Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
August 4, 2003

In the atmosphere of constant pursuits and affairs on the Serbian disgraceful political scene, nothing is sacred to some people, so they do not refrain from manipulating with the name of the Serbian Orthodox Church while creating their scenarios for “skirmishing”. One of the persons currently in the limelight of persecution is Mr Nebojsa Covic, Ph.D., head of the Coordination Centre for Kosovo and Metochia. Among many offences ascribed to him is the one that he allegedly misused the trust, most likely the naivety too, of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and planted his Guidelines and his vision for the settlement of the painful Kosovo&Metochia problem to the Synod so as to obtain its “blessing and approval”.

The Holy Synod of Bishops kindly asks all the key players in politics and media not to defend – within their complex mutual relations and in their fervent brutal mutual “skirmishing” – either the Holy Synod of Bishops or the Serbian Orthodox Church as a whole from anybody, that including Dr Nebojsa Covic. Should the Church need defence, it would rather opt for self-defence.

The Holy Synod of Bishops is not involving in the contents and essence of the dispute between Dr Nebojsa Covic and his political rivals, neither is it taking political sides. The only thing the Holy Synod of Bishop would like to state in this context is that it has not been manipulated or seduced by Dr Covic in any way. Just the opposite, Coordination Centre for Kosovo and Metochia and its president are one of the rare institutions/persons of the State of Serbia that have been cooperating with the Holy Synod of Bishops from the first day of the existence till present. They understand both the significance of Kosovo and Metochia and the decisive importance of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the efforts to make Serbian people stay on their hearths in Kosovo and Metochia, near their shrines originating from the mists of time (the period before/during/after the Nemanyich dynasty), and as that Kosovo & Metochia should stay within the Republic of Serbia instead of being turned into a new Albanian state which would leave no place for our shrines and our people.

Bearing in mind the mentioned fact, the Holy Synod of Bishops would like to state that Mr Covic did not plant his Guidelines, but that – apart from some other elements and sources – the heritage and the messages of the Serbian Orthodox Church influenced Covic’s approach to the settlement of the problem and his vision of the future status of Kosovo & Metochia. There is nothing Covic’s or Covic-like in it. If Kosovo & Metochia are not regarded as goods for sale or burden that should be removed as soon as possible (and there are – to our regret and our disgrace – attitudes like that in our environment) then Mr Covic is just one of several millions of Covics, just one of the majority in the Serbian nation.

In this sense, Dr Covic has the full support of the Holy Synod. He does not have it as a politician or a head of his party – the Church does not support certain parties or politicians against the others, nor does it act referee in the political arena – but he has our support as a man who, together with his associates in the Coordination Centre and outside of it, does everything he can and knows to in the current tragic situation to serve the State and the people, to serve Kosovo & Metochia especially, and find the solution to the problem he inherited in its most difficult form.

It is high time to stop usage or – alas! – misusage of both Kosovo & Metochia and the Serbian Orthodox Church in political strifes on Serbia’s enraged public scene.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!