The Church and the Politics

Political views of some arch-priests of the Serb Church have been the talk of the town for several years. The explainers of these specific views of Serb mitre-wearing shepherds, however, invariably identify the Serb Church with its arch-priests. Individual actions of Patriarch Pavle, some metropolitans and bishops, the Diet or the Synod are taken by the public to mean the political stand of the Serb Church. Political aspects of the Serb Orthodox Church activities are appraised on behalf of political parties, science, various groups, the people. Their unsurprising diversity arises from the interests, intents and motives of those who voice them and their substance more often than not evidences a hasty and pamphleteering approach. The confusion which the disclosure of such debate is bound to produce among the public, renders even more difficult the evangelization of the Serb people.

The term 'Church' may not be used as a metonym for clergy. The Serb Church is made of all baptized Serbs observing evangelical tenets, and not only of its clergy, monastic orders and arch-priests. Well-intentioned people might well be reminded that when they say "that the Church should not meddle with the politics", they are saying that the politics - taking care of the affairs of the state - should be addressed only by the heathens.

If, on the other hand, in the statements that the Church should not interfere with the politics - the Church is taken to mean only its clergy, or, from the lay perspective, a profession, then, when someone declares that ecclesiastical shepherds ought not to be involved in politics, we cannot but ask: Could the non-interference in the politics be requested also from the physicians, teachers, engineers, policemen, bankers, philosophers, journalists, since each one of these professions, and, probably, many others, could be "misused for political purposes"?

Could it be that the most important, most influential and most prestigious vocation in Serbia is the clerical and that that is the reason why political abstinence is demanded only of the clergy; How much, even if sub-consciously, are the statements "that the church should not interfere in the politics" based on the same foundations as the effort of ideocratic state products to - by prohibiting "the misuse of the Church for political purposes" - settle their accounts both with the Church and the faith once and for all?

Is it undesirable for the clergy of the Serb Church to engage in politics if they are to uphold their own prestige since in these parts the political trade is usually seen as disreputable?

Should the clergy, the monastic orders and the arch-priests of the Serb Orthodox Church abstain only from taking part in the operative-petty egotistic politics brimming with quarrels and idolatry, or is it thought that they should not engage even in strategic discussions about the spiritual, cultural and economic growth and existence of the Serb people in the centuries to come.

That the Church and the clergy are not one and the same, is something that especially the arch-priests should never forget. Thus we would be spared the situations wherein individual members of the Holy Arch-Priest Diet communicate what the Church wants, deems, supports with regard to individual political questions. They can speak about such topics in their own name, or in the name of the Church body which authorized them to do so. On no account, can they do it in the name of the Church.

Substantiated views about what goes on under the roof of the Serb Patriarchy cannot be arrived at by analyzing the moves of 4 or 5 arch-priests who pompously join the political games of the day. When drawing general conclusions about the developments in the highest ranks of the Serb Orthodox Church, utmost care should also be exercised with respect to the press releases from the sessions of the Holy Arch-Priest Diet. Even though, of course, these releases reflect the discussion conducted and count among very important indicators of the chief concerns of the Serb arch-priests, they are still not the documents that the sessions adopt by voting, and are, after the Diet sessions, worded by bishops appointed to inform the public about the course of a particular session. The views presented in those press releases are not binding upon the members of the Diet. Highly opposed views on many issues which the arch-priests express through the mass media amply show that no body of the Serb Church sets out to arrive at a uniform view of either its members or the flock.

The divergent views of individualists who fear God, rather than man, are the only true defence against arch-priests whose unspiritual motives and commanding ambitions would otherwise grow to unbearable proportions. It would be flippant to represent the intricate relations in the Serb Patriarchy, with its eight-century long experience and imbued with many wisdoms - by correlations, for instance, the war mongers have driven into corner the good and peace-loving Patriarch Pavle or the Serb Church has sided with this, or that politician. The manifold nature of various moves of the Patriarchy requires patient and comprehensive perception.