God's commandments

These days, the addresses of ULUS members are receiving invitations to fine artists to participate in the construction of the memorial temple to Saint Sava. The Holy Synod of Bishops is asking the members of ULUS for paintings for the auction, the proceeds of which would help to: "With joint efforts, we realize the vowed thought of the Serbian Orthodox people..."

The participation of artists in this auction is a matter of personal determination, will, desire and striving, which is what Brigitte Bardot would say when she is attacked for spending money on animals and hungry children everywhere. What irritates me, as well as a large number of people with whom I talked about it, is the position of the SPC on the issue of priorities in these areas. The question arises of the role of the Church in the state, whose television, on the same day after the above-mentioned letter arrived, is followed by a notification about 200.000 children (I don't know how the parents were gathered), who belong to the poorest part of the population. Are these children aware of the "covenant thought of the Serbian Orthodox people"? It seems that the SPC, having placed the Serbs in the "heavens", took care of them only in that matter, and easily left earthly concerns (such as the treatment of the young generation) to, for example, the wife of the American ambassador in Belgrade.

There are no hungry ones among the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and it seems that they are not interested in satisfying the basic law of faith, care for one's neighbor, at least for the sake of form. The elder of the church of St. Đorđa on Banovo Brdo introduces heating in his luxuriously renovated house, which is why the street is dug up and passed over a wooden bridge. That wooden bridge is crossed every day by a mother and son, his parishioners, with portions filled with food in the nearby Catholic church. They must be very proud of the Temple of St. Save, when they manage to pay for the electricity and watch him on television.