The church life of the faithful in Dubrovsko has been disturbed by the dispute over the ownership of their church in Media.
March 7, 2019 – A group of people, who present themselves as inhabitants of a village Dubrovsko in Šavnik Municipality, have publicly disputed the ownership of the St. George’s Church, situated in the above-mentioned village and has been a property of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Diocese of Budimlja and Nikšić (“the Diocese”) for centuries; this incident disturbed the church life of the faithful in Dubrovsko, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church’s news portal TV Hram.
On this occasion, the board of the St. George’s Church ran by Mr Miljan Ćeranić, established with the blessing of the bishop of the Diocese for the purpose of implementation of the planned restoration of the critical church, issued its communique to the public. The church board condemned the act of the aforementioned group of people and stated that the church was a property of the Diocese.
Father Draženko Ristić, the rector of the St. George’s Church, said, that the incident was in fact caused by one local family. Father Draženko repeated that the St. George’s Church was a property of the Diocese. He added that no donation to the church could be a pledge for ownership over the church. Those who present themselves as inhabitants of Dubrovsko, in the media, can act only in their names, and not in the name of other large families and brotherhoods which have been inhabiting the region for centuries and preserving the tradition of Saint Sava (holy father of the Serbian Orthodox Church).
Source:
TV Hram (the Serbian Orthodox Church) – 7 March 2019, “Attacks on the Orthodox Church are not decreasing in Montenegro” (Serbian lang.)
Related Publications:
- Jan 22, 2019 – Discriminatory distribution of budgetary resources to religious communities in Montenegro in 2018
- Jan 18, 2019 – Minister for Human and Minority Rights of Montenegro publicly brought defamatory facts to cover discriminatory acts against the Serbian Orthodox Church.
- Jan 10, 2019 – A series of unfounded criminal complaints filed against the head of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral (Serbian Orthodox Church) and the Mitropolinate itself.