Monday, January 3, 2011

Montenegrin PM to Begin Dialogue on SPC Assets; 600 Orthodox Churches in Montenegro at Stake

New Montenegrin Prime Minister Igor Luksic said today (January 3, 2011) that he will initiate a dialogue regarding assets of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) in Montenegro, the Orthodox Church Info blog reports.

According to Luksic, a solution to the problem would come more easily if those who wanted to talk came to the fore.

Luksic admitted that resolving the SPC property issue would be difficult and that it would take quite a while to resolve the matter, but he believes that a great insistence could lead to solutions.

The problem related to the assets of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, or the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, has been present since the establishment of the canonically unrecognized Montenegrin Orthodox Church, and especially since Montenegro gained independence in May 2006.

In 2007 the SPC Metropolitanate of Montenegro won a court case when the court from the coastal town of Kotor issued a decision that the municipality of Budva should return 4,000 square meters which were taken away from the SPC because of a construction of detours 20 years ago.

The Metropolitanate is registered in the Kotor cadaster as the owner or user of about 600 Orthodox churches in Montenegro.

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