The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) is an autocephalous (independent) Eastern Orthodox Church and one of the oldest Slavic Orthodox churches. The church follows the Byzantine Rite and uses Church Slavonic in its liturgy. The SOC is led by the Patriarch of Serbia, currently Porfirije (since 2021), and its headquarters are in Belgrade. It has a significant influence in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and among Serbian communities worldwide.
The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) has gradually gained influence over political life in Serbia as well as among its diaspora ever since the death of longtime Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980. Its influence, in conjunction with consecutive Serbian governments, has grown almost exponentially since the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, even though Serbia is, by its Constitution, a secular state.
The SOC is affiliated with numerous government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs) whose aims are rooted in opposition to Western liberalism and in fostering a strong alliance with Putin’s Russia. Quite a few experts argue that the SOC has been involved in ethnophyletism, which was officially condemned by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1872 during a council in Constantinople. Ethnophyletism refers to the belief that the organization of the Church should be based on national or ethnic identity rather than on a universal, spiritual basis…