The Croatian Orthodox Church was a religious body created during World War II by the Ustasha regime in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
The reason for formation of this church was that Orthodox Christian Churches are state-based. Since Orthodox Christians lived on the territory of NDH, and not that of Serbia, as well as the fact that many countries and peoples of Orthodox Christian faith, that were friendly to NDH, couldn't have properly organized religious life in NDH (Bulgarians, Romanians, Ukrainians, Montenegrins etc.). Authorities finally made a move to organize domestic Orthodox Church. This was also part of policy to eliminate Serbian culture from Nazi Croatia.
The church lasted from 1942 to 1945, and was intended as a national church to which Serbs living in Croatia would convert, thus making it possible to describe them as "Croats of Orthodox faith". It had little or no popular support. It was only recognized by one other Orthodox church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, on August 4, 1944 (at the time, Romania was also under the control of the Fascist regime of Ion Antonescu). Its manager was Savić Marković Štedimlija.
There were some discussions during the 1990s, after the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, regarding the revival of such a church.
Read more about Croatian Orthodox Church: The Croatian Orthodox Church 1942-1945, Proposals For A Revival in The 1990s
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