The project analyses the role of the Orthodox Churches in Montenegro in directing a public discourse on independence of Montenegro from Serbia in the period 2000 – 2006. The project will be based on discourse analysis of the church publications, media and public statements of church representatives and interviews with church authorities. The project will reconstruct the approaches, forms, and methods in which the Orthodox Churches participated in the process of shaping (or opposing) and directing the idea of Montenegro as an independent state.

It will also examine what topics the Orthodox Churches had been raising in Montenegrin society and to what extent they had been able to exercise influence over the process leading to the independence of Montenegro.

The project strives for contributing to a broader discussion over the relationship between Orthodoxy and democracy and the role of religion within modern (post) secular societies in the European context. The project output aims at addressing the question of whether church institutions should be regarded as one of the civil society representatives in line with the broadly accepted definition or whether they should be perceived as a completely specific actor in internal politics.