interview by Gordana JOCIC
Our collocutor is one of Kosovo bishops, His grace bishop of Lipljan Teodosije (Sibalic). Late last year he became bishop Artemije's deputy with the title of bishop of Lipljan. Bishop Teodosije became a monk in the famous Kosovo "nursery" of monks, monastery Crna Reka, and for many years he has been the abbot of the best known and respected monastery in Metohija, Visoki Decani. Recently, bishop Teodosije spoke at the Spiritual Center of the Saborna Church in Kragujevac. The title of the talk was "If I forget Kosovo..."
Your Grace, the year 2005 is considered a critical year for resolving the status of Kosovo. If Kosovo gains independence, what will happen to the Serb community and especially the monastic (ecclesiastical) community in Kosovo and Metohija?
Christ's Church has survived under various empires of this world and "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Mat. 16:18). Regardless of the final status given to Kosovo and Metohija, we are seeking to survive in this region, adhering to the evangelical lesson to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Mat 22:21, Mar 12:17, Luk 20:25). We believe that the powerful of this world will ultimately realize that peace and stability in the Balkans cannot be realized through one-sided solutions and we hope that, regardless of the final status, Serbs and especially our holy shrines in this region will be adequately protected.
There is increasing talk in the media about the possibility of a repeat of an even more brutal version of March 17 of last year. Is it really true that some sort of new pogrom is unavoidable and is the Serb community in Kosovo and Metohija, including the ecclesiastical community, now better prepared to defend itself?
This danger always exists because in Kosovo and Metohija there are still paramilitary extremist forces taking advantage of unemployment, social crisis and other problems to manipulate the Albanian population, especially young people. The March pogrom was a painful experience but also a big wake-up call for the international community. KFOR is now far more serious in its approach to this problem and I believe that March 17, as we experienced it, will not be repeated. Nevertheless, we must be prepared to bravely bear similar trials without renouncing our ancestral homes and holy shrines. No one can expel us from Kosovo and Metohija if we are firmly determined to stay.
In your opinion, is there any hope of achieving a solution more favorable to the Serbs?
There are several options for the final status of the Province. I personally think that a change in borders in Europe where everyone is forming ties and becoming integrated is not the path to a better future. It would be very significant for Serbia to preserve at least formal sovereignty of this region if nothing else, with clearly recognized rights to protect its legitimate interests, specifically, to protect its population and cultural and historical legacy. Of course, a solution can be imposed upon Serbia but Serbia must never renounce its historical right over this region.
Why is the international community so persistent in its support of the Albanian option despite the fact, which you mentioned in your lecture, that it is clear that the Albanians will not stop with Kosovo and will also seek parts of South Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece?
Because of the erroneous policies that the authorities in Serbia persisted with for years, the world saw the Albanians as the only victims. Now that picture is slowly changing but we need to make much more effort as a people and as the most multiethnic state in the Balkans today to propose a plan for the future of the entire region that is much more acceptable than creating ethnically cleansed territories within internationally recognized states. If we follow a wise course of action I believe that Serbia will soon be able to assume its place in Europe, and prevent its disintegration.
Do the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija still believe in the Church like they did before, in the first days of persecution and expulsion, or is this changing?
The people believe the Church because the Serbian Orthodox Church is the only institution that remained in Kosovo and Metohija and never abandoned them. Confidence in the Church is not only confidence in her diplomatic and political capabilities but also in that the faithful see the Church as their guide to eternal life because through many difficulties our goal is to arrive in the Kingdom of Heaven.
At the spiritual evening in Kragujevac, you said that Serbs today should look upon Kosovo as the Jews looked upon Jerusalem in the time when they themselves were refugees and slaves? Can you elaborate on these words?
In the Bible the Jews are called the chosen, God's people of the Old Testament. I would venture to say that in the same way, the Serb people became the chosen, God's people of the New Testament by following the teaching and tradition of St. Sava and choosing the Kingdom of Heaven. Both the Jews and the Serbs have their covenants and have given their promises to God, which has made them worthy of God's glory and evocation. However, throughout history, neither the Jews nor the Serbs have always fulfilled their covenants. In their weakness they temporarily stepped from the path of God and worshiped idols and the people of this world instead of the living God. For this they were punished by God and frequently had to leave their ancestral homes, fleeing and finding themselves enslaved, far from their land and their holy shrines.
Although persecuted many times in history and enslaved, and scattered throughout the world, the Jews also always returned to their holy city of Jerusalem and gathered once again around it. They returned to the Temple of Jerusalem and to their holy shrines because they remained loyal to their prophet Moses and his law. Even while enslaved and physically far from their land promised by God, the holy city of Jerusalem was always in their thoughts and they sang: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!" (Psa 137:5) Likewise, upon meeting on the great holidays, they greeted each other with the greeting: "Next year in Jerusalem!" Following the example of their old brothers, the Serbs, too, should look upon Kosovo and Metohija and their holy shrines as "their city of Jerusalem", and to constantly within themselves long to return to it. Our Jerusalem consists of the monasteries of the Pec Patriarchate, Decani, Gracanica and many others without which we cannot and will not survive.
