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| In March 1945, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, so as to limit the influence of the ] decided to create a separate administration in the newly-created People's Republic of Macedonia. In ], a Resolution to create the Macedonian<sup>]</sup> Orthodox Church was submitted to the ] 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 ], ] 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 ], ], in Ohrid, the Macedonian Orthodox Church was proclaimed as autocephalous contrary to canonical law. | |||
| Since the breakup of ] and the end of Communist repression of the Church, the ] has been in conflict with the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which has yet to gain recognition from the ] or any other autocephalous church. The issue of dispute is the the anti-canonical method used to gain autocephaly, the issue of the ] Orthodox minority in Macedonia (at least some 40,000 strong) and the question of some hundreds of Serb Orthodox shrines from the medieval ] period. The two Churches had been negotiating the details of a compromise agreement reached in ], 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 in Macedonia and why they are denying full legal rights to Serbian Orthodox believers. Bishop Jovan was later arrested and removed from his bishopric and then expelled from the Republic of Macedonia. | |||
| ==External Links== | ==External Links== | ||
Revision as of 22:11, 25 June 2005
External Links
- Macedonian Orthodox Church - the official site
- Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral Sts Peter and Paul-Crown Point, IN, USA
Note
¤ The use of the terms Republic of Macedonia and Macedonian(s) throughout this article is not meant to imply an official position on the naming dispute between Athens and Skopje. See Foreign relations of the Republic of Macedonia#Naming_dispute_with_Greece, Republic_of_Macedonia#Naming_Dispute and United Nations Resolution 817 (1993)