Stoning the Unbelievers

Throughout the world, people of similar beliefs have a need to unite in international associations, which is the reason the communists, in the old days, established a Communist International (Kominterna), and why liberals have formed liberal associations, etc. Those who share similar beliefs in God have organized churches and other religious associations, which have united into the Global Council of Churches (GCC). This association includes more than 330 member churches, along with the largest Protestant and Orthodox churches, while the Roman Catholic Church is merely an observer in the GCC. It goes without saying that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) was included in this organization, and that it had been regarded as an exemplary member for a long time. Problems occurred when the SPC started to support - or should we say to inspire - its people in their bizarre conduct of moving away from the contemporary world and its rules. Over the last few years, especially at the time of the war in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the number of misunderstandings in the relationship between SPC - GCC began to multiply. These days, at the session of SPC's Holy Synod of Bishops, a decision was adopted for this church to stop being a member of the above named association, following the recent decision of its sister Georgian Orthodox Church which had caused a number of debates in brotherly Georgia. No one broaches any issues here, the Church does not feel the need to explain its decision, nor do the paid public representatives feel the need to inquire about it. However, the Montenegrin bishop Amfilohije Radovic, as sweet-mouthed as God has created him, has managed to supply us with the reasons for this drastic act: explaining why the SPC no longer wishes to mix with the others, Amfilohije says that "certain congregations have introduced female bishops and priests, there are other members of the association which bless unnatural things, such as, for example, marriage between members of the same gender... the Orthodox Church cannot accept such things unless it was to betray itself".

All voluntary associations comprehend voluntary separations as well, therefore the SPC is free to do whatever it likes with its GCC membership. Still, the explanations offered by Mr. Amfilohije are reminiscent of Vib's well known aphorism: "No matter how much a price increase makes me cry, the explanation for it always makes me laugh". Therefore, "we" (the author also being a member of the SPC) are leaving the GCC because one part of its members acknowledge that women should be given the same status as men, i.e. enable them to preach God's words from the altar?! That surely must mean that "we" have still not resolved the dilemma whether women are of angelic or demonic origin, whether they have a soul or are blood sucking creatures, whether they had been created as a bio-technological surplus of Adam's rib or something different? Or maybe due to the fact that we have resolved that dilemma once and for all, arriving at the opposite answer from the one derived by the, shall we say, Anglicans?

One cynical colleague says that he will suggest that the government follow the church example and withdraw from all international organizations (that is, from all those we have not been kicked out of already) in which women have the last word, or where there are women with a predominant amount of male hormones who are prone to be sexually attached to other women. Even the Football Association of Yugoslavia could withdraw from FIFA on account of the legalization of female football, the possibilities of self-withdrawal and distancing from the schismatic part of the world being endless...

Having spent some time in the UK last year, the sinful below named individual could not resist the temptation to visit a sacral building of the Anglican Church in which the sermon was conducted by a, humph, member of the wrong gender; apart from the otherwise higher quality of the preacher's voice ("a coloratura soprano", whatever), all was exactly like in every other Christian Church ceremony. Anyway, the words of the Holy Book do not change depending on the gender of its reader-interpreter. I then wandered over to the place where the local (true) believer Serbs gather, the SPC club located in western London, where All Was As It Should Be: women, in national attire, were serving home made specialties and drinks without uttering a single word, while the men were importantly discussing the injustice of The Hague tribunal and the monstrosity of the New World Order. I watched those ruddy-complexioned women, eyes glued to the floor weighed down by the Eternal Guilt syndrome: no, they shall never be allowed to exit the Old World Order, even there, in the land of the New...