XPost: alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox, alt.politics.religion,   
   soc.rights.human   
   XPost: alt.peace, alt.christnet.ethics   
   From: dr.who@nunur.biz   
      
   On Mar 2, 2025, Steve Hayes wrote   
   (Message-ID:<8keasjp7ej3mur7lcdaiu34apln61ubhrn@4ax.com>):   
      
   > 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:   
   >    
      
   Wouldn’t it be wiser to focus on freedom from sin?   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)