Patriarch Paul has resigned as leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).On Oct 24 the SPC’s website announced the 94-year-old prelate would step down at the Nov 11 meeting of the church’s Synod.
On Oct 12 Paul tendered his resignation to the church’s Holy Synod due to “ill health” the website reported. It follows a year of Balkan intrigue over his succession that has links to Serbia’s political disputes.
While the church is united in its opposition to the secession of Kosovo and the Albanian-led pogrom of Serbs in that breakaway province, the Serbian bishops are divided over how to respond.
Hardliners led by the Serbian bishop in Kosovo, Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic, have urged military action against the breakaway republic, while moderates led by the church’s senior bishop, Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, have backed the government of Serbia’s pro-EU President Boris Tadic in seeking a negotiated settlement.
Confined to his sick bed in a Belgrade military hospital since Nov 13, 2007, Paul beat back attempts to force him to resign at the May meeting of Synod.
However, the Synod designated the church’s senior bishop, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro as an ecclesial regent for the ailing patriarch.
Elected spiritual leader of the Serbian Church in 1990, Paul serves as Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, and Patriarch of Serbia. Born in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Croatia, Paul entered holy orders in 1948 and in 1957 was elected bishop of Raš-Prizren in Kosovo.
During his tenure as Patriarch, Paul led the church from the margins of Serbian society under the Communist government to one of the key players on the country’s political and social scene. A champion of the rights of the minority Serb population in Kosovo, Paul has written and preached extensively on the cultural destruction of Serbian churches in Kosovo by Albania nationalists and the diaspora of Serbian Kosovars from the province.
He has been criticized for his perceived ties to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosavić. However, Paul has managed to keep the SPC from being tied to the fortunes of any one political party or leader, while keeping the church at the center of Serbia’s national revival.
In the past year a political battle has been waged within the church between Paul’s successor as bishop of the Serbian Kosovars, Artemije, a hard-line opponent of Kosovo independence, and Artemije’s more moderate suffragan, Teodosije.
In August Artemijie attempted to sack Teodosije, which prompted a violent clash between rival bands of monks loyal to the two bishops. However, Metropolitan Amfilohije and the Serbian House of Bishops backed Teodosijie, saying Artemijie had been “hasty” and ordered the suffragan’s reinstatement.
Artimejie had branded President Tadic a traitor and had lobbied the Russian government and the Moscow Patriarchate to take action against Kosovo.
Teodosije had called for the SPC to work with the ethnic Albanian government in Kosovo, arguing the church and Serbian government can only safeguard Serbian religious and cultural sites with Kosovar co-operation.
Amfilohije and Artemije are the two leading candidates to succeed Paul. SPC sources tell Religious Intelligence.com the timing of the resignation before next month’s synod appears to favour the election of Amfilohije or a member of his faction to the patriarch’s throne.
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(Source: RI)