Macedonia jails Serbian bishop

BITOLJE -- Thursday – A court in Bitolje has sentenced Bishop Jovan, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church diocese of Ohrid, to eighteen months’ imprisonment.

Bishop Jovan, whose secular name is Zoran Vraniskovski, was convicted of inciting ethnic and religious hatred, discord and intolerance, according to Macedonian media.

The prosecution presented as evidence calendars and other material published by Vraniskovski, claiming that these slandered and humiliated the Macedonian Orthodox Church and its clerics.

The court agreed that the Serbian bishop had offended the religious feelings of the citizens, inciting a major civil protest in Bitolje in January this year.

Lawyer Vasko Djordjijev told media that his client would appeal against the conviction.

The issue of Bishop Jovan is the latest round in a long-standing demarcation dispute between the Serbian and Macedonian Orthodox Churches.

Thank you. This issue is, of course, complicated as everything else in the Balkan's stew pot. Technically, there is no such thing as the "Macedonian Orthodox Church" because no other Orthodox Church recognizes it. This "church" was, ironically, created by an ukaz (decree) of the communist Yugoslav regime in the 1960's, the way the Macedonian "nation" and their "language", and alphabet (Bulgarian grammar and modified Serbian Cyrillic) was created by a combined effort of the former Yugoslav and Bulgarian communist regimes shortly after World War II.

Technically, there is no such country as "Macedonia," because it has never been recognized as such by any other country. "Macedonians" are not Greeks, but Slavs whose language is a dialect of Bulgarian and Serbian, depending on the geographic location relative to the Vardar River. It exists officially as as acronym "FYROM" (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Realistically, of course, there is such entity called Macedonian Orthodox Church, Macedonian language, and Macedonia, no matter how artificially created and politically motivated they may be. As far as the "church" is concerned, it is only autonomous and not autocephalous; it has a Metropolitan and not a Patriarch.

Macedonian Patriarch is still the Serbian Patriarch and Macedonian Orthodox Church is a self-governing branch of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Just as it is the case with the Japanese or Korean Orthodox Churches, being autonomous but under the Russian Patriarch.

There are conditions that have to be met for a church to become autocephalous. Macedonian church officials did not meet those conditions, and it would be an insult to the Church to recognize anything created for political reasons by a godless communist regime.

Now that this has been cleared, a word about bishop Yovan (Jovan). It is difficult to imagine that he would threaten the state and incite religious intolerance. I would have to see the court transcripts to pass a more definitive opinion. Orthodox priests and especially bishops are not in the business of inciting religious hatred and riots.

Freedom of religion is under attack in Macedonia, where the regime of a non-existant nation, with a official language that is really a dialect, and with a communist-installed church is fighting tooth and nail to survive.

It is generally not recognized by Bulgarians; Albanians in the West are creating a separatist region a la Kosovo; the last thing the so-called Macedonian recycled-communist oficial government needs or is ready to accept is religious freedom that may threaten their communist-created "church."

Yovan's 18-month sentence is relatively light considering the paranoid state of mind of this charade of a nation which calls itself "Macedonian."

Addendum to a great post:
We have here a very,very,absurd situation:a religious organization created in 1967 by an Communist/Atheist regime!?
Macedonian Orthodox Church had never existed as an independent entity,and,asa territory,Macedonia was "covered" by Serbian Orthodox Church.In order to dismantle as much as possible,anything Serbian,Tito and his henchmen had created Macedonian Church.Of course,that church remained unrecognized by ALL Orthodox Churches in the world and the Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople/Istanbul.Never mind,now we have our church and we can stir trouble whenever we see fit,said the Macedonians.And,trouble is brewing.

Father Jovan was nominated as a Head of the Church in Macedonia but was ,soon,evicted from his residency and his monastery by Macedonian police!And,when he organized a service in his flat ,his flat was stormed by the police,he was arrested and...you know the rest.
Sad,very sad...But,Macedonian authorities ,after all these incidents enjoyed hospitality of the Serbs,their people and Prime Minister Kostunitsa and Serbian Patriarch during a recent celebration of their National Holiday in Serbian monastery of Prohor Pchinjski,Serbia.And,despite the very friendly and non confrontational statements from all of the Serbian officials and,especially Patriarch Pavle,Macedonian press went into hysterical criticism because Macedonian President shook hands with Patriarch Pavle and Father Jovan who was present at the celebration!

And,now,he got 18 months in prison???

They deserve everything that Albanians will do to them,sorry to say!They insulted Serbia,antagonized Greece,Bulgaria treat them as dirt anyway...They are losing all of their natural allies...Sad.

