Property dispute between Orthodox church and government that sparked mass protests in the Balkans ends—for now—with a strengthening of religious rights for evangelicals and other faiths.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 12.2px; font: 12.0px Verdana; color: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 12.2px; font: 12.0px Verdana; color: #000000; min-height: 15.0px} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline ; color: #0000ff} Europe’s second-newest nation made a second effort this week at greater religious freedom.
And evangelicals in Montenegro, the Balkan nation independent from Serbia since 2006, couldn’t be more pleased.
“This is a great blessing, we are out of the gray zone and drawn into legal existence,” said Sinisa Nadazdin, pastor of Gospel of Jesus Christ Church located in the capital city of Podgorica.
“We were permitted before, but now we know our rights and duties.”
Montenegrin evangelicals were pleased with the new law’s first iteration a year ago as well. But in between, the controversial text split Montenegro’s 75-percent Orthodox community, and nearly tore the nation apart.
Controversially passed last February by lawmakers aligned with the 30-year ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (which ran the regional government when the nation was part of Serbia), ethnic Serbian politicians stormed out of the session in protest.
At issue were not the general provisions of the law, which guaranteed the right to change religion, to establish religious schools above the elementary level, and to conscientiously object from military service.
Replacing a 1977 communist-era law, it also eased licensing procedures and permitted foreign-born leadership and international headquarters.
Rather, a clause in the religious freedom law required all religious communities to provide evidence of ownership for properties built prior to the 1918 ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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