TWENTY-SIX CARS: WHAT SUNDAY, AUGUST 9TH ACTUALLY PROVED
Three miles apart, on the same Sunday morning, two Serbian Orthodox gatherings held Slava. One was served by Metropolitan Longin. The other was served by Bishop Irinej Dobrijević — in his own jurisdiction, at a church that belongs to him. What happened at each is not a story about proximity or convenience. It's a story about people leaving their own bishop's jurisdiction entirely to avoid him.
ST. MARK'S, SHEFFIELD VILLAGE — SERVED BY METROPOLITAN LONGIN
People couldn't fit inside. They stood outside because there wasn't room. St. Sava, Wallings Rd. parishioners came — which is unremarkable, as St. Sava at Wallings Rd falls under Metropolitan Longin's own jurisdiction, so that was simply their own monastery’s Slava.
What is remarkable is the other hundred people.
Approximately 100 people came from St. Sava Cathedral on Broadview Road — a historic mother parish serving hundreds of families that sits under Bishop Irinej's own jurisdiction, the same jurisdiction as the KSS Slava being held that morning three miles away at St. George in Lorain, Ohio. They did not merely choose a nicer service. They left their own bishop's jurisdiction entirely, crossed into a different bishop's territory, to stand outside a church that wasn't even their spiritual home — because they were barred from entering the one that was. The organizers themselves said it plainly: they hadn't seen attendance like that in years.
None of this diminishes the warmth and hospitality St. Mark’s showed that day, nor is it a claim that St. Mark’s isn't itself a home within this broader church family. But when people are exiled from their own spiritual home, that unease follows them wherever they stand — no matter how welcoming the place is.
ST. GEORGE, LORAIN — SERVED BY BISHOP IRINEJ DOBRIJEVIĆ
Twenty-six cars.
AND THAT NUMBER WAS ENGINEERED TO BE HIGHER THAN IT WAS.
On August 5th, St. Sava's imposed administration posted a notice moving their regular Sunday Liturgy from 10:00 AM to 9:00 AM — specifically, by their own account, to free up parishioners to also attend the KSS Slava in Lorain. The trusteeship did not leave this to chance. It rearranged its own liturgical schedule to funnel bodies toward Bishop Irinej's church.
Twenty-six cars was the result of that effort — not the baseline. Now think about who actually made up those 26 cars. Subtract the Bishop's own vehicle and his entourage. Subtract the members of the KSS (Circle of Serbian Sisters) celebrating their own Slava — they would have been there regardless of who served. Subtract the regular parishioners of St. George — they too would have attended their KSS Slava regardless of which bishop stood at the altar, just as the attendance from Wallings Rd. at St. Mark’s was never in dispute. Subtract the handful of St. Sava guests who showed up out of institutional obligation, sent early specifically so they could make the drive. What's left — the actual number of people who came to that church specifically for Bishop Irinej Dobrijević himself — is not less than 26. It is close to zero.
The people came out on August 9th to show which bishop they chose, and it is not Bishop Irinej Dobrijević.
THAT IS THE WHOLE STORY.
Not a statement from either bishop, not a press release, not a canonical filing. Just people, on a Sunday morning, choosing with their feet where to bring their families — and choosing overwhelmingly to drive further, stand outside in an overflowing churchyard, rather than stand comfortably in a nearly empty one three miles away.
ASK YOURSELF WHY.
