Belgrade Heard You

"Beograde, da li nas čuješ?"

Belgrade, do you hear us? That's what they named their group. Think about that for a second. They're not appealing to the diocese, not trying to work things out locally. They're going straight over Bishop Irinej's head to the Patriarchate, hoping the Synod will swoop in and set things right.

Here's the thing though: Belgrade heard. Of course they did. The Patriarchate knew what was happening in its dioceses. That was never really the question.

The real question is whether the Church actually works the way these folks seem to think it does. And it doesn't. You can't just skip your bishop and get a different ruling from someone higher up. That's not how Orthodox ecclesiology has ever worked. The diocesan bishop is the authority over church life in his territory. Full stop. This isn't some technicality Bishop Irinej is hiding behind. It's how the Church has been structured for centuries.

And now Belgrade has made that explicit. The Patriarchate just published formal regulations for the Eastern American Diocese, the "Regulations for Parishes, Church Communities, Church-School Communities and Monasteries." (LINK BELOW). Guess what they said? The bishop governs the diocese. Parishes operate under his oversight. There's no appeals court for parishioners who don't like their bishop's decisions.

So the protesters cried out to Belgrade, and Belgrade responded. Just not with what they wanted. Belgrade responded by publishing rules that codify exactly the authority they're protesting against.

I get that this is hard to hear if you've been holding out hope that the Patriarchate would intervene. But at some point you have to reckon with reality. The Synod isn't coming to the rescue. Not because they don't care, but because Bishop Irinej is doing exactly what a bishop is supposed to do.

So where does that leave things?

You can keep standing at the stairs with signs. You can keep waiting for an intervention that's not coming. Or you can come back.

The doors aren't locked. They never were. Grievances exist in every parish, every community, every family. That's just life. But you don't work through them by standing on the stairs. You work through them by showing up, by being part of the community even when it's hard, by hashing things out as members rather than adversaries.

We're in the Nativity Fast right now. Detinjci, Materice, Očevi are coming. This is supposed to be a season about family, about reconciliation, about preparing for Christ's birth.

The Church has been through worse and it'll get through this too. But it's better with everyone inside.

Belgrade heard you. They answered. Your bishop is your bishop.

The rest is up to you.

Link:

https://spc.rs/sr/news/iz-zivota-crkve//15296.pravilnik-za-parohije,-crkvene-opstine,-crkveno-skolske-opstine-i-manastire-eparhije-istocnoamericke-srpske-pravoslavne-crkve.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawOnAqdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFNeUFRR0hHT3RmTnNOcHF5c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHoFGNX_pEJb1oNdUnYopJ5YIoiLhtB47cScrqL6xxIxbsr-bt-TA13rM33dz_aem_IdOtknf5eeU5Mu3GkzJrMA

Read the full series on the St. Sava Cathedral situation: Blog