FT.com / Montenegro 2003 Wednesday Oct 22 2003. All times are London time. Roger Bove Edit Profile Take a tour Log out Home World Business Markets Markets data & tools Industries Lex Comment & analysis Technology zone Your money Arts & Weekend Sport Jobs & education In today's FT Site services FT Reports Creative Business FTfm FT-IT World reports Business reports News in depth Rebuilding Iraq The Kelly affair UK property Partner sites Business.com CBS MarketWatch Chinese.FT.com Les Echos FT Deutschland The New York Times Recoletos Vedomosti Investors Chronicle World Reports / Montenegro 2003 Culture: Battle of the rival preachers By Eric Jansson Published: July 1 2003 9:00 | Last Updated: July 1 2003 9:00 The new constitution ratified by Serbia and Montenegro on February 3 appears to have helped settle some of the political and economic scores between the two republics. But after years of quarrelling the two sides find themselves estranged in some ways that defy legal remedy. US and European diplomats trying to keep the two sides together employ the tricks of their trade, but these carry little weight in the realm of faith. Montenegro's Christians are mostly Orthodox. Their religious leaders inhabit an incense-perfumed world of high ceremony and prayer, where tradition is considered divine. Tradition is supposed to keep the faithful together. Yet high in Montenegro's boulder-strewn hills, away from the coast, a dispute between rival preachers threatens to shatter Orthodox unity with the Serbs. The threat of schism emerged in 1993, when a small group of independence-minded preachers decided to establish an Independent Montenegrin Orthodox Church. Officials in Podgorica allowed its registration, infuriating Belgrade. The fledgling group has since lured thousands of formerly Serbian Orthodox worshippers out of the fold. Donations from the faithful so far have included 34 village churches. Serbian Orthodox leaders retain ecclesiastical authority throughout much of the republic, but their grip may be slipping. From their perch in faraway Belgrade, Serbian church leaders do their best to undermine any notion that Montenegro qualifies legitimately for an "autocephalous" church - one independent from the dictates of Pavle, the patriarch in Belgrade, and his bishops. To them, the independent church is a "pseudo-religious organisation" and its leaders, in their quest to take over more churches, are "robbers dressed as priests", says a press release from Pavle's staff. The Serbian church claims an 870-year-old tradition of authority in Montenegro with only occasional interruption. This dispute appears intractable, but is it? One must travel deep in to Montenegro's hill country to meet Miras Dedeic, the man who started all the fuss. Driving there, one is reminded of how inhospitable this place has been to aspiring foreign masters. The road winds through valleys so treacherous that Turkish soldiers could never hold them, even at the height of Ottoman Empire. The mountains part, and in a small rocky valley lies the town of Cetinje, Montenegro's historical capital. From 1878 to 1918, diplomats were posted here from Britain, Russia and other big powers. Here, in embassies long since abandoned, they weathered summertime heat and winter isolation during another era when the Balkans' political fate hung in the balance, when rival dynasties ruled Serbia and Montenegro. Here Mr Dedeic - known to his followers as Metropolitan Mihajlo - keeps his church's spartan hillside headquarters. Sitting behind his desk, he speaks through a tremendous white beard. "I would gladly be burnt at the stake for this," he says, his intense stare gradually turns into a gentle smile. A glossy chart on Mr Dedeic's office wall shows photographs of various Orthodox priests. It charts his authority over a small but growing clergy: fifteen priests, one archbishop and one metropolitan - the most senior Orthodox post for the independent Montenegrins. Mr Dedeic claims his enthronement as a metropolitan took place in 1998, under the authority of a Bulgarian bishop. Yet sorting fact from fiction in this case is difficult, and establishing ecclesiastical jurisdiction is even harder. Serb church officials say "Mihajlo" is a fraud, defrocked by higher Orthodox authorities already six years ago. But Mr Dedeic says his church movement is fully legitimate, centuries in the making. In conversation with him, the milestone of greatest importance turns out be the Congress of Berlin, 1878, which gave Montenegro its place at the modern table of European nations. From that time until 1918, church authority was divided in the region. "Our claims are based on historical fact. There is no Montenegrin state without a Montenegrin Orthodox Church, and there is no Montenegrin Orthodox Church without a Montenegrin state," he says. But is there a state? Mr Dedeic and his followers thrive in the ambiguity of the deal struck with Serbia earlier this year. The new constitution uses unusual language to strike a political compromise. It establishes Serbia and Montenegro as a single "state union". This has been interpreted in Belgrade and elsewhere in Europe to mean a single state in the form of a union between two republics. But in Podgorica, it is widely seen as a union of two states. Beneath the surface of the dispute between Mr Dedeic and his would-be controllers in Belgrade is a great conflict over the composition and purpose of nations in contemporary Europe. Mr Dedeic says independence should bring to Montenegro all the attributes of any state in Europe, including a high degree of independence for religious authorities. His rhetoric is saturated with a demand for "self-determination" that many Serbian Orthodox are predisposed to ignore, having opposed other independence movements leading to the former Yugoslavia's wars of secession during the 1990s. "It would be a great sin to make Montenegro vanish as a state, and I think the European Union is well aware of this," Mr Dedeic says. His view, backed by an increasing number of Montenegrins - 57 per cent according to a recent poll - is that Montenegro must be given full independence. Members of Podgorica's political elite call Mr Dedeic's greatest rival, the Serbian Orthodox bishop in charge of Montenegro, as a "fascist" for posing vigorous opposition to this. Yet no fascist tendencies are evident at the ancient Serbian Orthodox monastery situated just a short walk down the hill from Mr Dedeic's modern-built headquarters. At the monastery, there are no nods to political fads. Behind the stone walls, an abbot named Luka and the monks under his authority say they store a treasure of relics including the skeletonised right hand of John the Baptist. Luka sits in the courtyard, clothed in a long black cassock and wearing a black beard that he has evidently been growing for years. He is an exceptionally calm fellow. He appears only a touch distressed to learn that anyone has come calling to ask about schism. "Schism? This is no schism. It is just a fake." EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR Contents Montenegro - July 1 2003 Early tests for union experiment Economy: A nation of secret shopkeepers Politics: Clique's rule is almost unchallenged Banking: Riding out the risks of euroisation Aluminium: Sale will test region's ability to reel in the big fish Crime: Small gangs inflict serious damage Tourism: Unspoilt and utterly tranquil Plantaze vineyards: Homegrown wines drunk with success Culture: Battle of the rival preachers Related ReportsCyprus 2003 German: Finance 2003 Montenegro 2003 Portugal 2003 Romania 2003 Russia: Finance 2003 Spain: Finance 2003 Tour of France 2003 Turkey 2003 Searching for earlier Reports = requires subscription to FT.com Search & quotes NewsQuotes Power search My portfolio Research tools Analyst reports FT Research Centre Free annual reports Market research Growth companies D&B business reports HomeWorld | Business | Markets news | Markets data & tools | Industries | Lex | Your money | Comment & analysis | Reports | Arts & Weekend | Sport | Jobs & education | In today's FT | Media inquiriesContact us | Help © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2003. 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