Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
September 8, 2005

SERBIAN PATRIARCH MEETS WITH PRESIDENT OF THE STATE UNION OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
PRISTINA MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION ASKED TO LEAVE CHRIST THE SAVIOR CHURCH UNHARMED

SERBIAN PATRIARCH MEETS WITH PRESIDENT
OF THE STATE UNION OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle, together with His Grace Bishop Jovan of Sumadija, a member of the Holy Synod of Bishops, received President Svetozar Marovic of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro today in the Belgrade Patriarchate.

The heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the State Union agreed on further measures to be undertaken which will enable more rapid inclusion of Serbia and Montenegro in European integrations, a process to which the Serbian Orthodox Church is expected to contribute.

Also emphasized during the discussion was the importance of further enhancing cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church, as well as with other Churches and religious communities, in which the majority Serbian Orthodox has a special responsibility.

The question of the relationship between Church and State in Montenegro needs to be resolved calmly and in open communication between the appropriate church and government officials, concurred the Serbian Patriarch and President Marovic.

Office of the Holy Synod of Bishops
Office of the President of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro

PRISTINA MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION ASKED
TO LEAVE CHRIST THE SAVIOR CHURCH UNHARMED

Pristina municipality vice president Radojica Mitrovic called on the municipal administration of the city to prevent the adoption of a urban regulative plan that would usurp land owned by the Serbian Orthodox Church in downtown Pristina.

In a letter to municipal administrator Dmitry Pozhidayev and Pristina mayor Ismet Beqiri, Mitrovic warns that the regulative plan foresees the destruction of the church of Christ the Savior, the only remaining Orthodox Christian building in Pristina.

Before the new regulative plan is drafted and adopted, Mitrovic requests that an agreement be reached between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the municipal administration regarding the future use of the land in downtown Pristina, and that the new plan takes into account plans for the completion of the church of Christ the Savior.

Deputies of the Pristina municipal assembly debated the new "Centar 2" regulative plan at a session on July 27 this year.

Mitrovic reminds the international (UN) administrator and the Pristina mayor that this is not the first illegal attempt to take away the church's land but warns that this is the first time that this is being done using institutional means, through the regulative plan that deputies are expected to adopt by the end of this month.

"From the documentation of the Directorate for Planning and Urbanisms a tendency has been noted to use every means to underestimate and minimize the value of the Orthodox church as an architectural, religious and cultural building, in order to rationalize the eventual decision to destroy it as foreseen in one of the measures foreseen by the Directorate," Mitrovic said.

The Directorate has, in fact, foreseen four possible solutions for the church of Christ the Savior. One is to destroy it; a second is to turn the incomplete church into an exhibit; the third is to use the building for another purpose; and the last variant is to allow it to keep its present function.

Mitrovic warned that there have already been quite enough Orthodox churches destroyed in Kosovo, and points out that the times when Orthodox churches were converted into stables, barns or so-called galleries and museums are long past.

"Any solution without the acquiescence of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian population would only further damage an already difficult situation and send a message from official institutions that there is no place for Serbs in Pristina, and that every last trace of them is being erased in this manner, too," emphasized Mitrovic.

At the end of his letter Mitrovic notes that he does not like to recall that the Orthodox church of St. Nicholas was destroyed and torched in March of last year, and that the destruction of the surviving, incomplete church of Christ the Savior would mean that Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, would lose every possibility of being a multiethnic and multiconfessional environment.

Source: www.kosovo.com

[Serbian Translation Services]