It was formed and registered as NGO in 1993 by Antonije Abramović, a defrocked monk of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who became the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the head of Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which claims succession to the autocephalous Montenegrin Church which operated until the unification of the two countries Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Montenegro, later to join the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. It has been recognized as a religious community by the government of Montenegro since 1999, and it has wide claims over the canonical jurisdiction of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church. According to a 2009 poll conducted by CEDEM, 29.36 percent of Montenegro's Eastern Orthodox Christians have opted for the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, while 70.64 percent have opted for or stayed with the canonical Serbian Orthodox Church.