New Phase of the U.S. Struggle Against the Serbian Orthodox Church

Abstract

The article evaluates the study by Vasily Shchipkov, “Systemic Pressure of the United States on the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ideological and Geopolitical Confrontation”. Next, it considers the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1990 till present from the point of view of its involvement in political and geopolitical processes. Specifi cally, the Serbian Orthodox Church acted as a subject of political infl uence from the United States and European countries. The article specifi es fi ve periods that diff ered in the vector of the Western policy towards the Serbian Church: 1 — the period of socialism (before the fall of the Berlin Wall), 2 — the period of the rule of Slobodan Milošević (1990–2000), 3 — the period of the Western infl uencer network creation (from October 5, 2000 till 2010), 4 — the period of strengthening of the Western ideology in the Serbian Orthodox Church (from 2010 till 2017), 5 — the period of geopolitical pressure of the West on the Serbian Orthodox Church (from 2017 till present). While analyzing each historical period, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that until 2017, the major pressure vector on the Serbian Church was the ideological one, which allowed to form and institutionalize the liberal, modern- ist, inclusive, anational theology as an infl uential alternative to tradi- tional conservative national theology. Supporters of the liberal, pro- Western worldview started to hold many key positions in the church hierarchy. Starting from 2017, this allowed the West to proceed with direct lobbying its political agenda within the Serbian Church through its infl uencers. In the current situation, the West is interested in at tracting the Serbian Church to its side in the geopolitical confronta- tion with Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. As a result, the Serbian Church found itself in a challenging situation: the failure to comply with the demands of the West might lead to the rejection of foreign dioceses in favour of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, while the compliance with the demands of the West will consolidate its role as an anti-Orthodox policy tool and might also lead to the internal schism.