Montenegrin Orthodox Church


The Montenegrin Orthodox Church /Црногорска православна црква ) is a church in Montenegro that is not canonically recognized by the other Orthodox Christian Churches.
It was created in 1993 by Antonije Abramović, a defrocked monk of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who became the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the head of Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which claimed succession to the autocephalous Montenegrin Church which operated until the unification of the two countries Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Montenegro, later to join the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. It has been recognized as a religious community by the government of Montenegro since 1999, and it has wide claims over the canonical jurisdiction of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
According to a 2009 poll conducted by CEDEM, 29.36 percent of Montenegro's Eastern Orthodox Christians have opted for the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, while 70.64 percent have opted for or stayed with the canonical Serbian Orthodox Church.

Background

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church considers itself to be the sole legitimate representative of Orthodox Christianity in Montenegro, and also lays claim to all Orthodox Christian property in Montenegro that is currently in the possession of the Serbian Orthodox Church. From time to time, MOC members and supporters have attempted to claim some of these structures.
The Catalogue of Tzarigrad Patriarchy, Athens Sintagma, letter of Tzarigrad Patriarch Grigorius to St. Petar I Petrovic Njegos, and against the claims of other documents, see here and here are interpreted by the MOC that the Church of Montenegro was independent and autocephalous until Yugoslav regent Alexander I of Yugoslavia abolished it and incorporated, by the decree of 17 June 1920, with Serb-Orthodox churches into a Serbian Orthodox Church, an act which received subsequently canonical recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. However, although initially voicing his opposition, the dethroned King Nicholas I Petrovic-Njegos, in late 1920, recognized the unification of the Serbian Orthodox Church for the "benefit" of "all the Serbian people".
MOC followers also present foreign early-20th-century travelogues as supposed proofs of the church's legitimacy, claiming that in pre-Yugoslav times, the independence of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church has been confirmed as late as 1905, by one of the best-known and well-traveled Balkan experts from the early 20th century, Mary Edith Durham. In her book The Burden of the Balkans, published in London in 1905, Durham explained: "Montenegro alone kept a free and independent Slav Church, which survives to this day".
MOC supporters present an excerpt from the 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica as one of the proofs of legitimacy:
The remainder of the article refers to Montenegro as a Serb nation-state, which contradicts with the Church's basic beliefs of a distinct Montenegrin nation.

History

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church was founded in Cetinje on October 31, 1993, by Antonije Abramović, initially with the support of the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro, a political party that existed at the time. At the time, Montenegro was part of the federal state with Serbia called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was formed a year earlier following a 1992 referendum. LSCG, a party with a pro-independence agenda, is claimed to having used MOC as a tool in their quest for Montenegrin sovereignty. At that time, the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro maintained close ties to Slobodan Milošević's administration in Serbia, and therefore the initial activities of the MOC were very sporadic.
After the death of Metropolitan Antonije, he was replaced by Metropolitan Dedeić. Most liberals did not approve of this change, and their support for the church soon started to fade. By 1997, the DPS administration in Montenegro led by Milo Đukanović began to distance itself from Milošević, and started supporting and financing the Church, which received support from both the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro and the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro; however, after 2001 this support seemingly waned. By this time, LSCG had distanced itself from MOC almost completely.
On January 17, 2001, MOC was officially registered as a non-governmental organization at the local department of the Montenegrin Ministry of the Interior. In the absence of any other relevant and more current piece of legislation, this registration was done by calling on the Law on the Legal Position of Religious Communities from 1977 when Montenegro was a socialist republic within SFR Yugoslavia.
In 2007, MOC attempted to expand its activities beyond the borders of Montenegro. Serbia originally refused to allow MOC to be registered as an organization, as all canonical Eastern Orthodox Churches have also refused to recognize the MOC. However, on appeal, the Serbian Supreme Court ruled this position unconstitutional, overturning the refusal and paving the way for a potential permission to register.
Opponents accuse it of being a group without theological purpose, and of having only political goals.

Leadership

MOC is led by the Archbishop of Cetinje and Montenegro Metropolitan Mihailo. At a General Montenegrin People's Assembly formed by the MOC in Cetinje on January 6, 1997, he was chosen by traditional public acclamation the Head of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. In the Church of St. Paraskeva in Sofia, on March 15, 1998, he was ordained as bishop by Bulgarian Alternative Synod's head Patriarch Pimen and seven Metropolitans and Episcops of his synod. He was enthroned to Metropolitan of Montenegrin Orthodox Church in Cetinje on October 31, 1998, in the presence of several hundred believers and supporters of Montenegrin Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan Mihailo had worked as a professor for the Serbian Orthodox Church and then as a priest of the Greek Orthodox Church in Italy, where he uncanonically created a Serbian Orthodox Municipality out of the Greek Church, leading after a number of scandals, including adultery and accusations of embezzlement, to his permanent suspension from the Church in 1995. After becoming Metropolitan of the MOC in 1997, he was fully excommunicated by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eastern Orthodox Church. During his pastoral visit in Argentina in 2007, the Metropolitan Mihailo met Cardinal Bergoglio, current Pope Francis.
On January 11, 2007, MOC restored its own Holy Synod and proclaimed its first decree in which it confirms its autocephalous status. The Holy Synod is constituted by archpriests of MOC, led by Metropolitan Mihailo. The Holy Synod divided Montenegro in five eparchies - Cetinjska, Dukljanska, Primorska, Ostroška and Beranska.
One of the prominent members of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church was Jelisej Lalatović, a former Serb monk from Nikšić, defrocked for stealing of church property and falsification of church seals. In early 2010 he joined with the Croatian Orthodox Union for the formation of the Croatian Orthodox Church and became its chief in Zadar. Lalatović was immediately expelled from the MOC on the grounds of spreading unrest and immorality in the church, the MOC officially dismissing its connections with the formation of the COC.

