FEBRUARY 13, 2024 IS EXACTLY 14 YEARS SINCE THE NON-CANONICAL AND UNREASONABLE DECISION ON THE DISMISSAL OF BISHOP ARTEMIJE.

That there was a lot of pressure on Bishop Artemije for a long time, even before the media hounding him, can be seen from a personal note written on February 7, 2010, six days before the decision of the Synod, where the bishop writes, among other things:

They accuse me, unproven and unprovable, of creating a schism in the Serbian Orthodox Church (Ep. Grigorije), of organizing the assassination of their secretary (Ep. Atanasije Jeftić), of financial abuses (Mitr. Jovan and others), of disrespecting the Holy Synod of Bishops (Mitr. Amfilohije, His Holiness Patriarch Irinej), for...

And I only wanted and want respect for the canonical principles, the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the canonical powers of the bishop and the inviolability of his rights, which have been threatening me for five years. I wanted answers to some questions, doubts, ambiguities...

Instead, I received only decisions, directives, decrees, orders, which directly violated both the canonical order of the Orthodox Church and the rights of Us, as a diocesan Bishop.

What is the problem? In that for ten years and more I have consistently and persistently fought for my people in Kosovo and Metohija and for Kosovo and Metohija in Serbia. Such an attitude and involvement hindered the regime of Slobodan Milošević, the current regime of Boris Tadić, and especially the international community in realizing the idea of creating so-called Independent Kosovo as another Albanian state in the Balkans.

And more: My clear and decisive attitude towards ecumenism, papism, and globalism, towards innovators in practice and in theology (Midić), bothered and bothers individuals in the Serbian Orthodox Church who are close to those principles and goals and whose creation they are working on.

Thus united, all those whom I hinder in any way in the achievement of their dishonorable goals, attack me in unison, ready to remove me from the place where I am, or - to destroy me physically.

I know, all my predecessors on the throne of the Diocese of Raška-Prizren, as well as the entire Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, have suffered for centuries and are suffering by God's permission. No wonder I share their fate.

My persecutors can deprive me of the Episcopal throne, even of the Episcopal rank, they can declare me sick, senile, even insane (as Sava J already did), and they can do many other iniquities that I am unable to even imagine. I will bear everything, with the help of God.

However, they cannot force me to create a schism and tear the Saint Sava's tunic of the Serbian Orthodox Church, they cannot force me into the arms of the Pope of Rome, nor into the arms of European ecumenists, because I have no intention of deviating from my views.

Therefore, the cry prayer:,, Let the mercy of God be upon us, as we trust in Him". Amen.

Bishop of Raška-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija
+Artemije