Montenegrin schismatics also claim the Tomos from the Patriarch of Constantinople

The head of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which is schismatic and unrecognized in the Orthodox world, Boris Boyovic, said that his organization is looking forward to new contacts with representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the issue of recognition and granting the Tomos of autocephaly. Bojovic added that the Serbian Orthodox Church will not follow the path of the Macedonian Church, since the Serbian Patriarchate does not have the right to grant autocephaly, and this right is exclusively with Phanar. He said this in an interview with the RISU website.

“The Serbian Church cannot grant autocephaly. None of the Orthodox Churches can grant autocephaly, except for the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It grants the Tomos. The Serbian Orthodox Church, like the Moscow Patriarchate, wanted to undermine the authority of Constantinople and issued a non-canonical Tomos in which it granted autocephaly to the Macedonian Church, the Archdiocese of Ohrid. But this is simply impossible, it has never worked this way in Orthodoxy,” — Boyovich said.

The head of the Chelovean Orthodox Church added that his organization has contacts with Phanar and they hope that the Patriarchate of Constantinople will soon respond to the expectations of the Chelovean Orthodox Church and grant the Tomos of autocephaly. He also said that as of today, Patriarch Bartholomew has sent a commission to Montenegro to analyze church life in the republic and the readiness of the ChOC for recognition and independence.

“We have contacts, and I hope that soon we will be able to go to Phanar to communicate with representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople about the spiritual freedom of the Montenegrin people, who have big problems in relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is trying to assimilate Montenegrins so that they do not perceive themselves as a separate people, but as part of the Serbian people. The regime in Belgrade also contributes to this. Now the Patriarchate of Constantinople has sent observers to see what the internal organization of the Montenegrin Church looks like,” — Boris Boyovych emphasized.

Earlier we reported that the hierarch of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Pimen of Europe, said that he did not understand why the MOC did not recognize the OCU. The bishop is convinced that in order to recognize the OCU, there is no need to create any additional commissions, because in this matter it is quite possible to use the experience of the Macedonian Church.