Service

In Montenegro

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church currently holds its regular services in several Chapels in the area of Montenegro's royal capital, Cetinje, as well as in its newly built Temple in Kotor. Open-air services are held across Montenegro for Christmas and Easter. The MOC officially opened a new shrine in the old town of Kotor in 2006, following the referendum on independence.
Churches of the MOC in Montenegro:
, belonging to the MOC
Construction of the first MOC shrine abroad, the Holy Church of Righteous Ivan Crnojević, is planned to take place in Lovćenac, Vojvodina, Serbia, with the help of the Association of Ethnic Montenegrins in Serbia Krstaš. A contract for the land on which the new MOC shrine will be built was signed on 5 August 2005. A list with the names of several dozen donations—from Montenegro, USA, Slovenia, Australia and Switzerland—for the construction of a MOC shrine in Serbia has also been published.
MOC also has support from abroad, and it has managed to build several shrines in North America, South America, Australia, Western Europe all home to important Montenegrin émigré communities, most of whom also support the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. Services are held in the Australian state of New South Wales as well as in the Argentine province of Chaco, which is the base of Archimandrit Gorazd Glomazic and the Montenegrin Church of Saint Nikola in the colony of Machagay.
Churches of the MOC outside Montenegro:
In April 2007 the "President of the Council for the promotion" of the MOC, Stevo Vučinić, was quoted as saying the "we will retake of all the churches and chapels in the towns, and of course the village churches, and the monasteries...we expect resistance, but in no case will we give up". President of the Republic of Montenegro Filip Vujanović said that he will protect the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church, along with other administrative officials, saying that the MOC should not give up and that they should go to legal suits on specific cases. Despite this, the MOC has claimed that it does not care about anyone's opinion outside its Council calling it irrelevant and is determined to forcibly reclaim their property in Montenegro, currently occupied by SOC.
On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, the representatives of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church - which has announced that it did not wish to cause an "excessive situation", but that it would enter the Serbian Orthodox Cetinje monastery without regard to the reaction of the Serbian Orthodox Church to their claims and requests - attempted to do so. Special police units prevented their forceful entry and that of several hundred supporters of the MOC. There was some pushing and shoving between the police, and the crowd which had intended to force its way into the monastery. Following this, members of the crowd shouted slogans such as "this isn't Serbia", "whose police are you?" and "Risto, Satan".
In September 2008, Serbian Orthodox locals attempted to launch a blockade in the Nikšić area to prevent the MOC from building a church there. Sixty five people were arrested for violating public order.

Support

Support from other churches

The Church has support from a number of likewise non-canonical, unrecognized Eastern Orthodox Churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate, the Bulgarian Alternative Orthodox Church, and its Italian-based branch, the Orthodox Church in Italy.
The MOC also has support of the Croatian Orthodox Community NGO, which aims at creating an autocephalous Croatian Orthodox Church for the Republic of Croatia, an act which the MOC came up to as the first supporter. The MOC had original support of the unrecognized Macedonian Orthodox Church, which was later withdrawn as the Macedonian Church entered negotiations for restoration into communion.
In all official Orthodox theological circles, MOC is seen as a schismatic group and a political fabrication, similar to the churches that supported it.

Support from political parties

Political parties in Montenegro that so far officially stated support of the MOC are: the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro and minority Croatian Civic Initiative, officially proposing it to be mentioned in Montenegro's new Constitution, which eventually did not mention it with its adoption in late 2007. The Initiative invited representatives of both the Montenegrin and Serbian churches to a special municipal meeting in Tivat, sparking a boycott among local Serbian politicians.
In Serbia, the church has the support of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians which believes it should be a recognized religion in the country.

Public opinion

According to data of Centre of Democracy in Montenegro from February 2007, the Serbian Orthodox Church was the most trusted institution in Montenegro by public opinion, while the Montenegrin Orthodox Church was ranked sixth. According to a 2009 poll conducted by CEDEM, 29.36 percent of Montenegro's Eastern Orthodox Christians have opted for the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, while 70.64 percent have opted for or stayed with the canonical Serbian Orthodox Church.