This is not a mystery, and we are done pretending it is. People do not leave their own bishop's jurisdiction, drive to a different diocese entirely, and stand outside in a parking lot rather than stand inside their own church — unless something in that church has made them unwilling to walk through its doors. People go where they feel welcome. People go where a bishop and his allies haven't spent the better part of a year blocking mail, calling police on parishioners, sending parishioners to jail, hauling parishioners and their own priest into court, withholding a sick priest's salary, and telling that same priest he'd violate Canon Law if he dared hire a lawyer to defend himself in civil court. People do not walk into a church where the Bishop’s installed priest, Fr. Dragan Vuković, called them thieves before he had even set foot inside the building. People do not sit comfortably under a trusteeship stacked with families and kumovi, assembled in direct violation of the parish regulations enacted in November 2025 — regulations the Bishop himself apparently does not care enough about to enforce against his own appointees. A hundred people did not drive past the Slava at St. George by accident. They drove three miles out of his jurisdiction on purpose, to stand outside and pray with the Metropolitan they want for their community.
Twenty-six cars is not just a bad turnout — twenty-six cars is a verdict.
METROPOLITAN LONGIN OWES NO ONE AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY HIS CHURCH WAS FULL.
He didn't need a campaign. He didn't need a public relations strategy or a blog rebuttal or explaining a $6,700 verbal offer that never made it onto a court record. He simply showed up, served the Liturgy, and people came — from three parishes, in numbers the organizers themselves called the best in years. That is what trust looks like when nothing has to be manufactured to produce it.
BISHOP IRINEJ DOBRIJEVIĆ DOES OWE AN EXPLANATION — AND HE HAS ALREADY GIVEN ONE, WITHOUT MEANING TO.
You do not empty a parking lot by accident. You empty it by spending a year making it clear to the people who used to fill it that they are not welcome unless they comply, that their priest was removed to spite them, that their mail is not safe, and that disagreement gets you a police report instead of a conversation. Twenty-six cars is what that costs. Not in a courtroom. Not in a canon law tribunal. But in the chairs along the wall, on a Sunday morning, where no lawyer can argue anyone back into a place they've already chosen to leave empty.
AND IT IS NOT JUST LORAIN.
Look at New Marcha — the Bishop's own monastery, a place that belongs to the entire community, not just one parish. On July 26, 2026, the monastery Slava was celebrated. The Diocese’s own published report lists seven clergy members by name. It lists two kumovi. Nowhere does it mention how many faithful actually attended — a silence that speaks volumes, considering how eagerly these same reports normally celebrate a full church when there is one.
And the kumovi, for the Slava of New Marcha monastery, were not found in Parma. Nor in Akron. They came from Pennsylvania. At his own monastery, on his own land, he could not find a local kum willing to stand beside him. Some people protest loudly, standing outside the church. Others simply find a reason to be elsewhere. The result, in both cases, is the same: no people.
While the people await a just final decision from the Holy Synod, August 9th was a direct warning of what is at stake. The families who stood outside in Sheffield Village did not go there to find a permanent new jurisdiction — they went to show where they cannot and will not remain.
If the Holy Synod fails to grant a just resolution and transfer this parish, these families — over 100 children, their parents, and their grandparents — will not simply quietly blend into another Serbian parish. They will leave the jurisdiction entirely and seek spiritual shelter in Greek, Russian, OCA, or Antiochian Orthodox churches.
Let there be no confusion about what is being asked. This is not a request for the faithful of St. Sava Cathedral to quietly move to Wallings Rd or anywhere else while the parish on Broadview Road itself remains under Bishop Irinej. This is a demand that St. Sava Cathedral — the building, the parish, the community as it stands — be transferred to another jurisdiction. Nothing less than that resolves this.
We will let the numbers stand as they are. Twenty-six cars in Lorain, and a monastery yard full of people standing outside in Sheffield Village because there wasn't room inside. Draw your own conclusion — we already have.
WE WILL NOT GO BACK.
This is the tenth month the parish has been standing outside its own church. The people will not and do not want to set foot inside under this Bishop. If it takes 110 months, it will take 110 months. The possibility of remaining under his jurisdiction is less than zero — not out of stubbornness, but because a full year of documented conduct has already answered that question. If the church hierarchy does not step in to save this community within the Serbian Church, the people will protect the faith of their children elsewhere. Twenty-six cars answered that reality on Sunday.
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