Author: Press Release
June 11, 2011
THE SERB PATRIARCHATE SIDES WITH JERUSALEM AND GIVES AN ULTIMATUM TO THE ROMANIAN PATRIARCHATE Communique Of The Holy Assembly Of Bishops – 30 May 2011. In Belgrade, at the Serbian Patriarchate, the regular session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church was held from May 16-27, 2011, presided by His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch… Source: www.spc.rs Below find excerpts from the communique selected by the Administrator at http://www.roeanews.info.
… The [Serb] Assembly [Synod] regrets that there has occurred a deep crisis in relations between the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the oldest Christian Church, and the Romanian Orthodox Church, because of the uncanonical activities of the latter in the Holy Land.
Sadly, neither does the hierarchy of the Romanian Orthodox Church respect the canonical order and jurisdiction of the sister Churches in other places. In our case, the Assembly is grateful to the Romanian Orthodox Church for its good relationship towards the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Diocese of Temisvar and for the support it offers to its administrator, clergy and monastics, which reciprocates the Serbian Orthodox Church’s stance of brotherly love towards the Romanians in Serbian Banat, but at the same time it expresses its regret and energetic protest concerning the uncanonical intrusion of certain bishops and clergy from Romania in the territory of two dioceses in eastern Serbia, without the approval of the ruling bishops from the Serbian Orthodox Church.
If the noncanonical and unbrotherly actions of these individuals do not end, the Assembly and Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church will take all canonical and legal steps to stop them, to protect the established canonical order, and to prevent the disturbance of the sacred inter-Orthodox unity, whoever may be the instigator and organizer of the activities which endanger that unity…