Rakocevic on the appeal of the Raska-Prizren Eparchy: SOC calls for life, speaks through centuries of experience

By appealing to the Serbian people to demonstrate unity and endurance in the face of open repression by the Kosovo authorities, the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) calls for life, as the most important, oldest, and most vibrant institution in Kosovo, journalist and writer Zivojin Rakocevic says for Kosovo Online.

"The Serbian Orthodox Church calls for life, and the SOC is the only one that has shown us that life can be renewed where no one believes it can be," Rakocevic emphasized.

He notes that no one believed the Prizren Seminary could flourish, that a priest in Istok could survive, or that one could endure in the center of Pec, but – they did, and that is a testament to life.

"The Serbian Orthodox Church speaks through life, through centuries of experience, slavery, suffering, hope, and the experience of resurrection because no one can see the joy of the Devic as one who has witnessed its downfall. Everything was destroyed, down to the last stone," Rakocevic pointed out.

He emphasizes that the SOC is the most significant, oldest, and most vibrant institution in Kosovo, holding in its hands everything that the area has produced in terms of civilization.

"It does not speak to others but to the people, to individuals. The Serbian Orthodox Church speaks to the individual as a living church because that individual, even when they go to Decani, becomes part of the centuries and perfect art, the hope of all Serbs, including those who have never been and never will be there, that it preserves their treasure and their identity card in civilization," Rakocevic stated.

Rakocevic highlights that the SOC, with all individuals, no matter how abstract it may seem, preserves its heritage for Serbs living in New York, Australia, and all over the world.

"It's about heritage, life, a civilization, and it always speaks of the future perspective. That's why it is crucial that, in this period, when the Pristina administration is starting to claim everything that is not theirs and take everything that is ours, the church actively goes there, to the walls of the Mother of God of Hvosno, to Rakitnica near Podujevo, to Strmac, where they say, 'Well, that's a Catholic church'... No, it cannot be a Catholic church, nor can it be anyone else's heritage except the heritage of its owner," Rakocevic conveyed.

The essence, as he says, lies in differentiating "value" and "ownership."

"It is entirely clear that everything belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo is its ownership and the ownership of this nation and individuals who live there and actively participate in it with their lives. The other thing is value. Values ​​are a matter of all humanity. Both the Japanese and the Americans equally admire Decani, but it is known that it is only the ownership of someone living in Laplje Selo and someone living in New York, and whose kings left it for him and for the future," Rakocevic concluded.