The Serbian Orthodox Church's call for Serbs to boycott last week's elections in UN-administered Kosovo is further evidence of its eagerness to flex its political muscles after the fall of communism.
Despite the constitutional separation of church and state in the former Yugoslav republic of Serbia, the powerful church has become increasingly active in public affairs as it emerges from the constraints of communist rule.
Patriarch Pavle and the Saint Synod, the top council in the Church, were outspoken in their appeals for Serbs to boycott Saturday's UN-backed elections in the southern province of Kosovo.
"Nothing which in the civilised world is called human rights or the rights of citizens exists for the Serbs in Kosovo," the synod said in a statement released days before the election.
It said Serbs should not take part until they are given credible security guarantees from international peacekeeping forces in the breakaway, mainly ethnic Albanian province.
"Consequently, the Saint Synod calls on political parties in Serbia to not encourage Serbs to participate in the elections as long as they have not obtained guarantees that their engagement in local institutions will ensure the survival of the Serb people in the province and the effective protection of their properties, churches and culture."
Symbolically, some Serb leaders in Kosovo went to church instead of the ballot box on Saturday, where they lit candles and prayed for a "better future".
The Saint Synod's statement backed boycott calls by the ruling coalition government of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica despite mounting international pressure for Serbs to particpate in the poll.
The Church is particularly influential among Serbs in Kosovo, which remains technically part of Serbia although it became a UN protectorate after the 1998-1999 war between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian forces.
Last summer the Church also intervened to prevent a debate in parliament on a new anthem for Serbia and Montenegro, the loose union of neighbouring Balkan republics which replaced the rump Yugoslavia last year.
In a typically archaic flourish, the Church described the proposed anthem, which basically joined two traditional songs from both republics, as a "two-headed centaur which offends both Serbians and Montenegrins".
The proposed anthem was quickly nixed and Europe's newest state still has no national song.
"The Church believes that it has certain responsibilities, particularly in issues it considers to be of national interest," analyst Teofil Pancic said.
One of its main assumed responsibilities is the defence of Serbian culture and tradition, a cause which often aligns it with the nationalist camp of local politics.
UN prosecutors have accused the Serbian Church of allowing war crimes fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic -- former Serb leaders who allegedly masterminded the "ethnic cleansing" campaigns of Bosnia's 1992-95 war -- to hide in remote monasteries.
The Church also has strong support of some ministers in Kostunica's moderate nationalist government.
Capital Investment Minister Velimir Ilic recently said the Church's edicts should be followed without question, while Ljiljana Colic was forced to resign as education minister after she dropped Darwin's theory of evolution from the grade eight curriculum.