I would like to add a little more to your post, which was additionally informative. For the sake of brevity in explaining a complex situation, I did not mention two details:

Bishop Yovan was arrested for baptismal ceremony performed in his apartment. FYROM supposedly has laws against such practices! The Church is where the bishop is. You can perform the Divine Liturgy under a tree! If FYROM has such draconian laws, it should be reported to the EU and sanctions applied to this turd of a place until it reverses its medieval laws.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has given the so-called "Macedonian Orthodox Church" a chance to accept autonomy, as the first legitimate step toward autocephaly. They refused. Not all, but some. In all fairness, the so-called "Macedonian Patriarch" is keeping silent on this entire issue, and the whole affair is being run by one of the bishops and the rabid Macedonian nationalists in the press. The question is why is the "Patriarch" silent and why does he allow his bishop to conduct such reprehensible campaign.

If anything, the people who are fanning the fires of national intolerance and hatred are Macedonian ultra-nationalists and current or former communists who are in the government.

Finally, the U.S. has a significant diplomatic and military presence and influence in the area. FYROM depends completely on the graces of Washington. The question is why is Washington allowing one of its very dependent "allies" to pursue policies of national and religious intolerance? And, not to be dismissed easily, why is Washington tarring its own image by siding with such rot?

I have posted before - it serves Washington's interests that FYROM have no allies in the region save America. By angering Serbs and Greeks and Albanians and Bulgarians FYROM becomes completly helpess and dependent on the USA for its existance.

Secondly FYROM serves as buffer state preventing Serbs and Greeks from having a common border and thus forming any sort of military and political alliance that could one day create a nucleus for a Balkan NATO.

Right now if America needs to keep the Greeks in line all it has to do is egg on the Turks to show some force along the Greeco-Turkish border and the Greeks become distracted and dependent on America to ease tensions.

Imagine the situation where a Greek and Serbian army hold joint military excercises in Thrace?

If FYROM does break apart, Washington would give it over to Bulgaria and Albanian so as to continue to keep Greeks and Serbs apart.

If the Serbs did what the Albanians did in FYROM NATO would have moved heaven and earth to help FYROM defeat the Serbs. When the Albanians revolted the USA and NATO really did not care so much because it would still serve their interests if Albania had her share of FYROM and the rest fell in with Bulgaria.

Just as long as the Serbs and Greeks can be kept apart.

Imagine the situation where a Greek and Serbian army hold joint military excercises in Thrace?

If FYROM does break apart, Washington would give it over to Bulgaria and Albanian so as to continue to keep Greeks and Serbs apart.

Just as long as the Serbs and Greeks can be kept apart.

Ok here we go,

The Macedonian Orthodox Church which the Ohrid Archbishopric falls under is older then the Serbian Orthodox Church, in all actuallity it is the mother church of the serbian orthodox church.

Now during the ottoman rule a muslim sultan took the seat of power that Ohrid had and gave it to the serbs......something that the serbs acknowledge themselves...ask yourself this though, since when has a muslim had a say in what goes on in christian matters.....anything he says is void and mute...which is only logical

Regardless during the yugoslav times under the dictator of Tito.......there was a meeting of Macedonian Bishops that decided to re-establish the Ohrid Archbishopric and the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the serbs back then agreed to it.

Now come to present day Macedonia and the break up of Yugoslavia.

We all know that the greeks have had a problem with the name Macedonia being used by Macedonia, also we all know that the greeks and serbs are by far.

Ok the serbs currently are losing there National Religous heartland of Kosovo.....so what do they do they come up with some trumped up charges of saying that the Macedonian Orthodox Church is under there jurisdiciton.....when it hasn't been.........the Greeks though are backing the serbs with this because basically Religion in the balkans goes with ethnicity more or less.....if the macedonians lose there religous identity .....the greek arguement against the name issue will have gained some validity.....since if a country can not have a national religion then how can it have the name.....

Now the russian orthodox church is negotiating between teh two sides as well......what strikes me as well as others is that the serbs never had a problem with the religous aspect of the Macedonian Orthodox Church but rather had a problem with the MOC's constitution which states the name MACEDONIAN and the term independent........they have a problem with those two words......Maceodnian and independent....you see that pig of a leader of the Serbian orthodox church (his name is pavle) is a politician and his vision of a greater serbia is disappearing fast....he is grasping at straws now in order to save his church.

Regardless though......as for that scum bag that gets arrested in Macedonia for performin illegal duties.....that is the law of Macedonia.....it is no different from the Macedonian Priest that is arrested in Greece for performing services in the Macedonian language and under the Macedonian Orthodox Church Jurisdiction.....but I am sure our greek friends here will not post anything like that......or it is no different then the serbs not allowing the MOC to open up churches in serbia.....that is the law of Orthodoxy you can not covet other peoples sheep so to say.......and the greeks and serbs are doing this together in order to destroy the macedonian consciouness and identity...its a shame as religous leaders in Orthodoxy they would rather pray with homosexual priests and other pagan scum worshipers in the World Council of Churchs but refuse to share the faith with there fellow orthodox brothers and sisters of Macedonia......regardless God is punishing the serb scum church leaders for this as you all can see there churches and historical heartland is being burnt down as I type this.

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