The collapse of this compromised order has opened the way for change. From the start, we have made clear our support for the fall of the previous regime and the newly-elected authorities; but at the same time, that support is strictly conditional.
As an Orthodox bishop, I deeply and completely distance myself from the liberal civic ideologies that the new authorities bring with them. Our covenant with our nation and our actions have never been tied to constitutional reforms or the democratic re-organization of yet another secular republic. Our loyalty and spiritual vocation belong solely to the autocratic monarchical order: the Byzantine-Nemanjić model of symphony between Church and anointed ruler.[2] We reject moral relativism and embrace value absolutism.[3]
The new secular authorities must be aware that the republican system, even when the previous crimes have been removed, essentially remains an illegitimate AVNOJ[4] creation that undermines the Serbian people. Also, no government on earth is truly blessed if it is based on the Jacobin principle[5] of popular sovereignty and the electorate instead of the sovereignty of God. For us, even a parliamentary, constitutional monarchy is just a pseudo-monarchy, a fundamentally liberal order in which the state is still run by a godless anti-Christian elite through their global financial centers.
A nation, like the state that represents its sovereign political embodiment and natural living framework, cannot be understood in a monarchist context as the plebiscitary will of a democratic electorate, but only as the popular will in its historical development. “The people” is not a collection of contemporaries, but a chain of generations, a people with a specific past and future. That is why we support the unconditional establishment of a monarchy: the only form of government that, from the time of the Byzantine Christian emperors, through the saints of the Nemanjić dynasty, to modern anointed rulers, has been blessed by the Church. This must be done without any referendums or voting, because no contemporaries have the right to gamble with the national covenant through the vote of an electorate which is, moreover, Bolshevized and manipulated by modern social engineering.
The true spiritual and national revival of Serbia will only begin when the new government discards the secular chains of the modern era and humbly bows to the Holy Mystery of royal anointing, through which worldly power receives its only divine legitimacy via the dogmatically and canonically pure hierarchy of True Orthodoxy. This divine legitimacy alone guarantees the rule of justice and law, because only God is the source of all justice and the only Lawgiver. In contrast to modern lawlessness, any healthy and God-blessed society must naturally be based on the covenantal, familial principle of sole authority (Greek: μόνος — one, and ἀρχή — authority/power; — monarchy): a head of the household in the family, a King among the people, and God in heaven. Opposed to this sacred order is the anarchic multi-rule of modern democracy, which, through false division into three supposedly independent branches of power, sows lasting discord, dissects the state organism, and saps the nation's strength.
The future of Serbia lies in the revival of an organic society based on professional guilds, whose representatives — chosen among themselves by the professional associations as the representatives of each profession — form the Royal State Assembly as an expression of the collaborative cooperation of the nation and the sovereign ruler, instead of the current republican parliament. In such an assembly system, the most respected representatives of their professions do not engage in mutual power struggles, but work together so that all segments of our society live in deep peace, justice, and collective progress. This kind of guild-based monarchist order represents the only true barrier against the dictatorship of liberal democracy and political parties. With their narrow party interests, revolutionary ideologies, and tendency toward corruption, democracies divide and destroy the Christian nation state.
The actions of the new state structures can be accepted by the Christian conscience only on two conditions: First, that they carry out a thorough cleansing of public and institutional spaces from the communist legacy. Secondly, that they break radically with the achievements of the liberal order. These two systems, communism and democracy, represent two deadly enemies which, one after the other, occupied, dehumanized, and deeply wounded Serbia. They destroyed our Christian nation and state. The further existence of liberal institutions and the AVNOJ legacy we endure solely as something which God allowed because of our nationwide apostasy. But while we endure — we do not remain silent! It is well known that, during its services, our True Orthodox Church does not invoke God’s blessing for the existing godless authorities, but has earnestly prayed for their overthrow. The spiritual and historical doom of the now-overthrown government will not bypass the new secular authorities, either, if they continue on the path of their predecessors. Nonetheless, we pastorally bless and wholeheartedly congratulate their every effort in suppressing evil and supporting good. For as the sacred Apostolic principle teaches us: “Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil” (Rom. 13:3).
