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Revision as of 04:17, 7 November 2005
In March 1945, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, so as to limit the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church decided to create a separate administration in the newly-created People's Republic of Macedonia. In Skopje, a Resolution to create the Macedonian Orthodox Church was submitted to the Serbian Orthodox Church who had since 1919 been the sole titulary. This resolution was rejected, but a later one, submitted in 1958, proposing the Ohrid Archdiocese of Saint Clement as a Macedonian Orthodox Church was accepted by the Serbian Orthodox Church on June 17, 1959 under strong pressure from the Communist authorites. Dositheus was appointed the first archbishop. The Macedonian Orthodox Church at that time only held an autonomous status but during the Third Clergy and Laity Assembly on July 19, 1967, in Ohrid, the Macedonian Orthodox Church was proclaimed as autocephalous contrary to canonical law.
Since the breakup of Yugoslavia and the end of Communist repression of the Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church has been in conflict with the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which has yet to gain recognition from the Patriarchate of Constantinople or any other autocephalous church. The issue of dispute is the anti-canonical method used to gain autocephaly, the issue of the Serb Orthodox minority (at least some 40,000 strong) and the question of some hundreds of Serb Orthodox shrines from the medieval Nemanjic period. The two Churches had been negotiating the details of a compromise agreement reached in Nis, Serbia in 2002 which would have given the Macedonians a de facto independent status just short of canonical autocephaly, when the Serbian Orthodox Church granted its embattled branch in the Republic of Macedonia full autonomy in late May 2005. The Macedonian prime minister rejected the move "with indignation". The government has stepped up its hostility to the Serbian Church and reaffirmed its support for the rival Macedonian Orthodox Church, which is not recognised by the rest of the Orthodox world.
Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid - who heads the Serbian Church in the Republic of Macedonia - complained of a new state-backed media campaign against his Church. "They are creating an unstable, explosive atmosphere among the population and are virtually inviting people to lynch us," he told Forum 18 News Service . The government has denied his Church registration, attacked its places of worship and launched two criminal cases against him. Macedonian government leaders have been unable to explain why they are interfering in the dispute between the Macedonian and Serbian Orthodox Churches and why they are denying full legal rights to Serbian Orthodox believers. Archbishop Jovan was later arrested, removed from his bishopric and then expelled from the country. Archbishop Jovan returned in 2005 and, after attempting to perform a baptism, he was arrested, sentenced to 18 months in prison and jailed with extremely limited visitation rights.
External links
- Macedonian Orthodox Church - the official site
- Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral Sts Peter and Paul-Crown Point, IN, USA
- Macedonian Orthodox Church Dormition of the Virgin Mary (St. Mary) - Columbus, Ohio, USA
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