Serbian Orthodox Church’s Holy Assembly of Bishops Begins in Belgrade as EU Condemns Pristina’s Decision To Deny Entry to Serbian Patriarch

Patriarch Porfirije (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

The Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church began on May 14 at St. Sava Church in Belgrade, instead in the Patriarchate of Pec Monastery as initially planned.

Following a festive part, bishops, convening in the crypt of the St. Sava Church, will adopt an agenda and then discuss reports by bishops and main church bodies. The Assembly, which will last several days, is held behind closed doors. After its conclusion, the Holy Assembly will issue a statement, and possibly special ones devoted to topics of particular importance.

“Today, we should have served a holy liturgy in the holy Patriarchate of Pec, but the incumbent authorities in Pristina prohibited us from entering the monastery and closed the door for us,” Serbian Patriarch Porftije has said. The Serbian Orthodox Church has earlier said that the patriarch and bishops were halted at the administrative checkpoint Merdare by Pristina officers and were told, without receiving any explanation, that they had been denied entry to Kosovo.

The Church officials have earlier endorsed the Serbian authorities formulation that neither de facto nor de jure recognition of an independent Kosovo would be acceptable, while this Pristina’s act can be interpreted as a more direct comment on the French-German plan, which, among other things, envisages “formalization” of the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.

The Embassies of France, Germany, Italy, the Great Britain, and the US, and the EU Office in Kosovo on May 14 said they were concerned with Pristina’s decision to deny entry to Serbian patriarch and bishops, saying that “it is contrary to the provision of the Ahtisaari Plan, which clearly defines the rights, privileges and immunity of the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and is also not in compliance with Kosovo’s commitments in the EU-brokered dialogue.”

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano on May 14 said that the Pristina government had violated the 2014 agreement on official visits, and that such Pristina’s decision “is at odds with the fundamental principles of any multiethnic and tolerant society.”