The Orthodox Churches of Macedonia and Montenegro: The Quest for Autocephaly

Abstract

Orthodox Churches in Central and Southeastern Europe, marginalized during the communist period, have been no strangers to controversy since the fall of communism. Though circumstances differ significantly from country to country, Orthodox Churches in Southeastern Europe have been intimately and historically connected with the region’s dominant pre-communist and post-communist ideology (nationalism), and have often been actively engaged in politics. 1 The key to this politico-religious character is the structural organization of Orthodox Churches, which makes it possible that a “national” Church with specific national characteristics can develop. With no centralized structure within Orthodoxy (unlike Catholicism), these Churches can become one of the key symbols of national being. While by no means alone (one can point to distinctly national characteristics of the region’s Islamic communities, such as in Kosovo and Macedonia, and Catholic Churches, in particular in Croatia), Orthodox Churches in the Balkans have tended to align themselves with political parties and governments that are equally nationalist in character. Perhaps the most striking example is that of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which has sought to preserve and promote Serbian national interests in peripheral territories regarded by Serbian nationalists as “theirs.” In both Macedonia and Montenegro, for example, the Serbian Orthodox Church has blocked recognition of the autocephaly of the local Orthodox Churches—in short, negating the existence of those respective nations. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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