Some Serbs believe that Kosovo and Metohija are permanently lost and that we need to pull back and take care of the part of Serbia still under our control. What do you think, can the Serbs survive without Kosovo?
The fact that some Serbs think that Kosovo is lost is primarily because they themselves are lost, no longer having faith in God nor the confidence that follows from this faith. If they think that the solution is to amputate Kosovo and Metohija and exclude it from the rest of Serbia they are grossly deceived because that would be only a temporary solution. Kosovo and Metohija are the soul of the Serb people, and if we lose our soul, what else can we possibly hope for. The body cannot survive without the soul; over time it will only further disintegrate and eventually completely vanish.
Our generations are much burdened by the past and are incapable of understanding, much less realizing the great deeds that stand before us. I believe that the younger generations that are coming will be more competent to return that which their fathers have lost. Especially if we take into account that the word Kosovo is our most expensive word, verified and overflowing the blood of many courageous and innocent victims, and that it has deep roots in the Serb being and therefore many future generations will not be able to circumvent it nor forget it.
Kosovo will be and remain Serb as long as it lives in the soul of the Serb people and to the degree that Serbs are ready to live in this region, regardless of all the problems that surround us.
You mentioned twenty different "exoduses" from Kosovo in the past. Is our "defeat" in Kosovo this time any different?
Since the Battle of Maritsa River in 1371 to the present day the Serbs have fled from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija more than twenty times. Sometimes the exoduses were bigger, sometimes smaller. But they always had the same purpose and goal, to save the bare lives of the people and prevent them from falling into the hands of our enemies. The most horrible exodus took place in 1690, when Pec Patriarch Arsenije II Carnojevic fled with 70,000 Serbian families to the north across the Sava and Danube Rivers to Budim [Budapest] and Vienna. This was followed in 1738 by a great massacre of the Serbs and a great exodus in the time of Patriarch Arsenije IV Sakabenta. During the period from 1941-45 there was also a great pogrom during which 200,000 Orthodox Serbs fled from Kosovo and Metohija, and took up residence in the north, never to return. We know that the godless Communist regime forbade their return to their ancestral homes.
Unfortunately, in our time the same thing was repeated, and about 200,000 Serbs again ended up as refugees. What happened yet again is something that has happened many times already to our people in this region. In a way, this most recent expulsion of our people is the most ominous because this time entire areas of Kosovo, especially Metohija, have been left without Serbs.
Your Grace, after the many trials we have gone through in recent years in Kosovo, do you think that God has abandoned Serbs because of their sins and lack of repentance?
It would be more accurate to say that the Lord loves his people and reprimands them out of love, through all the suffering we are now passing through and through which we passed in history, in order to make them better than they currently are. That is His providence for us, and first and foremost, the Lord wishes salvation for his people. In all this, He does not forget their suffering, pain and tears. In the moment that people grow distant from God, their Creator, when they grow distant from all that is sacred and from themselves because of our sins, ambitions and selfishness, God prepares great trials for us like a good teacher so that through them He can return us to Him and to ourselves.
Taking all this into consideration, we, the monks and faithful in Kosovo and Metohija, have not for a second felt neglected by God; on the contrary, in everything that we are going through today, we see God's presence and we have a sense of divine blessing that strengthens and encourages us to endure all for the glory of God, and in our own best interest for, as the Holy Scripture says, "he who endures to the end will be saved" (Mat 10:22).
Your seat is in Visoki Decani Monastery. Is it possible to live normally in the Serbian monasteries located in Metohija?
Thanks to efforts of the brotherhood and the Italian KFOR troops who provide military protection for us, normal monastic life is unfolding in our monasteries in Metohija with religious services in first place but also regular monastic obediences [duties] and other activities. Despite difficult conditions the monks manage to regularly fulfill their duties.
What can Serbs on this side of the military border do for Kosovo and Kosovo Serbs?
The Church and her faithful in this region look with hope on their brothers and sisters in other lands where Serbs live, both in the homeland and abroad, and call on them not to forget their spiritual roots, their holy churches and monasteries, and all of us who at the price of our lives want to preserve our historical legacy and survive here in these difficult times. Kosovo and Metohija is a living treasury of Serbian historical memory and spiritual identity and the Serbs, no matter where they live, must be aware of their spiritual roots without which they will be unable to preserve their being.
What is your Christmas message to the Serb people?
If we want to change the world around us for the better, we need first to begin to change ourselves through repentance, through divine virtues. This is the way of the Gospel, which differs from secular "revolutions" where people want to change others but are unprepared to confront themselves and their own shortcomings. Our Lord Christ came to earth as God incarnate to triumph over death by His own suffering and bestow life eternal on what He created. He does not asking anything of us that He himself has not done. He gives us his help but he asks for our cooperation. That is why Christmas, like every other church holiday, is an opportunity to remind ourselves of Christ's suffering and "take up his cross and follow him" (Mat 16:24, Mar 8:34, Mar 10:21, Luk 9:23), knowing that this is the only true path leading to life eternal and the Kingdom of Heaven.