ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN SERBIA THREATENED WITH DEMOLITION

Authorities are insisting a deacon must demolish a Romanian Orthodox church he built in his home village of Malajnica in eastern Serbia.

They contend it needs planning permission from the separate Serbian Orthodox Church though that is not required by law, Forum 18 News service reported. Police also questioned the deacon about his religious activities.

“I was invited to the police station to answer questions on when and where I perform religious services,” sub-deacon Bojan Aleksandrovic told Forum 18 News recently. “All the questions were related to Orthodox church rules and jurisdiction rather than to civil law.”

Aleksandrovic told Forum 18 he was verbally promised by Serbia’s religion minister Milan Radulovic at a meeting in early Feb. that the church would not be demolished. “So far I have not received any written document on this,” Aleksandrovic added, “and the case is now in Serbia’s Supreme Court.”

Aleksandrovic built the small church and adjoining parish house last year on his private property and began using it for worship in the autumn. On Dec. 4 2004, Bishop Daniil Stoenescu – who heads the Romanian diocese in Serbia – dedicated the church bells.

Aleksandrovic was forced to build without planning permission, Forum 18 reported, because this area is legally defined as rural (as opposed to urban), so the authorities are not able to give any planning permission. Consequently all the houses in the village have been built without permission.

On Jan. 20 2005, Forum 18 reported, the Negotin council (to whose jurisdiction the village belongs) issued Aleksandrovic an order to demolish the church, the belfry and the parish house within 15 days. He was allowed to challenge the ruling in court.

Aleksandrovic initially tried to seek building permission, approaching the Negotin council in Nov. 2003 (which failed to respond for several months). Rajko Korica, deputy Minister of Capital Investments, eventually wrote to Aleksandrovic in April 2004 telling him he should contact the Religion Ministry to get building permission.

However, Forum 18 reported the Religion Ministry responded that it is not authorised to issue such permission and this must come from the local authorities (in this case the Negotin council). However, it said approval must first be gained from the Serbian Orthodox diocese in which the place of worship is to be built. Since Malajnica is in the Serbian Timok diocese, Aleksandrovic in effect needed permission from Serbian Bishop Justin Stefanovic.

On June 16 2004, the Negotin council sent Aleksandrovic the conclusion of the council’s administration for communal and building affairs (dated April 30 2004), that the procedure had been halted. The conclusion noted, Forum 18 reported, that the council had written to Bishop Justin for his approval for the church building.

“They have received a reply … with information that Bojan Aleksandrovic is not a cleric of the Timok diocese and because of this he has no right to ask to build a church. Since (Aleksandrovic) undermines church order he has no blessing from Bishop Justin.”

Aleksandrovic was given 30 days, Forum 18 reported, to reach a solution with the religion ministry to the conflict with the Serbian diocese and its local priest, which it described as “the only legal representatives of the Timok diocese and therefore the only ones who can decide on the proposed church.”

Aleksandrovic challenged the council’s rejection of his right to build, but the Zajecar district rejected his appeal on Dec.7 2004 as unfounded. He lodged an appeal against this to the Supreme Court on Jan. 5 2005.

In a separate case (filed in this manner because legally only organizations not individuals can lodge such appeals), Forum 18 reported, the Association for the Culture of Romanians/Vlachs of Serbian Orthodox Romanians in Malajnica challenged the Negotin council’s conclusion to the constitutional court.

But on Jan.13 2005 the court rejected the application and said it did not fall within the court’s jurisdiction.

Even had the village been granted urban status (which is not the case), Negotin council’s demand for permission from the religion ministry to approve the new place of worship is strange, Forum 18 reported.

Speaking in Belgrade, Aleksandra Rackov of the Ministry of Capital Investments told Forum 18 recently that the Planning and Construction Law requires no special permission by the Serbian Orthodox leadership or the religion ministry for any building, including places of worship.

If the Serbian authorities decide to demolish the buildings, Forum 18 reported, it will be the same legal explanation as the Macedonian government used in Oct. 2004 to demolish the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St John Chrysostom (see F18News 21 October 2004 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=437).

The December dedication of the bells at the Malajnica church provoked an immediate response from the rival Serbian Orthodox Church.

“No one informed me what would happen,” Forum 18 reported Serbian Bishop Justin was quoted by the local press as declaring. “I regard this as a call for separatism, which could disrupt the centuries-long life together of Vlachs and Serbs in this area.”

The bishop complained to the Foreign Ministry of the Union of Serbia and Montenegro, since Bishop Daniil has a Romanian diplomatic passport.

Religion minister Radulovic blamed the problem in Malajnica on what he called the “undefined relationship” between the Serbian and Romanian churches. Forum 18 reported he believes the demolition order was enacted without the permission of Bishop Justin.

The Romanian Orthodox Church has been present in Serbia for several centuries. When the Romanian Holy Synod raised the vicariate to a diocese in 1997, Bishop Daniil was installed as bishop with his seat in Vrsac, Forum 18 reported.

The Serbian and Yugoslav governments never recognised the diocese since it was not created in agreement with Serbian Orthodox Church and Orthodox canons.

The state has left the Serbian and Romanian Churches to find a solution and will follow whatever decision they reach.

According to the 2002 census, 34,576 ethnic Romanians and 40,046 Vlachs live in Serbia. Many Vlachs consider themselves ethnically Romanian. Most of Serbia’s Romanians and Vlachs belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Besides Romanians in the Banat region, another center of Romanians and Vlachs is in the Timok region close to Serbia’s eastern border with Romania and Bulgaria. Romanians in the Banat can freely belong to the Romanian Church, but only the Serbian Church has existed in Timok with services in Old Church Slavonic which Romanians – and many Serbs – cannot understand.

For information about the Romanian Orthodox Church go to www.cnewa.org/ecc-orthodox-romania.htm. To learn about the Serbian Orthodox Church go to www.cnewa.org/ecc-orthodox-serbia.htm

For information about religious freedom in Serbia go to www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=387

To learn more about Forum 18 go to www.forum18.org/F18NewsMission.php