After the Trinity and St. Basil’s Day Councils, and on the eve of the debate in the Parliament of Montenegro, a protest was held in Podgorica on December 24, 2019, against the controversial discriminatory Law on Freedom of Religion, which would later grow into dignified processions for the defense of the holy places, which returned Montenegro to itself and its roots.

Namely, on that Tuesday (December 24, 2019), while the Legislative Committee of the Parliament of Montenegro met and adopted the draft of the discriminatory Law on Freedom of Religion, thus creating the conditions for the plenary debate that began the next day, December 25, hundreds of priests and monks led by the late Metropolitan Amfilohije, Metropolitan Joanikije (then Bishop of Budimlje-Niksic) and Bishop Methodij (then of Diocletian, now Metropolitan of Budimlje-Niksic), expressed their protest in front of the parliament, appealing to the deputies not to vote for lawlessness and to respect the voice of the people "Vox populi — Vox Dei" (voice of the people — voice of God).

The hierarchs with the clergy and monks of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and the Diocese of Budimlje and Nikšić came in a procession from the Podgorica Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ under the slogan: In the name of God is judgment and justice! (St. Peter of Cetinje). Before the Assembly, Bishop Methodius read the proclamation of the St. Basil's Cathedral in Nikšić, and Metropolitan Amfilohije called on the deputies not to participate in the discussion and voting on the law, for the withdrawal of which 100,000 citizens of Montenegro had already signed a petition.

Upon returning to the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Service of God was celebrated, and in the liturgical sermon, Metropolitan Amfilohije said that this gathering is also a gathering where we learn to serve, not to rule. The late Metropolitan invoked God's blessing upon the Assembly and the delegates so that all would embark on the path of justice and truth of God, to be witnesses of God's law, and not bearers of lawlessness through which they would be defeated even before they passed such laws.

In prophetic words, this beloved of God placed his hope in the Lord that He would not allow this lawlessness to triumph in Montenegro.

“Only those who are rich in God, in what is eternal and imperishable, are the only truly rich. All the others who worship earthly dust, idolize money, dollars, euros, or possessions, or their power, or their passions, are defeated, whoever they are. So, that is the defeat that needs to happen here, not the defeat of those in power, nor of us who serve Christ God, but the defeat of evil, hatred, division, schism, the spirit of fratricide and deicide. That needs to be defeated. And I hope in God that it will be defeated. Lawlessness must be defeated, so that the law of God, the law of truth and justice, and truly human laws may triumph.”

In the Parliament of Montenegro on the night of December 26-27, 45 MPs from the DPS, SD, Liberal Party, Bosniak Party, Croatian Civic Initiative, Force and SDP voted for the Law on Freedom of Religion. The protests that began that night over the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Religion, turning into an unstoppable force that led to the downfall of those responsible for its adoption on August 30, 2020, have become a bright spot in modern Montenegrin history.

A year after the adoption of the discriminatory law, the newly elected Government of Montenegro on December 17, 2020, at its third session chaired by Prime Minister Prof. Dr. Zdravko Krivokapić, approved the Draft Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities, and then submitted it to the Parliament of Montenegro, which adopted it on December 29.

The then Minister of Justice, Human and Minority Rights, Vladimir Leposavić, as the proposer, said in his address to the deputies that the amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion had undergone 365 days of debate, during which they were plebiscitarily supported by hundreds of thousands of citizens of Montenegro.

The Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral and other dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, which had been protesting for a year against the adoption of the controversial law, welcomed the amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion.

Sermon by Metropolitan Amfilohije – Cathedral Church of the Resurrection of Christ – Podgorica 24. 12. 2019. s. G.

May the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord and God, and our Savior Jesus Christ, be for health and salvation, and enlightenment, peace of soul and body, and eternal life!

The Lord did not come, as He Himself said, into this world and became man on Christmas from the Most Holy Virgin, to be served, but to serve, and not only to serve, but also to sacrifice His life for the people and His people. And He continually sacrifices Himself for us. And today, we have received His sacrifice – His Body and His Blood – a testimony of God’s eternal love. The Body and Blood of the Lord, which we receive, sanctifies us and teaches all people to imitate Him, not to ask that they serve us and worship us, but that we also serve in a Christ-like way, and to be healed with the Lord, receiving His Body and Blood, His love and through His love to love one another with the eternal and imperishable love of God. This is what this Holy Liturgy serves and what inspires all those who are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And this gathering of ours today is a gathering to learn to serve, not to rule and reign. And to learn to sacrifice ourselves in the way that Christ sacrificed himself for humanity. To sacrifice ourselves for one another, for there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's neighbors. That Christ-like sacrifice, that God's truth and justice, is the one that conquers in this world, continuously for centuries. And today it conquers and will conquer for centuries. That is why today we carried the message of Saint Peter of Cetinje that in the name of God there is judgment and justice. In the name of God there is victory. And today here we do not conquer someone else, nor does someone else conquer us. But God, the justice of God, the truth of God, the love of God is what calls us to partake of it, to live in accordance with it and to govern ourselves according to it on this earth.

