IZBOR PATRIJARHA SRPSKE PRAVOSLAVNE CRKVE U 20. VEKU
ELECTIONS OF PATRIARCHS OF THE SERBIAN ORTODOX CHURCH IN THE 20th CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: Elections for the leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the 20th century could be divided in two stages (Kingdom of SCS/Yugoslavia and FPRY/SFRY). According to the constitutions of the Kingdom, the Church was not divided from the state and the role of state administration, including the ruler’s confirmation was visible and decisive, with the considerable participation of laypersons in the elections process. In the second phase the circumstances changed significantly. According to the 1946 Constitution, the Church was separated from the state, and was striving to limit the role of the state and laypersons in the election of the Patriarch. The articles of the Constitution of the Church were changed in regards to the electors and to the ruler’s confirmation. At the same time, the pressure from the state grew decisive, with all the means at hand employed. At this point, it is not possible to say much about the extent of the influence exerted on the patriarchal elections of 1990, but previous experiences could indicate that the state was hardly a bystander. Almost all the elections were characterized with sharp conflicts between the state and the Orthodox Church, in which the latter was never triumphant. Conflicts between the clerics which were in the background of the elections remained mostly unknown to the wider public.

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