Mirko just cannot help himself! Like a true politician and the “Prince” that he believes
himself to be, he has gathered around him an adoring captive audience of innocent, young , and inexperienced children looking
for a hero figure to worship. He has then proceeded to charismatically brainwash them, feeding them bullshit in the guise
of enlightening information, the facts for which any remotely interested and literate person in this day and age and in this
democratic country, is able to glean for themselves from the internet.
On “Mirko’s personal Facebook site”, Ilija Bilic, Canberra, contributor of the article,
Summary of His Grace Bishop Irinej’s talk at Orthodox Youth Seminar, ‘Sydney 2008’ at Blacktown (Sunday,
06 April 2008), apologises that his report “does not do justice to the Bishop’s entertaining speaking style………does
not include many of his interesting and humorous anecdotes”, confirms my observations that it is once again “Mirko
the Magician” who has mesmerized the ignorant, the “Pied Piper” leading our innocent children into the river
to perish and be drowned. Those of us who stand by in the full knowledge of what is happening, and who pretend that they don’t
see or that it is not their business, are no better than those who turned a blind eye to what the Nazi’s were doing
to innocent human beings during WWII.
Mirko is so wrapped up in his own sense of grandeur and self importance, that as he draws attention
to the “unOrthodox” aspects of Roman Catholicism and Protestanism, in other words what he implies are the flaws
of other faiths or religions, he fails to see that it is these very sermons which are in fact serving to expose his true colours.
“God works in mysterious ways”!
The one anecdote which Ilija Bilic selected as the most important and worthy of sharing with us, is
about Mirko the “Saviour” who baptizes 17 heathen young Bosnian refugees and, ( we can only guess) miraculously
saves them from their suffering. What a hero! Almost on par with Christ himself it appears!
Ask yourself, is Mirko truly the embodiment of the Orthodox Christian virtues which he identifies as
those to aspire to, in his sermons to the gullible? Does he practice what he preaches? Does Mirko “set a personal example
of Christian Love and peaceful nature”? Has he, in the spirit of Orthopraxia,
truly tried to “transfigure the world” around him in an attempt to
“make bad things good”, or has he totally ignored the concept of Orthokoinonia
and failed to uphold “a community of Faith”ful at the expense of
“individuals” with “selfish concepts”? Does Mirko see himself as “no more infallible or greater
than” other mere mortals, or does he in fact truly believe that as “the
Prince” when “he pronounces matters of faith ex cathedra,” he is like the Pope, “infallible……..and can make no mistakes”?
Does our dear Bishop Irinej Dobrijevic, our Spiritual Father here on earth, truly help us to use our
God-given intellect and reasoning power to seek out the truth? Does he give us all the facts, and then encourage us to “be
alert and spiritually and mentally sober” in order to be “able to make correct or true judgements”? As our
Spiritual Father on earth does he show us “unconditional love” or does he banish and abandon us to the wolves,
as soon as we begin to think and reason for ourselves and our opinions differ from his own, which presumably are infallible?
Mirko infers that it is somehow “unOrthodox” for us to read the Bible for ourselves, (this
is identified as a Protestant concept), as this would lead us to “place much more emphasis on individuality and financial
pursuits”. Mirko informs us that “Capitalism is a (evil??) bi-product of protestant views on business and profit”,
and yet he surrounds himself in material luxury, turns a blind eye to the obvious daylight robbery taking place in the name
of the “Serbian College”, and supports his newly arrived clergy to
make monetary claims and exploit the community of faithful whose refugee families have for over 60 years toiled under extreme
hardships and through great sacrifices on a voluntary basis in order to preserve our Orthodox faith in this country for the
generations to come. Instead of encouraging the growth and expansion of the true Orthodox faith in Australia our dear Bishop
Irinej Dobrijevic, our supposed Spiritual Father, guardian of our Orthodox faith, is closing and dismantling our churches
and our church communities, excommunicating the faithful, and fuelling and encouraging disharmony. Is this what he calls “charitable
love”, one of his identified “4 core concepts of Orthodox Faith”.
To those of us who are still willing and able to think
for ourselves, I say open your eyes and ears, use your brain and God-given reasoning abilities to protect our true Orthodox
faith and our church in Australia. Do not betray the sacrifices of our fathers, who never abandoned their faith but protected
and nurtured it through terrible and unimaginable times of adversity in order to give us a privileged and relatively easy
and carefree life in a democratic country which prides itself on free speech and the valued contributions of individuals to
our culturally rich Australian community. Speak up and do not allow the bad elements amongst the Serbian community to give
us a bad name. Remain silent and we are all tarred with the same brush.
Once again, in the words of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle,
I remind you that “We must not wait like sheep to be slaughtered. We have all
been called to fight for the truth – since truth will win over the world. God does not reward the end result, but rather
the efforts we display in our battle for the truth of our Christian God. We must not trespass on that journey towards truth”.
“Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava!”
Theodora Zajaz, Sydney
17/04/2008