I said there are no victors and no vanquished. God – His name, His justice, His eternal law – is the one who must conquer first in the hearts of us who are His children, and then in the hearts of all those who are called to be His children. And that while living here on earth, they too may serve their fellow men, and not rule and govern them, and not pass laws that trample on that love of God, and that sacrifice, and pass laws that desecrate that holiness of God, to which we are all called.

That is why we prayed today before the Assembly. And we also mentioned the President of the State, Milo Đukanović, Duško Marković, and all the deputies of the National Assembly, to judge in the name of God and with God's justice, eternal justice, not to judge and not to pass laws that give birth to lawlessness, that give birth to hatred, that give birth to divisions among the people of Montenegro, but rather that law on which everything that is valuable and significant in the history of the Church of God and the history of Montenegro was built.

All who are honorable and virtuous people, regardless of which kingdom or government they belonged to, they built and built themselves into such and such love, and with such and such love, and with such and such truth and justice, they won. And we are called today to overcome evil, hatred, and envy with that justice, God's truth, God's eternal law, so that God's goodness, God's truth and love, God's eternal and imperishable justice may be resurrected in us.

So may God, God's justice, God's name, God's love prevail in the hearts of all of us, including in the hearts of those who are in power today, this transient government in Montenegro, so that they too may walk this and that path. They are called to do this if they want to be true victors, not false victors. And to prevail for the sake of their own interests – them or us, or anyone else.

Today, our monasticism and clergy present here are not fighting for some kind of power or honor, nor are they fighting for their possessions and wealth, but are fighting to become the bearer of such and such Divine, Christ-like love, that self-sacrificing love, on which the entire universe and the entire world rest. And by defending their sanctuaries in which they are embedded and which they build, they are in fact defending the name of God and the justice of God. They are defending that eternal love and truth, and they are calling upon all those who are ready to sacrifice themselves, not for their own interests, whether party or ideological, religious or any other, but to surrender themselves and each other and their whole lives to Christ God, in the way that He surrendered and sacrificed Himself for the life of the world and is surrendering continuously.

And today He has gifted us with His sacrifice – His Body and His Blood, which we have partaken of. We have partaken of His love, kissing Him as eternal love and kissing one another with that love, and calling all people, both domestic and all earthly nations, to such and such love, to such and such Divine victory of the name of God, the justice and truth of God, eternal and imperishable love. And this gathering means this and is called to this, and calls upon all others to walk on that path that leads to eternal life, and which confirms the eternal and imperishable dignity of man, because this earthly wealth and possessions are today, and tomorrow are gone. Only those who are enriched with God, with that which is eternal and imperishable, are the only truly rich. All the others who worship earthly dust, who idolize money, dollars, euros, or possessions, or their power, or their passions, are defeated, whoever they may be.

So, that is the defeat that needs to happen here, not the defeat of those in power, nor of us who serve Christ God, but the defeat of evil, hatred, division, schism, the spirit of fratricide and deicide. That needs to be defeated. And I hope in God that it will be defeated. May lawlessness be defeated, so that the law of God, the law of truth and justice, and true human laws may triumph. In that name, may the Lord bless this gathering of ours! May the Lord bless our Assembly and its delegates, and may all take this and that path, to be witnesses of this and that law of God, and not to be bearers of lawlessness through which they will be defeated even before they pass such laws.

I hope in God that this lawlessness, which has never triumphed in Montenegro, will not triumph today either, because that would be a shame and disgrace to the authorities and honor, to the parliament and to all of us. It would be a shame and disgrace for lawlessness to reign in this Holy Mountain – Montenegro – the mountain of Saint Basil of Ostrog, Peter of Cetinje, Simeon of Daybaba, Stefan of Pipera, two priest-martyrs and forty students of the Martyrs of Momišić. They are victorious! And those children who sacrificed for the justice and truth of God should triumph in us and around us, just as Saint Basil of Ostrog, Peter of Cetinje and Peter the Seer of Lovćen, Simeon of Daybaba and Saint Stefan of Pipera and Daniel the Stolpnik, whom we celebrate today, and all the saints who lived in that spirit. They sacrificed themselves for the truth and justice of God throughout the centuries and to this day remain living witnesses of this and that justice, and of this and that name of the living God: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit – the God of love, to whom be glory and praise forever and ever, amen!

Vesna Dević