Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu (Jan 2019)
Canon law issues of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina under the administration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Abstract
The paper examines certain canon law issues encountered the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period until 1905, when the Church authorities enacted a Statute which definitely resolved the legal status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this period, the Viennese court and the Patriarchate of Constantinople regulated the legal position of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the 1880 Convention on the temporary solution of relations between the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanates in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Convention caused a number of problems and conflicts, both in terms of relations between the church and the state as well as within the Serbian Orthodox Church. In the central part of the paper, the author describes the relations between higher order clergy (hierarchy) and church-school municipalities (national leaders and lower order clergy), and analyses certain problems in their relations. The author considers these problems from the aspect of canon law of the Orthodox Church, in order to show how the relations between the various structures and services in the Serbian Orthodox Church were organized in the new legal state and socio-political context.
