Patriarch Bartholomew has stated that "we will never give autocephaly to the so-called 'Montenegrin Orthodox Church'" and that its leader Dedeić was suspended by Constantinople for adultery and embezzlement.

"[12][13] The Montenegrin Orthodox Church was founded in Cetinje on October 31, 1993, led by Antonije Abramović who was appointed as patriarch,[4][14][15] initially with the support of the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro (LSCG), a pro-Montenegrin independence political party that existed at the time.

At that time, the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS) maintained close ties to Slobodan Milošević's administration in Serbia, and therefore the initial activities of the MOC were very sporadic.

[citation needed] On January 17, 2001, the MOC was officially registered as a non-governmental organization at the local department of the Montenegrin Ministry of the Interior.

[17] In the absence of any other relevant and more current piece of legislation, this registration was done by calling on the Law on the Legal Position of Religious Communities from 1977 when Montenegro was a socialist republic within SFR Yugoslavia.

However, on appeal, the Serbian Supreme Court ruled this position unconstitutional, overturning the refusal and paving the way for a potential permission to register.

"[28] In October 2023, Dedeić's proposal was rejected by the basic court in Cetinje that asked to prohibit Bojović from performing religious services in MOC churches.

[29][30] On June 24, 2024, the Supreme Administrative Court of Montenegro issued a judgment ordering the Ministry of Justice to recognize Metropolitan Boris as the head of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

This decision ended the ongoing administrative crisis resulting from the Ministry's refusal to register Metropolitan Boris as the new leader of the Church.

The court found that the ministerial rejection of the request was unjustified, taking into account the religious autonomy of the church and the invalidity of internal statutes that had not been officially promulgated.

[9][10] After becoming Metropolitan of the MOC in 1997, he was fully excommunicated by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

[34] Services are held in the Australian state of New South Wales as well as in the Argentine province of Chaco, which is the base of Archimandrite Gorazd Glomazic and the Montenegrin Church of Saint Nikola in the colony of Machagay.

[37] In September 2008, Serbian Orthodox locals attempted to launch a blockade in the Nikšić area to prevent the MOC from building a church there.

[43] During the occasion of 2008 Serbian elections, the church had the support of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians which stated it should be a recognized religion in the country.