Serbian Orthodox to File Suit for Return of New Kalenic Monastery

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Australia and New Zealand has announced that it is beginning legal proceedings for the return of the New Kalenich Monastery of St. Sava to its jurisdiction. The Monastery is owned by a Free Serbian Orthodox trust that in recent years rejected the authority of the Pech Patriarchate. The lawsuit will be filed in May if the trust administrators continue to refuse clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church access to the Monastery.

The schism between the Church of Serbia and the Free Serbian Orthodox Church developed after World War II. In the 1990s it was resolved, but individual Free Serbian Orthodox parishes and monasteries have in recent years left the Serbian Orthodox Church because of its decision to end the overlapping patriarchal and Free Serbian Orthodox dioceses abroad in favor of establishing a system of blended territorial dioceses. More here.