Bishop Grigorije: Church Assembly Sincere, Two Superb Pontiffs Join the Church

Vladika Grigorije, Beta

The bishop of Dusseldorf and all of Germany Grigorije said on May 31 that the Assembly (Sabor) of the Serbian Orthodox Church was sincere, manifesting freedom and good intentions, which resulted in the election of two superb pontiffs, the bishops of Budimlje and Niksic and Valjevo, Metodije and Isihije, respectively.

Bishop Grigorije said in an interview with BETA that the election of Bishop Joanikije as the metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral was straightforward, and there was no chance something else could have happened.

"Despite a weird insinuation that an outsider had tried to postpone the election of Montenegro's pontiff, the election of Joanikije was the normal course of things. I ignored the rumor, because I had been under the clear impression that no one could stop it," the bishop said. Speaking of the election of Metodije and Ishije, Grigorije underlined that he had been a member of Sabor for 22 years, and that it's been quite a while since the Church had two superb pontiffs at one point in time.

After this Sabor, Grigorije added, I was under the impression that the Church was recovering properly. "This was the first Assembly under the new patriarch, Porfirije. Sabor was sincere, open, involving plenty of freedom and good intentions. There were some moments that were difficult to overcome, but the language used was churchlike and serious," the bishop said.