Church represented at Kosovo committee meeting
Representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) will take part in a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Kosovo on Friday.
(KosovoCompromiseStuff) Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The meeting will discuss a report on the Belgrade-Priština dialogue so far.
The announcement of the participation of Church dignitaries was made by Bishop of Lipljan Jovan on Wednesday.
"We will certainly make an effort for our voice is heard during the committee meeting," the bishop told reporters during a break of the conference "The Balkans and the Middle East" in Belgrade.
He recalled that in August 1999, the SPC was left "on its own, without the state" in Kosovo, but that this was not the first time, and that the concern of the Church was "deeper and older".
"We understand the state and its needs, but we the position we find ourselves in is not always the same," said Bishop Jovan, who is also secretary of the SPC Committee on Kosovo and Metohija, and added that "the return and survival in Kosovo" is a key issue for the Church.
Serbian Patriarch Irinej opened on Sunday an office of the SPC committee at the Patriarchate of Pec.
The office, which was moved to this Metohija town from Belgrade, will also release news items and collect data on life, and suffering of the Serbian Church and people in the southern province, meant for the SPC archives.