Orthodox Christians, by the very essence of their calling, cannot be citizens of this world nor founders of transient secular republics; above all, we are loyal subjects of the Serbian Crown. In these modern times, as the faithful remnant in this apocalyptic period of the Church of Philadelphia (Apocalypse 3: 7-13), though we may be few and weak, we have not abandoned the Holy Tradition and the True Faith. We know that, because of our unwavering stances, many in this age blinded by nihilism might consider us outdated and backward. The entire history of Christianity, however, shows that the Church of God has never endured because it followed the fashions of the times, but precisely because it decisively resisted them. When long ago Saint Athanasius the Great stood completely alone against the entire Empire, he defended the universal purity of Orthodox doctrine and saved Christian civilization. It is his legacy that we follow: "If the whole world is against the Truth, then Athanasius is against the whole world!" The Holy Scriptures teach us that God always chooses fools before the world to shame the wise of this world, making us spiritually strong precisely in our weakness. Therefore, regarding the new worldly authorities, we do not give blind trust, but regard them with spiritual vigilance and caution. The eyes of our mind must remain wide open. Politically and ideologically, we must remain focused solely on eternal Christian values, such as the establishment of an Orthodox autocratic monarchy. These constitute the only salvific path that leads to the true freedom of our Fatherland, away from that soul-destroying "foreign darkness, with a beautiful name and colorful attire," about which the Holy Bishop Nikolaj of Žiča solemnly warned us from his prison window.
We call upon you, dear brethren, dear spiritual children, to true spiritual sobriety, clarity, and strength of character in these days of political turmoil. Do not be tempted by ephemeral enthusiasms, nor lose inner peace over the upheavals of this age; rather, let us remain faithful to the eternal values of our holy ancestors.
Peace and God’s blessing be upon you all!
Bishop Akakije of Utešiteljevo
St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki
26 October/ 8 November
[1] Sergianism: A political-theological term that emerged in the Russian Orthodox Church after the October Revolution. It refers to the doctrine shaped by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) in his 1927 Declaration, in which he proclaimed complete loyalty of the Church to the godless Soviet regime, claiming that "the joys of the Soviet homeland are also the joys of the Church." In a traditionalist context, this term is used to describe any kind of institutional conformism, opportunism, and unscrupulous service of the church hierarchy to secular and anti-Christian authorities in order to preserve material privileges.
[2] The symphony of church and state: The classic Byzantine-Nemanjić model of statehood based on the principle of diarchy (dual authority). Defined in Emperor Justinian's Novella from 535, this concept describes a harmonious synergy between the Clergy (who care for the salvation of souls) and the Anointed Ruler (who justly manages state affairs). The relationship is compared to the coexistence of soul and body in a person, where the state operates under the moral and spiritual guidance of the Church.
[3] Value relativism versus value absolutism: A philosophical-political scale in which modern civic systems oppose the traditional autocracy. Value relativism of liberal democracy argues that there is no single, permanent truth or objective morality, but that laws and ethical norms constantly change depending on the will of so-called 'enlightened' elites opposed to God. In contrast, value absolutism is based on the existence of eternal, unchangeable divine and natural laws that the state apparatus must strictly respect and protect.
[4] AVNOJ, Antifašističko veće narodnog oslobođenja Jugoslavije (Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia), the supreme political organ of Tito's Partisan movement during World War II and the principal institution responsible for creating the socialist federal Yugoslav state after 1945.
[5] The Jacobin principle of popular sovereignty: A concept derived from the radical legacy of the French Revolution of 1789 and the rule of the Jacobin club. This doctrinal model completely abolishes the principle that all legitimate authority comes from God, putting man on the throne of sovereignty. The “will of the voting mob” (demos) becomes the supreme source of law, opening the door for mass media and political manipulation of the people.
Нема коментара:
Постави коментар