Montenegrin Orthodox Church

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Montenegrin Orthodox Church
File:CPC Grb.pngCoat of arms of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church
Language	Montenegrin
Headquarters	Cetinje
Territory	(claimed) Montenegro and Montenegrin colonies in the diaspora
Possessions	none
Founder	Antonije Abramović
Independence	self-proclaimed in 1993
Recognition	none
Official website	www.moc-cpc.org

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church (MOC) (Montenegrin: Црногорска православна црква, ЦПЦ / Crnogorska pravoslavna crkva, CPC) is an uncanonical religious group acting in Montenegro and Montenegrin emigration circles (most notably the town of Lovćenac in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina).

MOC considers itself to be the sole legitimate representative of Orthodox Christianity in Montenegro, however such claims are not recognized internationally by mainstream Orthodox theological circles. In addition to MOC not being recognized by the official Orthodox Christian representatives such as Ecumenical Patriarch, MOC's leader is anathematized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and as such banished from the Orthodoxy. Furthermore, MOC also lays claim to all Orthodox Christian property in Montenegro that's in possession of the recognized Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). From time to time, MOC's members and supporters have attempted to storm some of these structures (mostly in the Cetinje municipal area).

MOC was founded in Cetinje on October 31, 1993 by Liberal Alliance of Montenegro (LSCG), 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 separatist agenda that had independent Montenegro as its aim, essentially used MOC in their overall political fight for Montenegrin sovereignty. Since none of this was supported at the time by the Montenegrin ruling regime embodied in Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS), which during that period maintained close ties to Milošević's regime in Serbia, initial MOC's activities were very sporadic. For about 4 years it functioned without any official record of its existence.

By 1997, DPS regime in Montenegro led by Milo Đukanović began to distance itself from Milošević and Serbia, and MOC was registered in the Montenegrin police as a civic group. By this time LSCG mostly distanced itself from MOC 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 official 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.

Leader

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 was a priest of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople in Italy, in 1997 he was excommunicated by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Services

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. Services are also 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.

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Support

The Church claimed support from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kievan Patriarchate, the Bulgarian Alternative Synod (founded by patriarch Pimen), and the Orthodox Church in Italy. However, these churches broke communion with the Metropolitan Mihailo and his church after the uncanonical reception into the Montenegrin Orthodox Church of two priests who were suspended by the Orthodox Church in Italy.

In all official Orthodox theological circles (such as the Russian Orthodox Church or the Ecumenical Patriarchate), MOC is seen as a schismatic group and a political fabrication, similar to the churches that supported it.

MOC claims support from abroad, however it has not managed to build any shrines in North America, South America, Australia, Western Europe all home to important Montenegrin émigré communities, most of whom also support the Serbian Orthodox Church. Eleven ex-Yugoslav émigrés from the US and Canada have together donated US$670 and Can$270 for the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

MOC supporters present an excerpt from the 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica as one of the proofs of legitimacy: "The Montenegrin Church is an autocephalous branch of the Eastern Orthodox communion. In 1894 it formally vindicated its independence against the claims of the Russian synod". However the remainder of the article refers to Montenegro as a Serb nation-state, which contradicts to the Church's basic beliefs of a distinct Montenegrin nation. The Catalogue of Tzarigrad Patriarchy (April 1855), Athens Sintagma, letter of Tzarigrad Patriarch Grigorius to St. Petar I Petrovic Njegos (dated 29 January 1798), and against the claims of other documents, see here and here (a list of historical documents; external links are in Serbian) are interpreted by the MOC that the Church of Montenegro was independent and autocephalous until Yugoslav regent Alexander I of Yugoslavia united it, by the decree of 17th (30th) June 1920, with other 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 also recognized the uniting of the Church with the SOC, for the benefit of "all the Serbian people".

It must be noted that the current Montenegrin Orthodox Church is nothing in character or aims similar to the old Church of Montenegro. While the latter based itself upon successorship to the abolished Serbian Orthodox Church by Ottoman decree in 1766, with its Metropolitans asserting the title "Exarch of the Serb Throne" which they hold up to today, who were also great proponents of the reunification of the Serbian Church which has finally occurred in 1920 as well as the national liberation and unification of Serbs based on medieval Serbian heritage, the MOC presents itself as a church of just Montenegro, is a supporter of the Montenegrin nation and a proponent for a separate Montenegrin language as well as a sovereign and independent Montenegro, trying to gather not only Orthodox Christians, but all of Montenegro's faithful as well. The Church of Montenegro also never ever achieved the legal recognition of autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Also an important thing is that the Montenegrin Church's name was the "Serb-Orthodox Church of Montenegro", and in late 1918 its Holy Synod has adopted the decision to unite with other Serb-Orthodox Churches in Yugoslavia into a single Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as supporting the unification of Montenegro with Serbia.

MOC followers also present foreign early 20th century travelogues as supposed proofs of the church's legitimacy. In that vein they claim that in pre-Yugoslavia 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"

The only political party in Montenegro that so far officially stated support of the MOC is the minor 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.

Status

Opponents accuse it of being a group without theological purpose, and of having only political goals. Metropolitan Antonije Abramović (initially vehemently supported by the biggest pro-independence party in Montenegro at the time - Liberal Alliance of Montenegro (LSCG)) was the first leader of the church in 1993. He was later replaced by Metropolitan Dedeić. Most Liberals didn't approve of this change and their support for the church soon started to fade. After 1997 the Government of the Republic of Montenegro started supporting and financing the Church receiving support from both the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro and the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro, however after 2001 this support waned and completely vanished.

Opposition of Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church maintains that Serbian Orthodox Church usurped its churches and other property in Montenegro in the early 20th century, following the unification of Montenegro with Serbia.

According to the MOC, the Metropolia of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), headed by Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, has existed for only around eight decades, "or to be more precise, it has been there since 1920 when it was established as a structural and integral part of the Serbian Patriarchy in doctrinal, legal and organizational sense". The MOC maintains unfounded claims that the SOC Metropotanate was installed in Montenegro only after the autocephalous Montenegrin Orthodox Church was dissolved in 1920 "against the constitution and canon law".

In September of 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.

Holy Synod

On January 11, 2007, MOC created 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.

Construction of First Shrine Abroad

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.

Claim to Serbian Orthodox Churches

The Montenegrin Orthodox Church, despite being founded in 1993, lays a claim to all Serbian Orthodox churches, monasteries and chapels in Montenegro built before 1918, and all Serbian Orthodox Churches built after that date with financial assistance from the state. However, the Church of Montenegro wasn't included into the SOC before 1920. They base their claims on their belief that they are the rightful successors of the autocephalous Montenegrin Metropolitanate, which participated in the formation of a unified Serbian Orthodox Church in 1920. In April 2007 the "President of the Council for the promotion" of the MOC, Stevo Vučinić, was quoted as saying the "we will take possession 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". This decision was mass-criticized by the Montenegrin public. 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 give up or 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 takeover Serbian Orthodox property in Montenegro.

According to data of Centre of Democracy in Montenegro from February 2007, Serbian Orthodox Church is still the most trusted institution in Montenegro by public opinion, and Montenegrin Orthodox Church is the sixth.

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 caims 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" (a reference to Metropolitan Amfilohije of the SOC).

Churches

Chapel, Cetinje
Crkva Svetog Petra Cetinjskog, Kotor
Crkva Svetog Đorđa, Gavrilovac
Crkva Svetog Pravednog Ivana Crnojevića, Lovćenac
Crkva Svetog Nikole, Chaco
Crkva Svetog Arhanđela, Venado Tuerto

References

External links

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