Fishing in Troubled Waters and "Likes" as Proof of Schism: Why is 'Orthodox Integrity' Trying to Deceive the Public Through False Equivalencies?

To be completely clear before we move on to the facts: our positions are unwavering. We stand in total unity and loyalty to our holy Serbian Orthodox Church, under the leadership of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, and with full respect for the authority of the Holy Synod of Bishops and the Assembly. We did not invent this yesterday to ingratiate ourselves with anyone — we made this public in writing back on April 30, 2025, long before any of the present dispute escalated to today's proportions. Through this text, we are merely reconfirming, openly and without reservation, what we have already written.

However, when the website Orthodox Integrity, in its article from September 1, attempts to portray our loyalty to the Synod and our submitted canonical appeal as a "contradiction," it is our duty to point out the obvious straw-man arguments and the superficial nature of their "evidence."

1. Overlooking Dates and Comparing "Apples to Oranges"

The author of the article references a statement from the Synod, claiming it is dated "July 13," supposedly proving that our appeal was rejected in advance. To begin with, the statement does not bear that date at all, but rather July 10, 2026 — which speaks volumes about the lack of care given to the facts.

Far more important than the date, however, is the content of that statement: The July 10 statement pertains exclusively to proceedings before the District Court in Ljubljana, where a defrocked priest sued the Patriarch in a secular court of another state. In that statement, the Synod rightfully defends the Church from external, secular interference.

Equating the defense of the Patriarch against a defrocked priest's lawsuit in a state court with an internal, canonical appeal filed by parishioners to their own Synod is nothing short of a deliberate misdirection. It is an attempt to frame a defense against an external attack as a final stance on our internal appeal (which the Synod duly received and confirmed on January 23, 2026).

The irony is even greater considering that the very people citing this statement are constantly involving secular courts, law enforcement, and eviction orders in the internal affairs of their own diocese.

2. "Guilt by the Click": Likes as Proof of Schism

The height of absurdity in the Orthodox Integrity article is the attempt to attribute a "schism" to us simply because certain accounts or profiles liked our public posts on social media!

By that logic, anyone on the internet could project their ideology onto you simply by clicking "like" under your post. We cannot control who reads or likes public content. What we do control, and what we clearly testify to, are our own words and actions: the rejection of any thought of schism and total loyalty to Belgrade.

Conclusion: We Wait for Our Church, Not Media Verdicts

We calmly await the decision of the Holy Synod of Bishops regarding the appeal we submitted through regular, canonical channels. We will respect that decision whatever it may be.

Our waiting and our loyalty are one and the same. And to those who try to push us out of the Church through media fabrications and cheap fallacies, we say: to prove that we are in contradiction with our own principles, you will need far more than wrong dates, third-party lawsuits from Slovenia, and Facebook likes.