On July 8th, 2019 the Holy Synod of Serbia removed professors Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic and Marko Vilotic from the College of Orthodox Theology at Belgrade University because, in part, for their official support for a 2017 agreement stating that darwinian evolution is not incompatible with Orthodox theology. 

As His Eminence Bishop David of Krusevac, a member of the Holy Synod, stated "Bishop Maxim was questioned [...] for suspecting the honor of St. Sava[,] criticizing the truth of [Serbia's] autocephaly, for [supporting] Darwinism and the theory of evolution, for [his support of] quasi-Church art, later for Taoism, [and] the claim that entire Churches can be wrong, for [treating] the primate animal as our ancestor, and the newest claim that man is the animal that moves towards deification [editor's note: similar perhaps to Teihard De Chardin]." In the same statement, Bishop David later calls Bishop Maxim "a frontman and exhibit of the Phanar" referring to his initial support for the formation of the Kiev Patriarchate under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

On November 1st, 2019 a group of Orthodox Scholars (90 scholars from 43 academic institutions and 13 countries) petitioned the Synod to reverse this decision, arguing, on the one hand, that evolution is not in fact incompatible with Orthodox teaching, and praising the theological output of the aforementioned professor and Bishop. 

This petition is a form of public support for the bold action of the Serbian Patriarchate in a time when most local Orthodox Churches contently permit subversive Trojan horses into their seminaries leading to a further secularizing of the priesthood and episcopacy. 

Some will likely agree that evolution is *not* incompatible with Orthodox theology. This petition is not for such persons, but I ask that they earnestly reconsider their presuppositions and consult the writings of the Church Fathers, especially the following:

- Vol. 1: The Literal Meaning of Genesis by St. Augustine, 

- Hexaemeron by St. Basil the Great

- Homilies on Genesis by St. John Chrysostom

- Hexaemeron by Anastasius of Sinai (more allegorical in orientation because Anastasius admits in the beginning that he assumes the historical)

-The First-Created Man: Seven Homilies by St. Symeon the New Theologian

I also recommend the following secondary sources:

-Genesis, Creation, and Early Man by Fr. Seraphim Rose

-Creation in Six Days: A Defense of the Traditional Reading of Genesis One by James Jordan

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tl;dr AGAIN this is a petition IN SUPPORT of the decision by the Serbian Synod to remove EXPLICIT evolutionists from its seminary.

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NEWS ARTICLE THAT COVERS THE CLAIMS OF THE PETITION:

https://ocl.org/serbian-bishop-maxim-of-western-america-removed-from-theological-faculty-in-belgrade/

THE REFERENCED PETITION BY THE ACADEMICS IN SUPPORT OF BISHOP MAXIM ET AL:

https://theorthodoxworld.com/exclusive-international-orthodox-academic-theologians-appeal-to-the-holy-synod-of-the-serbian-orthodox-church-to-protect-academic-thought/