciliation and cooperation of the peoples in this region and in the region of South-East Europe is surely going to increase in the subsequent period;
• Federal Secretariat for Religious Affairs (unlike both republic Ministries for Religious Affairs) has been focused not only on the protection of religious freedoms of the citizens in FRY, but also on the protection of religious freedoms of both our citizens living in Diaspora, outside of FRY; (out of 40 diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, only 9 is in FRY);
• the care of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and of the renewed Diocese of Budim/Niksic as well as the protection of rights of their faithful falls within the jurisdiction of the Federal Secretariat for Religious Affairs;
• Kosovo and Metochia issue and the monasteries of the Diocese of Raska/Prizren, as well as a very complex future of this region, should also be taken into account;
• the protection of cultural heritage, especially in Kosovo and Metochia, as well as outside FRY is of extreme importance (Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary – Szent Andre, Romania – Timisoara, Arad, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Trieste, Vienna, Monastery of Chilandar...).

Underlining the significance of the joint state and the importance of the cooperation between Churches, religious communities and the State (and among religious communities themselves) for the stability of the entire region, church officials stated that “in the new community of Serbia and Montenegro, in the Council of Ministers, there should be the Ministry for Religious Affairs too. However, since Belgrade Agreement envisages five ministries” they submitted their proposal of the position of the body in charge of the relations with Churches and religious communities within the frames of the Constitutional Charter on the union of Serbia and Montenegro.

The signees of this proposal were:

• for the Serbian Orthodox Church: Serbian Patriarch Pavle, Metropolitan of Montenegro/Littoral Amfilohije and Bishop of Backa Irinej (the members of the Commission of the Holy Assembly of Bishops in charge of monitoring of the position of the Church in the union of Serbia and Montenegro)
• for the Roman-Catholic Church: Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar
• for the Islamic community of Serbia: Belgrade Mufti Hamdija Jusufspahic
• for the Mesihat of the Islamic community of Sandzak: Sandzak Mufti Muarem Zukorlic
• for the Slovak Evangelical Church: Bishop Jan Valent
• for the Evangelical Christian Church: Superintendent Arpad Dolinsky
• for the Reformed Christian Church in Yugoslavia: Bishop Csete Sz. Istvan and
• for the Jewish community of Yugoslavia: Rabbi Isaac Asiel