Posted on 06/24/2005 8:49:59 AM PDT by Destro
Macedonian court confirms jail term for Orthodox archbishop
Macedonia, Jun. 24 (Forum 18/CWNews.com) - In Macedonia, a Serbian Orthodox prelate, Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid, has had a 18-month jail sentence confirmed by an appeals court. His case, the Forum 18 news service reports, is "the latest development in a long-running government campaign against the Serbian Orthodox Church, in support of the rival Macedonian Orthodox Church.
"It is ridiculous that they are trying to silence me, in this age of the internet and mass communication," Archbishop Jovan told Forum 18. He noted of government action against SOC believers that "when they hit the shepherd, they expect the sheep to run away, but Church history is paradoxical, as, the more the Church is persecuted, the more followers she gets."
Court officials have claimed to Forum 18 that commenting on the jail sentence is "against the law." Archbishop Jovan was jailed for five days in 2003, in solitary confinement, for baptizing his sister's grandchild.
[For a detailed report see the Forum 18 web site.]
A fake country with only one fake friend keeping them from falling apart. No other Orthodox Church recognizes the FYROMs.
Someone once said that Orthodoxy is the right faith given to the wrong people. Stories like this make me think (as an Orthodox Christian myself) that sometimes truer words were never spoken.
Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
"No other Orthodox Church recognizes the FYROMs."
No thanks to the GOC and the SOC who would rather have the MOC under thier rule, just as they would love the whole of Macedonia to be under thier rule too!
The reason that no other Orthodox Church recognize the MOC is because it was a creation of Tito in an attempt to weaken the Serbian Church. If the Macedonians want an autonomous church in communion with the rest of Orthodoxy, this is not the means to achieve that end.
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