Macedonia’s Renegade Bishop Arrested

As the battle between the Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox churches heats up again, Macedonian police arrest a bishop loyal to the Serbian side. 19 January 2004 SKOPJE, Macedonia--Macedonian authorities on 11 January arrested renegade Orthodox Bishop Jovan after police raided his apartment, where he had been holding secret Sunday masses with monks and nuns loyal to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

Bishop Jovan has recently been at the center of a 40-year dispute between the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MPC) and the SPC. He is accused of holding illegal religious services on non-church land and has been formally charged with inciting ethnic, religious, and racial hatred.

Police also arrested seven monks and nuns and four other priests involved in the unsanctioned masses. Three of the detained monks are heads of MPC monasteries.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Mirjana Konteska said police raided the apartment in the middle of a liturgy after receiving anonymous complaints from citizens that Jovan was disturbing the peace and posing a threat to national security. Konteska said police had a warrant for the raid.

Police also helped MPC priests regain control of some monasteries in the hands of monks allied to Jovan.

The MPC had defrocked Jovan--whose given name is Zoran Vraniskovski--in July 2002 for planning to establish canonical relations between his diocese and the SPC.

The SPC and other major Orthodox churches, including the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches, consider the MPC, which declared its independence in 1967, schismatic and do not recognize its autonomy. Macedonia insists its Lake Ohrid region was an ancient cradle of Orthodox Christianity and that the Serbian church is a daughter of the Macedonian church, rather than vice versa.

Last year, the SPC declared Macedonia an administrative district, which it named the Ohrid Archbishopric, and established its own ruling body, a synod led by Bishop Jovan and two other priests.

“As individuals they have the right to go where they want. But the churches and monasteries remain with us. No one has the right to join them to another church. Our bishops will take steps and we expect [those affiliated with Jovan] to be expelled,” said MPC spokesperson Bishop Timotej.

“All the churches and monasteries in the Republic of Macedonia are part of the MPC,” Bishop Timotej said.

THE 40-YEAR DISPUTE

At a meeting in the Serbian city of Nis in May 2002, SPC officials asked their Macedonian counterparts to sign an agreement according to which the MPC would be downgraded from autocephalous to autonomous and renamed the Ohrid Archbishopric. The offer was rejected, not least because of Macedonians’ desire to have the word “Macedonian” included in the name of the church they consider theirs.

At that time, Jovan was the only Macedonian bishop who did not withdraw his support for the Nis Declaration. But Jovan soon earned himself the label of renegade, taking his support for the declaration too far in the eyes of the MPC. In fact, he entered into a canonical union with SPC and, during his masses, called on all MPC officials to follow his lead. By the time of his arrest, he had taken over four MPC monasteries.

In July 2002, the MPC stripped Jovan of his rank. He was later tried and found guilty on corruption charges. He received a suspended sentence of one year in prison.

In 2003, the SPC promoted Jovan as the exarch, or head, of the Ohrid Archbishopric. The SPC granted the Ohrid Archbishopric autonomy and jurisdiction within the borders of the Republic of Macedonia.

The MPC had largely ignored Jovan until his 11 January arrest. He had failed to attract many followers among Macedonia's Orthodox worshippers, who have strong connections to the MPC and view it as their national church. But his recent success in winning over key monks and, in effect, taking over key monasteries, had recently begun to worry MPC officials and Macedonian authorities.

The MPC is one of five churches mentioned in the Macedonian Constitution. The Macedonian law forbids the existence of two church authorities for one religious faith.

RETAKING THE MONASTERIES

On 12 January, the day after Jovan's arrest, the MPC, assisted by local police, entered two monasteries in Skopje and nearby Resen. The monks from those two monasteries had all left the MPC and joined Jovan's Ohrid Archbishopric.

The MPC appointed new monastery heads and formed commissions to inspect whether any of the monasteries' belongings had been stolen by the renegade monks. A day later, police and MPC officials raided Treskavec, a difficult-to-reach monastery located on a hill overlooking the city of Prilep.

Fathers David and Maxim, the leaders of the renegade monks, accused police of mental torture during the 30 hours they spent in detention. The monks said that they had gone over to Jovan’s side when it became clear that the “MPC synods had not succeeded in reaching a solution for the church's recognition by the rest of the Orthodox ecumena.”

They also accused the Macedonian bishops of corruption and warned that more than half of the monks would follow in their footsteps.

The MPC immediately began the process of stripping the renegade monks of their rank.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR THE MPC

While the Serbian Orthodox Church has denounced Jovan's arrest, comparing it with the persecution of early Christians and demanding an explanation from Macedonian authorities, the government of Macedonia last week expressed its full support for the MPC. It said that the MPC's independence is vital to the country’s strategic interests.

The opposition Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) demanded that the Macedonian Parliament issue a special declaration of support for the MPC.

During a 16 January visit to Podgorica, Montenegro, Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski said: “The MPC has the full support of the entire Orthodox population in Macedonia. The future of the churches is in cooperation and dialogue, not in conflict.”

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, sent a letter to Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski asking him to release Jovan and to stop the “religious terror” in Macedonia. Patriarch Pavle expressed willingness to send a negotiating team to Macedonia to resolve the problems between the churches.

After meeting with MPC Archbishop Stefan, President Trajkovski responded to the patriarch’s letter, saying he would be “very happy if the churches negotiate and solve the problem by recognizing the MPC.” Trajkovski said he could not, however, “interfere in the investigative process.”

Amnesty International has also demanded Jovan's release. Legally, Jovan can only be held for 30 days. The investigating judge is scheduled to decide whether Jovan will be released on 22 January.

--by Biljana Stavrova

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