His Holiness Patriarch Paul of Serbia meets with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church

HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH PAUL OF SERBIA MEETS WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

His Holiness Patriarch Paul of Serbia received on February 19, 2003, Archbishop Clement of Kaluga and Borovks, first vice-chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations who came to Serbia and Montenegro for a regular session of the Joint Commission of the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches on Schisms.

They were joined in their talk by members of the Holy Bishops’ Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church – Metropolitan Amfilohije of Crna Gora and Primorje, Bishops Lavrentije of Sabac and Valjevo, Irinej of Backa and Justin of Timok, as well as Archpriests Nikolay Balashov, DECR secretary for inter-Orthodox relations, and Vitaly Tarasjev, rector of the Russian Orthodox Church Representation in Brlgrade, and Rev. Vasily Petrov, lecturer at the Kaluga Seminary.

The Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church expressed cordial gratitude to the Russian Orthodox Church and the people of Russia for the help they gave for many centuries to the Orthodox Serbian nation, especially in hard times for Serbia. “In the hard years of the Turkish slavery, Orthodox Russia always helped the fellow Serbs, giving spiritual and material support by sending us liturgical books and eucharistic vessels which are still used in our churches during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. And in the last decade of political upheavals and severe suffering of the Serbian people, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia and in his person the entire Russian Orthodox Church have continually showed fraternal sympathy and have supported us. We express our profound gratitude to His Holiness”, Patriarch Paul said.

In his turn, Archbishop Clement noted that the bonds of Christian love and mutual support from old times tied Russia and Serbia united by one faith and one cultural tradition. “The Serbian people and the Serbian Church supported the Russian Orthodox people in the period of the Tartar-Mongol yoke and were involved actively in the spiritual enlightenment of our people. During the time of atheistic dictatorship, we experienced similar hardships when the rulers of our countries sought to suppress Christian witness and extinguish spirituality in the people. And now when both the Russian and the Serbian Churches experience revival, when our nations are returning to their spiritual roots, one and the same forces of secularism seek to oppose the processes of moral renewal, using the mass media, certain educational programs and propaganda of foreign pseudo-culture to implant ideas alien to our spiritual traditions. We are called to stand up together for the legacy we inherited from our forefathers”, Archbishop Clement said.

In the discussion that followed they touched upon the problems of the proselytic activity of foreign missionaries, which leads to the development of sectarian mentality among traditionally Orthodox people. They also discussed threats to the Orthodox unity coming from schismatic groups emerging in many Local Churches. The work of the Joint Commission of the Russian and the Serbian Orthodox Churches on Schism was considered helpful. The representatives of both Churches recognized the need today to consider the problem of schism on pan-Orthodox level.