World ‘Orthodox’ Serbs Say They’ll Convert to Islam Unless Serbian Patriarch Gives Them Money

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October 15  (Source: https://globalvoices.org)

[Originally reported on Oct.12]

Residents of Šopić, a village just outside of Belgrade, threatened to “collectively convert to Islam” if their damaged Orthodox church wasn’t reconstructed by the parish in October 2015. In a letter to Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the parish members appealed to the leader of the Church to support the reconstruction of the small 150-year-old Šopić church that had been damaged in a natural disaster the previous summer.

According to Serbian daily Alo!, the trouble began when a tornado badly damaged the church within minutes in July 2014, ripping the roof off, and damaging the church bells and structure. In the meantime, the parish priest made the decision to have the church torn down and a new temple built on the site, despite the complaints of local residents to preserve the century and a half old structure. In the letter addressed to the leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the parish members say:

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NFTU: It seems with the World ‘Orthodox’ that the thing they always care most about is money and buildings. They’ll even convert to Islam to save their buildings! “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Mat. 10:33)  There is no ‘keeping Christ in your hearts like the Martyrs” when you are outwardly denying Christ because you can’t get your way; the Martyrs, in fact, were open about their Confession, and didn’t treat the Faith so lightly as to threaten (serious or not) to throw it away because of money and buildings.

Most Serbians are not Orthodox Christians anymore; whether they claim to be laity or clergy.

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sirmium

Your conclusion is incorrect. You did not understand that laity did not mean this literally. They said so because patriarch fell into ecumenism. There are many very good Christians out there in the “world orthodoxy”. When you post news from other sites and on top of that you make a comment as you do, think, you might be wrong.
Of course people fight for their churches and monasteries. That is their history and the voice against globalism. Why do you think all their monasteries in Kosovo are destroyed? Why do you think ancients monasteries and historic sites in the Middle East are destroyed? The answer is: because someone wants to erase thousands of years of the history in order to spread the globalism.

sirmium
sirmium
HmkEnoch

Sirmium,

Wait; so Serbian anti-ecumenists occasionally threaten an ecumenist that they will apostatize in order to get building funds?

They made statements about ‘keeping Christ in their heart’ while being outwardly Muslim; how in the world is that following the Martyrs as they claim? If you joke around with apostasy it seems to show you don’t take things that seriously.

I don’t doubt there has been massive destruction; but, that is neither here nor there with the fact that they are still in communion with an heretical Patriarch, and apparently find insincere threats of conversion to Islam to be their method of interaction.

I have no doubt there are many good people, but, it seems they are not willing to do absolutely anything (for the most part) that would put them out of communion with the World Patriarchs, including Irenaeus of Serbia. “Solidarity saves the Serbs” has been used to perverse ends.

In Christ,

Fr. Enoch

sirmium

A lot of people separated from the patriarch, and still are separating. The new split in the church just happened few weeks ago. Not everyone is able to see things clearly at the same time. Their point is: if patriarch is calling for help the Muslims, why he does not help them to repair the church, they will not convert to Islam, that is not what they meant. Do not worry, Serbian church arose from the death many times, and it will again, in spite of what the enemy wants.

sirmium

To add to the previous post: from your conclusions and comments I can tell because it is obvious – you generally do not like the Serbs. You comments do not have anything to do with apostasy, it is just an excuse.

HmkEnoch

Sirmium,

You have me wrong! I don’t dislike the Serbs! I know as well as anyone that Serbia has been unjustly treated for the past 25 years; blamed for acts of ‘genocide’ they never committed (such as the travesty of Christine Amanpour and the fabrication of the ‘concentration camps’ she claimed the ‘Serbs ran’), the Muslim-NATO attack on Kosovo, the genocide of Orthodox Christian Serbs in the 1930s and 1940s, such as at the bloody field of Jasenovac, and more. So, I do not dislike the Serbs.

What I do dislike is how, as a rule now, the hierarchy of the ‘official Serbian Patriarchate’ is so far away from Orthodoxy that they have deceived the vast majority of Serbs into apostasy without many even knowing it. Serbs have historically had a need to sick together, since it was the only way to survive Western attacks, Ottoman enslavement, and even Byzantine invasion. This solidarity mentality has, in general served them well, HOWEVER, it has been misused and turned into something it was never meant to be: a method to deceive many Serbs and lead them away from Orthodox Christianity and into a vapid secular mentality and nationalism, as opposed to the real Orthodox Christian nationalism.

I know that there are many in Serbia, who have broken with the official ‘Patriarchate’, and I pray that most Serbs flee it. After all the Serbs have been through, the last attack of the Devil has been upon their Faith, since he can then not only strip them of an earthly kingdom, but seek to deprive them of the heavenly as well.

In Christ,

Fr. Enoch

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