Orthodox Leaders Rally on Kosovo

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II says the West has forgotten the hurt suffered by Orthodox Serbs urged Western Christians to search their consciences

Jonathan Luxmoore
Warsaw (ENI)

Serbia’s predominant Orthodox church has launched a diplomatic drive among church leaders abroad to prevent an expected UN vote to allow the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. “By supporting this independence drive by Albanians living in Kosovo, the West forgets the hurt suffered in recent years by the Orthodox Serbs who live there,” Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II of Russia told Serbia’s Vecernje Novosti newspaper on 8 December.

“In this spiritual cradle of Serbian Orthodoxy, http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=702 to examine their consciences on Kosovo’s projected status.” The patriarch, who offered to mediate in the war-torn Serbian province, in an October address to the Council of Europe, was speaking ahead of a 19 December UN Security Council debate on Kosovo self-rule, which is expected to be opposed on Serbia’s behalf by Russia.

In http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=759 have fled since international control was imposed following NATO military action in 1999.

http://www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=1473

Image: 150 churches and monasteries have been destroyed or desecrated by Muslims who seek “independence” for Kosovo

2007-12-15