the SPC

We repeated the same wish at the beginning of 2022. This time, it seems that we managed to forget about the pandemic and the pain it caused us in the previous 30 months.
However, the coronavirus did not disappear - it was only replaced by a bigger suffering.

The signing of the fundamental agreement between Montenegro's government and the Serbian Orthodox Church. Photo: Government of Montenegro

Abazovic signed the agreement with Church Patriarch Porfirije on Wednesday in Podgorica, stressing that all religious communities should have equal rights.

According to earlier media reports, Serbian Patriarch Porfirije arrived in Podgorica on this occasion.
The fundamental agreement was signed by the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovi, and the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije.

"Mostly thanks to your prayers brothers and sister, and thanks to the prayers of all the saints, we established unity," Porfirije said in an address during the liturgy with Archbishop Stefan, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, MPC.

Macedonian and Serbian churches held a joint liturgy in the St. Clement of Ohrid temple in Skopje. Photo: SPC

The meeting started at 2.30 p.m., in the building of the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikola Selakovi.
The former Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, Porfirije, was elected patriarch on Thursday, February 18, and was enthroned a day later in the Cathedral Church in Belgrade.

They said that they hope that the people will act peacefully and calmly in these moments when no reasonable person wants any riots and conflicts.

How and why did the protests begin?

Protest rally in Podgorica, Montenegro, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC

Large-scale protests, as well as some road blocks, began after the Montenegrin parliament adopted the law on December 27, 2019.

In October last year, at a celebration marking the 800th anniversary of the SPC's autocephaly, or ecclesiastical autonomy, Patriarch Irinej honoured Vucic with the Order of St. Sava 1st Degree, the Church's highest order.

Representatives of the Metropolitanate laid a yule log in front of the Cetinje Monastery in the presence of a large number of citizens and believers, including Serbia's Ambassador to Montenegro Vladimir Bozovic and businessman Miodrag Daka Davidovic.
Strong police forces were set up between the two groups of the faithful.

The Suza Njegoseva Baptistery belongs to the SPC's Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral. It is located near the town of Tivat on the Adriatic coast, and has been slated for demolition by Montenegrin authorities.