Metropolitanate of Montenegro and Littora: Public Statement

Public Statement

Diocesan Executive Board and Diocesan Council of the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, as the main autonomous and executive body of the Metropolitanate, held its regular meeting on the 11th of March this year at the famous Moraca monastery, founded by the Nemanjic family in the 13th century.

The executive body of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral examined the results of the missionary work, the progress in the process of rebuilding of the monasteries and churches, increases in the number of the orthodox flock and new priests as well as the other activities of the Metropolitanate. Appropriate decisions have been reached and the guidelines agreed for the improvement of the Church's mission and the place of the Metropolitanate in the third millenium.

Diocesan Council is expressing its concerns regarding the unstable social and political situation in Montenegro and the conflict between the Belgrade and Podgorica regimes, which is bringing nothing but misery and social poverty for all and could incite the new fratricide. It is our duty to say openly: it is shameful for Njegos's Montenegro to instigate hatred, particularly against the Serbs and Serbia, creating the impression as if in contemporary Montenegro of St. Peter of Cetinje all the evil comes from the Serbs! Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is calling everybody to show sense of responsibility in preserving the peace and unity, which we today need, more than ever.

Diocesan Council of the Metropolitanate is also very concerned with the recent actions and the attitude of the Montenegrin government towards the Orthodox Church. In particular their letting of the Church's ages old rights and Her dignity get imperiled, which also shows their denial of the basic human rights of the orthodox faithful. How else can we interpret the registration of a group of thugs under the name of montenegrian orthodox church? For a state that claims legality to directly support the group of people who are anathematized and excommunicated from the Orthodox Church and therefore in the world of Orthodoxy represent no one and mean nothing and to support their plundering and theft of the ages old and legally guaranteed property together with the name and symbols of an ancient institution recognized in all of the world, represents lawlessness of a highest degree unprecedented in the European history. Newly formed and gangster style oriented group of people that is trying to undermine Orthodoxy in Montenegro, to separate it from the rest of the Orthodox world and to eventually destroy Orthodoxy in Montenegro, could, obviously, be recognized as some kind of a religious group, but there is no law in the world that is able to identify and equate it with an institution that lasts continually for eight centuries. That is why we feel obliged to clarify and publicize our position, which is the position not only of The Serbian Orthodox Church but of whole of Orthodoxy: that baptisms and all other church services and sacraments performed by the people excommunicated from the Orthodox Church and performed in the name of a bogus montenegrian orthodox church are inconsequential and invalid in the Orthodox Church. Persons who receive such baptism cannot be godfathers (or godmothers) at an Orthodox wedding or a baptism nor can they have an Orthodox funeral service when they pass away. It is clear that this mixture of a tribal-political party and a religious sect with its suppporters, through the use of deceit and lies create unnecessary confrontation inside the families, among brothers and cousins and only invite evil and hatred desecrating and decomposing the very foundations of Montenegro.

Obviously, all of that not only harms The Church but also undermines the foundations of the state itself.

Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is also gravely concerned with the recent trend in trying to reestablish the complete cultural and spiritual heritage of Montenegro from St. John Vladimir to the last member of the Petrovic's family, through a rather feeble attempt of reinterpreting all of our history and our culture within the framework of Marxist and some newly formed chimerical dioclean ideology. All of this is being expressed through systematical and sustained casting aside and repression of the Cyrillic alphabet and the forced latinization of the whole of our culture. These things are a direct threat to the cyrillomethodical Nemanjic's, Crnojevic's and Petrovic's heritage of Montenegro. "Restructuring" of self-awareness and consciousness of the Montenegrins only in such postmarxist fashion would cripple the ethos, spirituality and the very essence of Montenegro's identity.

Finally the Diocesan Committee is appealing upon all the Orthodox Faithful and all goodwilling people to help us to continue the building of the "Cathedral of the Resurrection" in Podgorica. At the beginning of the Lenten fast, The Diocesan Council is calling all the faithful to fast, pray, repent and ask brotherly forgiveness of each other, so that all of us could celebrate the luminous Resurrection of Christ in peace, joy and mutual forgiveness.

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