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How should the rebuilding of St. Sava’s Church in Manhattan, New York, badly damaged in the great fire of Easter 2016, who should control the money that is set aside for those purposes, as well as what the temple in the name of air rights, what role in the parishioners and their board should all of that have, and what kind of bishop and other ecclesiastical bodies, the competent archbishop, Bishop Irinej of East America, and some of the parishioners of New York have increasingly distant views on that.
In elections in late September, the believers elected a new board of directors, which should replace the current commission, but the new parish board has not yet received the necessary consent from the bishop. The first meeting to which the representatives of the newly elected board were invited did not even take place because the representatives of the parish did not appear for the meeting with the bishop due to the dismissal of their parish priest, Archpriest-Staurophore Zivojin Jakovljevic. At the second meeting, held in early December, the newly elected board members were told that they had to meet certain conditions in order for their choice to be approved by the bishop. After that meeting, they issued a press release explaining why they could not accept, more or less, any of the bishop’s decisions related to New York and the parish council.
As it is said, among other things, they are asked to acknowledge all the decisions of the bishop and the current commission, and they, as they explained, cannot apply decisions of which they are unaware. One of the conditions is to have a member of the current commission on the parish table who did not obtain enough votes in the elections, and the new elected table was requested to accept the decision of November of last year by which the diocesan council suspended the statute. parochial. Newly elected board members say they learned of the suspension of parochial status only at the meeting where they received written requests. “One of the main consequences of this unconstitutional decision is that the parish loses the right to approve expenses in excess of $ 40,000. How can a new board run a parish without a charter? “
The declaration further states that one of the demands was to accept the formation of a new reconstruction and development committee and a negotiator for air rights. St. Sava’s Church in New York has long been negotiating the sale of its air rights, the right of the parcel owner to build a certain number of floors, which can be transferred to the neighboring parcel owner. Serbian circles in New York cite the figure of about $ 80 million that the church could receive in the name of air rights, so parishioners believe it is especially important to be actively involved in making decisions about the management of that money. , but also those that are spent on reconstruction. churches.
Although we agree with the bishop that the parish and bishop must approve large incidental expenses, the bishop allowed eight million dollars to be spent in recent years without parish approval (for the renovation of St. Sava Church ), which violated the statute. our parishes, uniform rules, our church constitution, and New York law. We ask to receive a report on the investigation of the entire new church thus far. The bishop told us that it was a confidential document that we could not obtain, ”the statement said. It is added that Bishop Irinej asked the newly elected board to condemn the recent protests in front of the diocesan residence in New Rochelle, organized due to the removal of priest Zivojin Jakovljevic and not giving approval to the newly elected board, but the elected members of this body refused to do it. Instead, new protests were organized last week in the same place, in front of the diocese headquarters. “The newly elected board says with regret that these conditions are unacceptable and we have informed the bishop about it.” They are contrary to our parish statute, our church constitution, and some conditions are contrary to New York law. No one has the right to condition their vote ”, concludes the announcement of the newly elected board in which the request for the return of former priest Živojin Jakovljević to the New York parish is repeated once again.
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