The Shepherd, April 2005
NEWS SECTION, 2
GREEK COURT DECLINES TO SUPPORT ATHONITE APPEAL
GREECE’S Council of State, her highest administrative court, has, according to the Athens News Agency, ruled that it has no jurisdiction to decide whether the Abbot Methodios of the Sacred Monastery of Esphigmenou on the Holy Mountain Athos, is a schismatic and should comply with a demand from the Œcumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness Bartholomeos I, to leave the monastery. The Court decided that the semi-autonomous monastic community of Athos is not subject to its judicial scrutiny in such matters, because it falls under the supreme spiritual authority of the Patriarchate. Esphigmenou Monastery is one of a number which in 1964 ceased to commemorate the Patriarch of Constantinople when the then Patriarch Athenagoras met with Pope Paul VI. The other monasteries have over time agreed to commemorate the Patriarch, although they still on occasion dissent from his ecumenical policies and practices. Esphigmenou alone has refused to modify its stance and consequently has become one of the most populous monasteries on the Mountain and a centre of resistance to the Patriarchal policies. An eviction order was served on the monks in December, 2002, and the monastery was then even besieged by police forces for a period of eight weeks. The siege was raised pending the outcome of the court proceedings.
RAPPROCHEMENT AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIAN CHURCH IN THE WEST
IN AN INTERVIEW given to Victor Loupan of the “Movement for Local Orthodoxy of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe” (OLTR), His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad was asked about two related developments within the Russian Church diaspora: the rapprochement process between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Church Abroad, and the vision of the Patriarch Aleksii’s Epistle of 1st April 2003. In the latter the Patriarch suggested the establishment of a Metropolitanate for all churches of the Russian tradition in Western Europe, which would be part of the Moscow Patriarchate but would enjoy a measure of autonomy. At much the same time the dialogues between the Patriarchate and the Church Abroad were initiated and, Metropolitan Kirill states in the interview that “we anticipate that ROCOR (the Church Abroad), structured as it is now, will become a self-governing part of a single Russian Church.” This, of course, conflicts to some extent with the idea of the Western European Metropolitanate, and Loupan questioned the Metropolitan about the possible conflict, asking whether the Patriarch’s initiative was still in force. Metropolitan Kirill replied that it was, and that it “reflects our fundamental vision for the future of the Russian diaspora throughout the world and in particular in Western Europe.” With reference to the MP-ROCOR rapprochement, he saw the success he hoped for in this sphere as a source of inspiration for the overcoming of other “divisions between the separated parts of the Russian Church.” But he envisioned further developments, saying: “How at a later stage the relationship of the existing parallel organisational structures in Western Europe, inAmerica and in other parts of the world will develop, only time will show. It is not worthwhile trying to determine everything in advance.”
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PROTESTS KOSOVO SITUATION
“DURING widespread inter-ethnic violence in Kosovo in March 2004, at least 19 people died - 11 Albanians and eight Serbs - and over 1,000 were injured while some 730 houses belonging to minorities, mostly Kosovo Serbs, as well as 36 Orthodox churches, monasteries and other religious and cultural sites were damaged or destroyed. In less than 48 hours, 4,100 minority community members were newly displaced (more than the total of 3,664 that had returned throughout 2003), of whom 82% were Serbs and the remaining 18% included Roma and Ashkali, as well as an estimated 350 Albanians from the Serb majority areas of N. Mitrovica/Mitrovice and Leposavic/Leposaviq,” reports an AI Public Statement (News Service No: 064, 17th March 2005). Amnesty has expressed concerns at the lack of accountability of both the United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the NATO led Kosovo Force (KFOR), and their continued failure to admit any responsibility. Investigations have been made into the tragic events of March 2004, but to date UNMIK and KFOR have not made public the results of these investigations, and nor have the governments of the NATO countries whose forces are serving there. Amnesty welcomes the fact that UNMIK police did bring 179 perpetrators of the March 2004 violence to justice, but reports that 69 investigations have been conducted into allegations against the Kosovo Police Force itself, but that insufficient evidence was available to bring criminal prosecutions - this because there were inconsistencies in the evidence provided by witnesses, and because witnesses were unwilling to come forward and testify. 
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