Bishop Teodosije the official Church representative in the RIC

The RIC report is presented to the public in order to provide objective information and facts about the reconstruction process and not to make "political propaganda" for anyone. "I wish we were not in position to reconstruct these sites, said the Bishop, and that they had never been destroyed. However the reconstruction of these sites is not only in function of restoring them to the previous state but primarily to encourage our faithful people that the Church is going to stay in Kosovo and Metohija, regardless of the status of the Province and that our holy shrines will again live with liturgical life in them. This is our obligation as the Church not only towards those few Serbs who stayed in Kosovo and Metohija and are waiting for the bells of Ljeviska and St Nicholas in Pristina to ring again, but also towards those who wish to see a concrete example which will encourage them to return to their holy sites in which they were baptized and grew up. The reconstruction of the destroyed sites in cooperation with the international community and the local institutions, the existence of which we cannot ignore, has therefore no political goal, but is only that what we as a Church are obliged to do for our faithful people - to testify in a living way that we have existed, that we still exist and will exist in Kosovo and Metohija", said Bishop teodosije on the occasion of publishing of the final report of the RIC on reconstruction in 2006. "Whether we will suceede in this or not - it is difficult to say having in mind a complex political and security situation. Our Bishop Artemije has always taught us that doing the work of God we always do what we are obliged to do and it from the Providence of God it depends whether it will be successful or not. We as clergy must with our own example call the people to return and not to wait others to do that in our name", concluded Bishop Teodosije, the SOC representative in the process of reconstruction.