Page 746 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
Giving respite to our pain, by this act we appeal to the State authorities to return the church of Uroševac imme- diately to the people to be used for the purposes for which the church was intended.”
“in sending the above,” says Bishop Vladimir, “it is our honor to inform the Holy Synod of Bishops that we have also informed the State Commission for Religious affairs of the People’s Republic of Serbia of this matter, asking it to take action on its part in order to immediately return this place of worship to the church for her use, and we ask that the Holy Synod of Bishops on its part, if it feels it is neces- sary, supports our petition.”20
in a meeting on September 29, 1948, the Holy Synod of Bishops discussed Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Prizren’s report from September 9 that state authorities confiscated the church in Uroševac for the storage of food, regarding which he informed the District People’s Council for Koso- vo and Metohija, and the Commission for Religions of the People’s Republic of Serbia.
in regard to this conversion of a Serbian Orthodox church into a warehouse, the Holy Synod of Bishops lodged a protest with the same Commission for Religions, asking that the church be immediately freed and returned to its owner.21
On the basis of Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Prizren’s report from july 17, 1948, that he informed the Commis- sion for Religions of the People’s Republic of Serbia of var- ious breaches by government representatives against the Church with a request for protection, from its meeting of august 6, 1948, the Holy Synod of Bishops sent a protest to the relevant Commission against hostile acts—by irrespon- sible individuals and state officials—against the Serbian Church in the villages of Smira, Vitina, Žegra, Vlaštica, etc. in this Diocese.22
in the same meeting on august 6, 1946, the Holy Synod of Bishops, in anticipation of results from Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Prizren’s intervention with the Commission for Religions of the People’s Republic of Serbia, joined a copy of the protest against the occupation of the parish home in Nikoljača near Prizren to the relevant dossier.23
The Year 1949
in regard to the confiscation of all record books of the first and second parishes of Peć by the City People’s Council in Peć with notice to the priests that they are not allowed to keep any other record books, Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Prizren asked the opinion of the Holy Synod of Bish- ops regarding the legality of such an act, taking into ac- count that Holy Synod of Bishop circulars No 4205/48 and 243/zap. 4 from 1949 ordered that priests acquire new re- cord books for further record keeping.
20 AHSB, Syn No 16/1948.
21 AHSB, Syn No 3095/zap. 867/48.
22 AHSB, Syn No 2743/zap. 772/48.
23 AHSB, Syn No 2624/zap. 777/48.
The Holy Synod of Bishops reacted to this on april 24, 1949, by sending a protest letter to the Federal and State Commissions for Religions with the request that this illegal ban be rescinded.
in the Synod archive we find information that the Holy Synod of Bishops in its meeting on june 17, 1949, sent Bish- op Vladimir an act of the ecclesiastical Court of his Diocese and a report by the first parish priest of Podujevo about the ban on religious processions sent to the Office of the Patri- archate and signed by the deputy of the local Bishop.24
The same was done with a repeated report about the same ban pronounced to the parish priest of Vračevo from a meeting of the Holy Synod of Bishops on june 22, 1949, with the remark that the Holy Synod of Bishops does not receive acts directly from the ecclesiastical Court with the signature of the bishop’s deputy but only with the signature of the competent bishop.25
in a meeting on October 21, 1949, the Holy Synod of Bishops discussed the response of the Commission for Re- ligions of the People’s Republic of Serbia to the protest against the ban on keeping record books in Peć, according to which the Ministry of internal affairs determined that the ban applied to keeping record books that did not serve private purposes.
The Holy Synod of Bishops joined this response from the Commission on Religions to the dossier and sent a tran- scribed copy to Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Prizren with the request that he verify whether the confiscated record books were subject to the provisions of article 48 of the Law on state record books, kept by the clergy after May 9, 1946, for purely internal church evidence.26
in regard to a report by Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Prizren that the church in Orahovac was occupied a sec- ond time by state officials for the storage of sunflower seeds, the Holy Synod of Bishops decided on December 1, 1949, to send another request for intervention to the Commis- sion for Religions of the People’s Republic of Serbia to free the church and return it to the church administration for normal religious use.27
On December 8, 1949, the Holy Synod of Bishops acted similarly in regard to Bishop Vladimir of Raška and Priz- ren’s report that the City People’s Council in Uroševac had again confiscated the church in that city.28
in the same meeting, the Holy Synod of Bishops sent a request to the Commission for Religions of the People’s Republic of Serbia to free the Bishop’s residence in Prizren (the office of the Diocese and the apartment of the Bishop of Raška and Prizren), which had been confiscated by the City People’s Council at the beginning of November 1949 for use as a boarding house for students of the Teachers’
24 AHSB, Syn No 1762/zap. 499/49. 25 AHSB, Syn No 1838/ and 1839/ 49. 26 AHSB, Syn No 2802/zap. 827/49. 27 AHSB, Syn No 3040/zap. 908/49. 28 AHSB, Syn No 3153/zap. 941/49.
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