Special prayer for Serbs and Serbian Church in Montenegro to be held in New York City

A prayer rally in support of Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) in Montenegro will be held tomorrow in New York City, the Manhattan-based SPC Church of St. Sava announced on Friday.

An invitation has been sent out from that Orthodox shrine to "gather in prayer in order to express our fervent support for our brothers and sisters in Montenegro, who have been defending our centuries-old shrines from illegal confiscation."

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A prayer rally, Tanjug has been told, is scheduled for noon on Saturday outside the Montenegrin Consulate on 2nd Avenue.

Photo: Wikimedia/Beyond My Ken

Two days ago, the Law on Freedom of Religion came into force in Montenegro - adopted in late 2019 despite the opposition from the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the SPC, and a part of the opposition (in Montenegro's Assembly). With this decision of the Assembly, the 1977 Law on the Legal Status of Religious Communities ceased to apply.

The Church of St. Sava in Manhattan, a structure nearly 170 years old, burned down on Easter Day 2016. According to Father Zivojin Jakovljevic, the temple's priest, enormous progress has been made in the meantime to restore this Serb shrine - and the first post-repairs liturgy should be served this coming Easter.

Built in the Gothic style, the church was purchased in 1943 and is a structure of historical importance to New York City.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)