XPost: alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox, alt.politics.religion,   
   soc.rights.human   
   XPost: alt.peace, alt.christnet.ethics   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   For months, Serbian citizens have been protesting against the   
   repressive regime of Aleksandar Vucic and the entire corrupt,   
   clientelist system developed or escalated under his rule. The protests   
   were initiated by the students of Serbian Universities, but they have   
   since evolved into a nationwide popular movement that refuses to align   
   with any of the established political parties —for good reason.   
      
   The Serbian Orthodox Church, the largest religious community in the   
   country, has been divided over these protests from the very beginning.   
   While the overwhelming majority of its bishops have chosen to remain   
   silent, there have been isolated voices within the episcopate both for   
   and against the protests. Students of the Faculty of Theology in   
   Belgrade have joined the protests, and individual theologians have   
   expressed their support as well. Patriarch Porfirije, the head of the   
   Church, has remained ambiguous. He has avoided openly supporting the   
   protests, under the pretext that the Church needs to remain above   
   societal divisions. However, through internal and informal channels of   
   communication, one gets an impression that he supports the students,   
   even if he may be too weak to publicly oppose the regime.   
      
   One of the few clerics who have openly spoken against the protests is   
   Bishop David of Kruševac, a city in central Serbia. In a text dated   
   February 9, 2025, using mostly complicated (and empty) phraseology and   
   quasi-theological arguments, he linked the protests and “neo-Orthodox”   
   theologians, accusing them of promoting “a different Orthodoxy” that   
   distorts and corrupts tradition. Before him, Irinej, Bishop of Novi   
   Sad (northern Serbia), criticized what he called the “Orthodox   
   Trilateral” — an alliance of (unnamed but hinted-at) theological   
   institutions from the US and Europe — as a “neo-Orthodox theological   
   international” (and nothing good was meant by this).   
      
   Despite these and other pressures, the priests of the Kruševac   
   Cathedral demonstrated both initiative and courage, both freedom and   
   their Christian and human dignity. On February 27, they stepped out of   
   the church and, in front of the cathedral, greeted the protesters as   
   they marched through the streets of Kruševac. They gave them their   
   blessings and arranged for food and drinks to be placed along the   
   sidewalks for all participants.   
      
      
   To fully appreciate this act, one must understand how church   
   structures function in countries where Orthodoxy has been the dominant   
   and traditional faith. The Orthodox Church is organized as an   
   “episcopocentric” institution, meaning that local bishops wield   
   enormous power over priests in their diocese, with little to no   
   external oversight except in extreme cases. In other words, priests   
   are often at the mercy of their local bishop: if the bishop is a   
   reasonable and good person, priests are in a solid position, but if   
   the bishop is authoritarian, egotistical, or even psychotic,   
   effectively only God can help them. There are, although very few,   
   extraordinary bishops, who are competent, dedicated to the Church, but   
   also kind-hearted and hard-working people. These dioceses are known   
   among the priests and the laity as “paradise on earth.”   
      
   The decision of the priests to support the protesters comes against   
   such backdrop. They organized spontaneously, they say “naturally”,   
   with initially only a few of them, later joined by others. Although   
   they would probably object to the term “self-management” or   
   “anarcho-syndicalist” (given that these terms come primarily from the   
   political vocabulary, and are mostly linked to atheistic and even   
   anti-religious contexts), their spontaneous organization, at their own   
   initiative, and against the backdrop of authoritarian ecclesiastical   
   context, resembles the self-managerial, or anarcho-syndicalist   
   organization (that the students themselves have implemented in their   
   own organization from the beginning of the protests).   
      
   This anarcho-syndicalist mode of organization is not a novelty in the   
   Balkans. One should keep in mind the tradition of Yugoslav socialist   
   self-management, but also the even earlier tradition of traditional   
   Serbian village cooperatives.   
      
   In the context of the Orthodox Church, there are historical reports of   
   anarcho-syndicalist organization of monks and priests in Russia, in   
   the aftermath of the February Revolution (1917), as a means of   
   reclaiming freedom from authoritarian church structures.   
   The decision of these priests to express their position—both as   
   Orthodox Christians and as citizens—in the situation when the   
   political views of their bishop, and his arrogant rhetoric, were   
   clearly expressed and known, is a brave act, a demonstration of   
   freedom, and a commitment to justice and basic human dignity. This act   
   can serve as an example for other priests to stand up in the name of   
   human freedom and dignity, to reject repression, hypocrisy and   
   corruption, and to challenge, non-violently, the despotic rule of both   
   the local political leaders and individual bishops. Practicing such   
   Orthodox Christian “anarchism” not only affirms their status as free   
   citizens but also upholds their identity as Orthodox Christians—people   
   of dignity, committed to freedom, justice, and, above all – love.   
      
   Source:   
      
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)