Kosovo Likely to Overshadow Serbian Church Synod

Kosovo is likely to be a hot issue at the upcoming Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has taken a lead position in attacking talk of Kosovo's partition, or of recognising its independence, Church experts say.

President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday officially announced a referendum on Kosovo on Thursday. In his statement made in the northern town of Zrenjanin, Vucic said he had already presented his opinions about Kosovo to Church leaders.

As the "highest administrative body of the Church ... concerned with the life of the Serbian Church ... [the Synod] will surely discuss delicate issues related to the difficult situation in Kosovo and Metohija," Serbian theologian and religious education teacher Mladen Aleksic told BIRN.

He noted that since President Vucic had publicly mulled the idea of some form of "delineation" between Serbia and Kosovo, two Serbian clerics in Kosovo opposed to concessions, Bishop Teodosije and Abbot Sava Janjic, had come under attack in the media.

"Attacks on Bishop Theodosije and abbot Sava are, in fact, attacks on the Serbian Church, which has a unique and clear stance regarding Kosovo and Metohija," Aleksic said.

"The state has labelled part of the SPC as 'foreign agents', which is certainly a heavy accusation, since we know that it comes from the top of the state," he added.

On August 4, after the meeting of Serbia's National Security Council, the head of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, said the security services would prevent the actions of "certain politicians and religious figures" who he said had insinuated that Serbia planned to provoke unrest in Kosovo.

Tensions had been rising between Serbia and Kosovo in the lead-up to the August 4 deadline...