The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has tried to keep a lid on tensions among its bishops, but newspapers were full of embarrassing details on Monday about fist-fighting monks, accusations of backstabbing and hints of financial abuse.
The scandal erupted when the hardline Kosovo Bishop Artemije decided to sack and ostracize his moderate deputy, Bishop Teodosije and Sava Janjic, an outspoken monk in the Visoki Decani monastery in Kosovo.
But instead of humbly receiving the decision, Teodosije’s and Sava’s monks turned physical and tossed Artemije’s secretary, Simeon, out of the monastery, injuring his foot in the process.
Stunned and outraged, Artemije accused Teodosije and Sava Janjic of “open, blatant mutiny,” but the synod, the church government, refused to back him and called the feuding bishops to attend when it convened yesterday in Belgrade.
The synod, comprising all bishops running an eparchy, an administrative unit within the SPC, actually said Artemije’s sacking of Teodosije was “hasty.”
Chances are slim for the two feuding priests to make up despite warnings from officials that they are harming the church itself. In addition, their fight is a reflection of much bigger strife in the SPC leadership.
The simmering rift first burst into public view in May, with the clumsy decision by the Holy Bishop Synod to declare the hospitalized head of the SPC, Patriarch Pavle, incapacitated.
The move — which sidelined Pavle, who remains in hospital in fair health despite his 93 years of age — opened the door to a fierce power struggle among the bishops.
Following Pavle’s refusal to step down, Artemije’s rival — Bishop Amfilohije — was appointed acting representative of the patriarch and stands the best chance of taking over when Pavle dies.
Artemije took a verbal jab at Amfilohije over the weekend, accusing him in statements to reporters of “meddling for a long time” in the Kosovo eparchy.
Newspapers highlight Artemije’s extremely hard stance regarding not only international missions in Kosovo, which is the heartland of the Serbian church, but also the political sides in Belgrade.
Artemije wanted Serbs to cut cooperation with foreign and local officials in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February. Angered by Western support for Kosovo, he also branded pro-European Serbian President Boris Tadic a traitor.
In contrast, Teodosije said the SPC is not strong enough to decide the status of Kosovo, where the dominant Albanian population is hostile to anything Serbian. He said the church should work with any authorities to secure the protection of Serbs and their shrines.
In the conservative Serbian Church, the clash of Artemije and Teodosije exposed the tip of the iceberg of the struggle between hardliners and the more moderate and pragmatic wing.
Bringing the story even further away from the divine are reports, spurred on by sources from within the church itself, that by trying to sideline not only Teodosije but the authorities in Belgrade and Pristina, Artemije is struggling to retain control over the business of the reconstruction of Serb shrines in Kosovo.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition