OCU apologizes to Serbs for concelebration with clergyman of unrecognized Montenegro Church

Metropolitan Epifaniy sent a letter of apology to Metropolitan Amphilochius, Head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, for his concelebration with a clergyman of the unrecognized Montenegro Orthodox Church, Archimandrite (now Bishop) Boris Boyovich.

This is reported by the official website of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the SOC. The official website of the metropolis of the SOC uses the name of the OCU in quotation marks, and it is added that it is "the Church that has been founded recently by the Ecumenical Patriarchate".

We bring to your notice an exclusive translation of a part of the formal letter by Cerkvarium.

"Recently, I have concelebrated with "Archimandrite" Boris with no intention to do that... what happened on May 25, 2019, was not done on purpose, but because of negligence and the large number of priests who took part in the Liturgy. I understand that this event has upset you, but you can rely on my word that we, being now the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, maintain the ecclesiastical and canonical dialogue only and exclusively with the Holy Great Church of Christ, our Mother, that is, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and only with those with whom they maintain communication and with no one else. You know me from your pastoral and spiritual experience as a preacher of the Orthodox Church, and therefore, I fully open my heart to you, and please accept this step as one of the first steps our young Local Church makes as a member of the family of the Holy Autocephalous Churches of God," the letter says.

Note that the website of the Montenegro Metropolitanate presents no scan of the letter, but only a text translation. Such a document is also missing from the official website of the OCU.

On May 25, Metropolitan Epifaniy celebrated the Liturgy in St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral, where a clergyman of the unrecognized Montenegro Orthodox Church – Archimandrite Boris Boyovich was present alongside with a host of other priests. The Liturgy was also attended by the representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople - Metropolitan Emanuel of France, who also said that he did not know about the fact of concelebration of a clergyman of the unrecognized Church.

After the concelebration, Archimandrite Boris was elevated to the episcopal rank in Montenegro. It should be noted that these events take place against the backdrop of the statements actively made by the President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic about the need of the Montenegro Orthodox Church to obtain autocephaly.

For his part, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew "calmed" the representatives of the Serbian Church, saying that he recognizes only the jurisdiction of the Serbian Church on the territory of Montenegro. The Montenegro Church was autocephalous until its unification with the autocephalous Patriarchate of Karlovci and the Belgrade Metropolis into a single Serbian Church and the receipt of an appropriate Tomos on autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate.