Free Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Australia and New Zealand

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Free Serbian Orthodox Church - Diocese of Australia and New Zealand
(Слободна Српска Православна Црква - Епархија аустралијско-новозеландска)
Jurisdiction Free Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Australia and New Zealand
Diocese type Diocese
Founded
Current bishop Bp. Hristifor (Christopher)
See(s) South Brisbane, Queensland
Headquarters St. Nicholas Monastery, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Territory Australia and New Zealand
Liturgical language(s) Church Slavonic, Serbian, English
Musical tradition Serbian Chant
Calendar Julian
Population estimate
Official website freesoc.org
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The Free Serbian Orthodox Church - Diocese of Australia and New Zealand (Serbian: Слободна Српска Православна Црква - Епархија аустралијско-новозеландска) is a True Orthodox diocese with an irregular canonical status, based at St. Nicholas Monastery in South Brisbane, Queensland.

History

Schism (1963-1991)

In 1963 the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church divided its American-Canadian diocese into three and appointed the incumbent bishop, Dionisije (Milivojević), to only one of them. Dionisije refused to accept the decision and was suspended and then removed, and on 5 March 1964 he was defrocked.[1]

The two sides explained the split differently. In the years before 1963 the Holy Assembly had received numerous complaints about Dionisije's fitness to serve and his administration of the diocese, which had grown so large that he had himself asked for assistant bishops. It removed him for defying its decisions after his suspension.[2] Dionisije argued that the reorganisation breached the autonomy guaranteed by his diocese's constitution.[2] He also accused the Holy Assembly of being "communistic" and acting under the dictates of the communist government of Yugoslavia, and later denounced it and the Holy Synod as "schismatic and pro-Communist".[3][2] Neither of the main court cases decided whether the Belgrade hierarchy was in fact under government control. The United States Supreme Court held in 1976 that the reorganisation was "a matter of internal church government" which civil courts must leave to the church,[2] and the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2015 described the Serbian Church's subjection to the communist government only as alleged.[4]

Most of the Serbian church-school communities in Australia sided with Dionisije[5]: fourteen, against four that remained with the Patriarchate in Belgrade.[6] At a first assembly held in Melbourne on 31 October 1964 and attended by Dionisije, their delegates resolved to establish the Free Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese for Australia and New Zealand.[7] The assembly condemned the communist regime in Yugoslavia, declared that the verdict against Dionisije had been "instigated by the Titoist regime", and resolved: "When the Serbian Orthodox Church frees itself of Communist dictatorship we will again fall under its administrative rule."[8] From 1968 until the reconciliation, the Serbian Orthodox Church treated those who had joined the Free Church as schismatics and did not recognise their sacraments.[9] For the communities that stayed with Belgrade, the Serbian Orthodox Church established its own Diocese in Australia and New Zealand in 1973.[10] On 14 August 1984, at an assembly in Illinois, the Australian diocese and the Free Serbian dioceses of America-Canada and Western Europe proclaimed the Free Serbian Orthodox Church.[11]

Reconciliation (1991-2011)

After Patriarch Pavle invited the Free Serbian Orthodox Church to talks, its bishops agreed a Reconciliation Proposal with the Patriarchate in Belgrade in April 1991.[12] On 15 February 1992 Patriarch Pavle and Metropolitan Irinej of New Gracanica concelebrated a liturgy of reconciliation in Belgrade, and the Free Serbian Orthodox Church returned to the Serbian Orthodox Church as the New Gracanica Metropolitanate.[13][14]

In Australia this left two parallel dioceses: the patriarchal Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, and the Diocese for Australia and New Zealand of the New Gracanica Metropolitanate.[13] The New Gracanica diocese was now in communion with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but it kept its own constitution and did not merge with the patriarchal diocese.[15] From 2006 Bishop Irinej (Dobrijević) headed the patriarchal diocese and administered the New Gracanica diocese.[16]

Division (2007-2017)

From 2007 several church-school communities were in dispute with Bishop Irinej.[17] At St Nicholas in South Brisbane, which still called itself a "Free Serbian Orthodox Church" community, the committee brought in a priest of the "True Russian Orthodox Church" in 2008, and the congregation split.[18]

In September 2010 assemblies of both dioceses voted to unite, and in May 2011 the Serbian Orthodox Church established the Serbian Orthodox Church - Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand in their place.[13][19] Communities that rejected the merger, including St Nicholas, turned to the Holy Synod in Resistance, a Greek Old Calendarist synod, and in December 2012 chose its Bishop Ambrose as their bishop.[20] In November 2013 he appointed Father Hristifor as abbot of the diocese's St Sava Monastery (New Kalenić) and priest at St Nicholas.[21]

In 2011 Bishop Irinej sued for control of the monastery. In 2015 the Supreme Court of New South Wales held that the 2010 merger vote was invalid, so the Free diocese still existed, though as a small minority of its former membership. It ordered that the monastery be held for the Metropolitanate,[22] and an appeal was dismissed in 2017.[23]

Administration

The diocese is headed by Bishop Hristifor (Christopher) of Australia and New Zealand, who is styled First Hierarch of the Free Serbian Orthodox Church.[24] The cathedral church is located within St. Nicholas Monastery, whose abbot is Archimandrite Dr. Simeon.[24] The diocese's official website also lists communities in Serbia and the Philippines.[24]

Relations with other churches

The diocese regards the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece as its sister church. Metropolitan Ambrose of Methone and Metropolitan Photios of Demetrias of that church have made a canonical visitation to the diocese and concelebrated with Bishop Hristifor at St. Nicholas Monastery.[24]

Earlier, the diocese was closely linked with the Holy Synod in Resistance, which united with the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece in 2014.[25] In 2015 the Supreme Court of New South Wales accepted that the diocese was in communion with that synod but not under its jurisdiction, while describing as irregular the position of Bishop Ambrose as a bishop of both.[26]

Parishes and monasteries

Former

  • St. Sava Monastery (New Kalenić) - Wallaroo, New South Wales. Built by the diocese between 1983 and 1990; in 2015 the court ordered that it be held for the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate, and the appeal was dismissed in 2017.[27][23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bishop Irinej Dobrijevic & Anor v Free Serbian Orthodox Church, Diocese for Australia & New Zealand Property Trust & Ors [2015] NSWSC 637 (Supreme Court of New South Wales, 29 May 2015) at [19]-[20].
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for the United States of America and Canada v. Milivojevich, 426 U.S. 696 (1976).
  3. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [19]-[20].
  4. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [24].
  5. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [21].
  6. ↑ Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand (OrthodoxWiki article).
  7. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [21]-[22].
  8. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [23].
  9. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [46].
  10. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [44].
  11. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [83].
  12. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [141]-[142].
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Statement from Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand", Serbian Orthodox Church, 27 December 2012.
  14. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [174].
  15. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [175], [521].
  16. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [207].
  17. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [264].
  18. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [266]-[267], [273], [276].
  19. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [303], [409].
  20. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [412], [419], [423].
  21. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [495].
  22. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [521]-[522].
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 M. McGregor-Lowndes and F. M. Hannah, "Free Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese for Australia and New Zealand Property Trust v Bishop Irinej Dobrijevic", ACPNS Legal Case Notes Series 2017-42, Queensland University of Technology (case note on [2017] NSWCA 28).
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Free Serbian Orthodox Church, official website (in Serbian).
  25. ↑ Holy Synod in Resistance (OrthodoxWiki article).
  26. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [493]-[494], [521].
  27. ↑ Dobrijevic [2015] NSWSC 637 at [1], [522].

External links


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