Montenegrin Church

Montenegrin Orthodox Church liturgy in Podgorica. Photo: Montenegrin Orthodox Church

After Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic on Tuesday called for negotiations about the agreement with the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Mihailo said that it must be treated the same as the Serbian Orthodox Church, the largest Orthodox community in the country.

The rector of the Seminary St. Peter of Cetine, Gojko Perovic stated that it has been going on for years.

A controversial law on religions in Montenegro has entered into force, but the Serbian Orthodox Church has legal avenues to oppose it.

As Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas Eve on Monday, tens of thousands of Serbian Orthodox priests, bishops and believers attended services and burned traditional Yule logs in the old capital of Cetinje and the current capital Podgorica.

This is stated in the epistle of the Patriarch and the Synod published on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Under the new law, religious communities can only retain ownership of their property is if they can produce clear evidence that it belongs to them. This point has triggered accusations from the Serbian Orthodox Church that the government plans to dispute many of its holdings.

The government denies having any plan to strip any faith denomination of its property.

The Montenegrin government denies planning to strip the Serbian Orthodox Church of its property.

The bishop reacted after the government of Montenegro said it wanted to pass a law that will declare all ancient property belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church built before 1918 as the state property, without offering any valid reason for this in the public interest, or eminent domain (defence, energy, infrastructure) or any compensation.