WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
Choose language:
ANTENNA M
We have contacts with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and I hope that we will soon be able to go to Fanar to discuss the spiritual freedom of the Montenegrin people, who have major problems in relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), because it is trying to assimilate Montenegrins, so that they do not see themselves as a separate people, but as a part of Serbian. The regime in Belgrade also contributes to this - said Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro Boris in an interview for the Ukrainian portal "Religious-Information Service of Ukraine".
"At the moment, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has sent observers to see how the interior of the Montenegrin Church looks like," said Boris.
"There is a lot of work ahead of us both in the church sense and in relation to the evangelization of the people. I'm not too worried about getting autocephaly as soon as possible."
Namely, "autocephaly is important", said the first hierarch, "but first it is necessary to have a good infrastructure of the Church: to establish a theological academy, a seminary and other necessary institutions, and then we will talk about autocephaly".
Regarding the recent turmoil in the Montenegrin Orthodox Church — pointing to the infiltration of Russian and Serbian services — Boris says:
"Metropolitan Mihailo is an elderly man, he is 88 years old. There was a problem, he secretly, without the knowledge of the priest and the episcopate, had a meeting in Budva with a representative of the 'True Russian Orthodox Church', I don't know if his name was Raphael or Seraphim, but it turned out that he was a KGBeovac. And when we found out, we faced a big problem".
"That was two years ago," Boris continued, contextualizing the events with the beginning of Russia's open armed aggression against Ukraine. "A great war has started, and he is meeting with them... They also wanted to make an alliance with the Old Calendarists from Greece, we have documentation about that".
The Old Calendarists (zealots) in Greece — please note — are bitter sectarian enemies of the Universal Mother Church.
"What did the Russian and Serbian services in Montenegro want? To discredit the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, so that it disintegrates. If there is no Montenegrin Church, people will switch to the SPC in 10-15 years," explains Boris. "They hoped that when Mihailo died, the Montenegrin Orthodox Church would die with him. However, intelligent people, priests and professors, organized a big assembly on September 3 last year. They said: we want to save the Montenegrin Orthodox Church".
"The people of Montenegro do not want the Montenegrin Orthodox Church to die, and Serbian and Russian agents want to break us. That is why there is so much opposition against me. I have been serving in the Montenegrin church for 26 years. All priests abroad and all active priests in Montenegro supported my candidacy for the head of the Church on September 3, 2023".
Boris emphasizes that "in our country, the election of the head of the Church takes place by convening the All-Montenegrin Assembly".
"It was always like that in the Montenegrin church. Thus, recently, the first metropolitan of St. Antonije Abramović. And Mihailo was elected by the All-Montenegro Assembly".
"We didn't chase Mihail, we simply retired him, left him the bishop's palace, because he is an old man. He can serve with us. We did not humiliate him, but, as a 'grandfather', we gave him decent conditions. But the politicians who revolved around him, the so-called 'businessmen'... He serves the parties, politics, and they serve him. We didn't have any problems with it before this, but now we do. He writes something; but people do not go to him, he does not serve".
The head of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church assesses that "now our state power in Montenegro" serves the Church of Serbia, "the president, prime minister and other politicians are close associates of the episcopate and priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church".
According to the "Religious-Information Service of Ukraine" portal, Boris was educated at the Kyiv Orthodox Academy, whose rector was the current head of the canonically autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius; and his now "right-hand man", Archbishop Evstratius Zorja, was one of Boris's professors.
"Yes, I studied at the Kyiv Orthodox Academy. My rector was now His Beatitude, Epiphanius, my professors were Metropolitan Evstratius and other prominent people", said Archbishop and Metropolitan Boris. "We give priority to unofficial contacts with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. I have many friends in Ukraine”.
