Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met today with the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej in Belgrade today, Tanjug news agency reported. Vucic said that the situation in Kosovo and Metohija gets more complicated every time they meet, adding Serbia was left nothing but to fight.

A group of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) Bishops have distanced themselves from the SOC statement following the Holy Synod session and a meeting with the President Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade-based Danas daily writes on Monday. According to Danas the group of bishops headed by Montenegro-Littoral Metropolitan Amfilohije in a letter sent to the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej said they disagree with the statement of the SOC spokesperson Bishop of Backa Irinej Bulovic on May 18, adding “he has formulated some decisions contrary to the will of the Holy Synod”.

“You have to make this fateful decision to stay where you are, and this is not the decision of an individual, it is the decision of the Serbian people,” the Patriarch of Serbian Orthodox Church Irinej said today at the Church of St. Dimitrije in Mitrovica North, KoSSev portal reported. The Patriarch has been visiting monasteries, churches, and meeting with Kosovo Serbs for the past four days.

Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej who is paying a visit to Kosovo and Metohija said in Prizren on Sunday that “what we hear today about some sort of division, a compromise, is something that Serbian people would never be able to accept, in particular people from Kosovo and Metohija,” KoSSev portal reported. The Patriarch Irinej added “what would be the worst, the most detrimental is for us to renounce Kosovo, to give it away to somebody.

The central state ceremony of the 20^th anniversary of the NATO aggression and the Day of Remembrance of the victims was held in Nis, south Serbia, late on Sunday. The day marked 20 years since the western military alliance started its attacks on Serbia, that lasted 78 days.

Editor of Voice of Church, deacon Ljubomir Rankovic told BETA news agency he thinks the stance of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) on Kosovo will never change. He recalled the stance on Kosovo was confirmed at Holy Synod Assembly session in May last year, and the stance is that Kosovo is an unalienable part of Serbia, and there could be no talks about Kosovo being detached from Serbia. This way Rankovic responded to BETA question if there could be a change in a stance of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Kosovo, following the meeting between Patriarch Irinej and Serbian President Aleksandar Vu

Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej said Serbian society needs unity in order to preserve and defend Kosovo, since it would not be defended by quarrels, B92 reports. Following the ceremony held in the Vracar (Belgrade) Municipality, on the occasion of Saint Sava Day, Patriarch Irinej said Serbs are a small nation, and must be united in order to survive. “Unity is a foundation of our Church and state.

The Church does not change its stance on Kosovo and Metohija, Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej said in Gracanica, where he pays the visit together with the Patriarch of the Antioch and the Entire East, Jovan X, Radio KIM reports today. “Division is out of question, I cannot understand Prizren, where I spent more than 15 years, to be in some other state. Pec Patriarchate, Visoki Decani, Gracanica. It does not get into my head, let alone in my heart.

Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) Patriarch Irinej told Vecernje Novosti daily today that the Church does not support frozen conflict in Kosovo, but however, it is neither for “recognizing the fait accompli achieved by injustice, aggression, violence and crimes.” Patriarch Irinej also underlined that when it comes to Kosovo “one should not go for hasty and provisional solutions.” “We cannot and must not give away what is ours for centuries, and what never in the history belonged to the Albanian state, regardless it is being taken away now and is under foreign occupation.