Metropolitan Amfilohije: Power in the Church cannot belong to one person
According to the Head of the Montenegrin-Littoral Metropolis of the SOC, Orthodoxy respects Phanar’s primacy in honor but does not accept its claims to usurp power.
On February 28, 2020, in Podgorica, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral declared that the Church is catholic by nature and it is unacceptable that the primacy of power belongs to one patriarch or metropolitan.
“We respect the first in honor, primus interpares (Latin cliché, literally meaning “first among equals” – Ed.), but the primacy of power is unacceptable,” said the hierarch. “We all respect the primacy of Constantinople as the first in honor but not in power. The authority in the catholic Church belongs only to God but not to one local patriarch or metropolitan.”
Metropolitan Amfilohije also believes that His Beatitude Onuphry defends his Church "on the basis of faith and love."
“A huge number of Ukrainians have remained faithful (to the Church – Ed.) of Kievan Rus, St. Prince Vladimir. And they have to persist in this direction. We learn from you and you learn from the resurrection of our people.”
We will recall, on the morning of February 28, in Podgorica, a joint press conference of His Beatitude Onuphry and Metropolitan Amphilochios was held.