A Voice crying in the wilderness, 7

Taking into account, however, that this is a far-reaching decision that affects not only the life and mission of the Serbian Church but of Orthodoxy in general and its salvific mission in the world, the Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Church has decided that prior to its final resignation, it will first forward its position and rationale to the Œcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and to all heads of local Orthodox Churches with the proposal and request that a Pan-Orthodox Conference be convened as soon as possible with regard to further participation of Orthodox Churches in general in the WCC. Only after this consultation would our own local Church adopt its final position on the issue and share it with the public.”

The Decision Sabotaged at the “Thessalonica Summit”

Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the concluding points of this decision of the Serbian Orthodox Church Assembly annulled all the aforementioned compelling reasons for a final and permanent withdrawal from membership and partnership with the WCC. The Thessalonica Summit of the representatives of all of the Orthodox Churches was soon held and its “conclusions” prevented the Serbian Orthodox Church from carrying out its 1997 decision to withdraw from the WCC. It was as if the purpose of the consultation was to water down and invalidate the Serbian Orthodox Church’s decision. And sure enough, the very next year, in 1998, the Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church offered a new answer to the submitted question. This second answer, according to the interpretation of Orthodox canonist, Zeljko Kotoranin, “was not theological but political.” It consisted, first of all, of the unwillingness of the Assembly to protect its decision of the previous year from falsification, denial and a failure to implement it, and second, of the adoption of the conclusions reached in Thessalonica and the sending of a delegation of the Serbian Church to the WCC Assembly in Harare, Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the essence of the conclusions of the Thessalonica gathering was to seek a radical reorganisation of the Council, which did not occur in the next seven years to the present day. These “conclusions,” therefore, remained “a dead letter.” The WCC did not reorganise itself in any respect and become closer to the Orthodox Church of Christ, nor did any local Orthodox Church (including the Serbian Church) withdraw from membership in the WCC as a result of this. The reasons and justifications for withdrawing from membership from the WCC (as presented in the decision of the S.O.C. Assembly) are also still valid, as are, unfortunately, the harmful ecclesiological consequences that follow from that membership. Thus by its second response the Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church, abandoning its earlier decision (from 1997) and its justification, continued and extended its organic participation as an equal member of the WCC, guiding itself and its flock down the path of ruin. Quite simply, extending the membership of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the WCC is not, and cannot be, pleasing to God. Those most responsible in the Body of the Church - the Bishops - are drawing God’s fury upon themselves and their flock by circumventing Church dogma and violating canon law. The heretical concept of “evangelical ecumenism” - the Gospel without Christ, salvation without the Church - is unacceptable to the Orthodox consciousness.

The Sopocani Appeal

It is consoling that in the Serbian Orthodox Church, despite the inconsistencies shown by the Holy Synod of Bishops, there are still those who have not reconciled themselves to this outcome and who continue to openly and boldly come forward against distorted ecumenism and against those who support it, frequently exposing themselves to open persecution by individual Bishops.

It is worth mentioning some names that are well-known to the Serbian people. In addition to Zeljko Kotoranin, whom we have already cited, we have Rodoljub Lazic, Miodrag Petrovic, Vladimir Dimitrijevic, Presbyter Boban Milenkovic and others. The brave monks and nuns of almost all of the Dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church are especially consistent in their opposition to ecumenism “in practice.”