THE ORTHODOX OHRID ARCHBISHOPRIC

Protocol No. 195 dated on 20th of December, 2004

To
the Prime Minister of the Government
of the Republic of Macedonia
Mr. Vlado Butchkovski

Dear Sir,

I try to conquer myself in the perplexities I have, therefore I congratulate you truly and sincerely for the very important duty you have accepted. But, to be honest, the rich tradition of the Church to which I have grafted myself, as well as the small life experience I have gained so far, do not give me a complete hope that I am not wrong to do so. Nevertheless, I have decided to congratulate you and to wish you to do whatever is best for our people and our country during the mandate committed to you.

The precaution, which I believe you have noticed, is not a result of my arrogance or of my mistrust that this country deserves a better life. The doubt was created in me by your predecessors, messers Crvenkovski and Kostoff , who have not only proved themselves to be barren, futile and lacking God’s blessing, but above all, as the persecutors of the Church. Someone would say: ‘Every authority is granted by God.’ yes, but some authority is allowed by God due to the weakness of men, and some authority is blessed. Some authority is fruitful and gives fruits for the citizens, and some authority spends, squanders and even steals instead to create and proliferate.

These congratulations I send does not aim to mention all the weaknesses and errors of your predecessors. They will be well remembered by the history of the Church by their hatred towards the Church and the mission thereof. Fourteen years has passed since the Republic of Macedonia is sinking in an economic dead end, inter-ethnic intolerance, spiritual unenlighteness and ideological hopelessness. The good things that had been done can be counted with the fingers of one hand. The thing that should be mentioned herein, despite the history has already registered it, is the extremely uncivilised, uncultured, disgusting, and even worse, unconstitutional and illegal attitude of the previous Government towards the only Church in the Republic of Macedonia being recognised by the other Orthodox Churches, the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, headed by my humbleness.

Let me remind you that the Police of Mr. Kostoff , who was the Minister of Internal Affairs then, put me under custody for the first time in July, 2003. Afterwards, the Police made searches of the premises of the Archbishopric and of the homes of many members thereof. The Police of Mr. Kostoff put me and the priors of several monasteries in the Republic of Macedonia under custody in January, 2004 with an explanation that we had been inflaming ethnic and religious hatred. The monks were released in some time, and I was kept under custody for almost a month. Then they had set our monastery to fire and cut the hairs of the nuns. Forgive me, but all the suspicions lead to the conclusion that state authorities and some of the schismatic bishops were involved in the aforesaid in collusion. Soon I have been sentenced to eighteen months of imprisonment by virtue of a political decision, and the terrorism sponsored by the state authorities culminated with the disgusting, blasphemic and extremely unbecoming demolition of the church in the monastery in Nizhepole.

Mr. Butchkovski, your predecessors had crudely interfered in the internal affairs of the Church and led it to the catacombs. According to their attitude towards the Church, messers Crvenkovski and Kostoff are not different with regard to their style of ruling from Nero, Diocletian or other famous persecutors of the Church almost at all. As if more than seventeen centuries have not passed since then, as if the Gospel had not been brought on the territory now belonging to the Republic of Macedonia 20 centuries ago.

Mr. Prime Minister, we do not ask you for mercy or grants, although you should be merciful and generous according to the service assigned to you. We only ask you for the things guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the country you are ruling, as well as for things provided for by the International Conventions with regard to human rights. We ask only for freedom of religion. Is that much to ask Mr. Prime Minister? Is it much to ask for freedom to serve God without fearing whether the Police will enter by force during the religious services and start arresting us? Is it much to ask the state authorities to accept us as one of the religious communities in the Republic of Macedonia? It is not demanding too much. Those are the most elementary conditions that should be guaranteed by any state. Those are condition borders on the right to existence, to the right to life. If one does not have freedom to express his/her faith, than his/her fundamental rights to existence are violated. Existence without freedom is unworthy for humans.

Finally, let me remind you of some inevitable facts that I believe are known to you at the end of these congratulations. The trial initiated by the Public Prosecutor against me charging me for ‘inflaming of ethnic and religious hatred’ gained huge publicity. All the aforesaid until now is not that important. But, which will be the reputation of our country whose Prime Minister are you, if one Bishop would be really put in prison because he had chosen to serve God and the Gospel. I believe that your memory serves you, and you will agree that such things did not happen even during the communist oppression. To put a Bishop in prison because his public appearances, presentations and sermons serving the Church is more than a totalitarian act.

Mr. Butchkovski, the intelligence services spy on us and on our associates for months now. If they have discovered something so far, wouldn’t you know about that? I deem that the fact that the whole Government and even the President of the Republic have been taken to the slanders and provincial slinging mud to us by the schismatic bishops of the Macedonian Orthodox Church reflects the immaturity for the position of the aforesaid institutions. It is extremely unreasonable and irresponsible to believe the statements of the seven, and after the degrading of Cyril, the six ‘magnificent’ sitting in the Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, who do not see farther than their stomach and do not do anything except for their interests. They are not to be accused but to be mourned, and the Government making possible for them to realise their personal interests is guilty for that. Mr. Butchkovski, have you ever asked yourself what have they accomplished so far during their many years long ‘service’? I hope that you will not be taken by the story of theirs that the state is supported by their shoulders? That they were the ‘lobes of the lung’ of the Republic of Macedonia and that our state has no future without the Macedonian Orthodox Church? It is true that every state needs a Church so to avoid to be misled by the ideology and initiatives of the political party being in power, but to be transfigured and to be saved, to conquer the death and to bring eternal life. Unfortunately, everybody knows well who had created the Macedonian Orthodox Church, as well as why it is necessary for it to continue its existence.

I shall not advise you on how your relations with the ones who are not recognised by anybody in the world should be. Not because somebody hates them, but because they had betrayed their service. They would have been good policemen or customs officers, but not bishops. There is no Orthodox Church in the world that has not uncovered their masks. Even the Russian Orthodox Church that had been most friendly to them. I believe that you have been informed about what had been said to Peter and Timothy on the last meeting in Moscow with Cyril, the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Calingrad, the Chairman of the Department for Foreign Church Co-operation.

The Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric is recognised by all the Orthodox Churches in the world. At a church level, the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric has accomplished the same as the Republic of Macedonia did when it was admitted to the Organisation of the United Nations, although under the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Besides the incomprehensibly big obstacles that have been made and still are made by the schismatic Macedonian Orthodox Church in collaboration with the state authorities, the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric has succeeded to win the place thereof among the other Orthodox Churches. Imagine what progress there would have been without the obstacles of the Government. It would not be pretentious if I say that today the situation of the Church would have been the position to help the state to become a member of the EU more easily due to the connections with the Churches of other states being already members of the EU. Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I think it is still not late for the Government to change the crude, uncultured, and what is more terrible, the illicit attitude thereof towards the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric. The application for registering of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric has been rejected by the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities and Groups. We have lodged a complaint to the Commission of second instance of the Government and we expect the ruling thereof within 30 days that have left over. The registration of our Church is the least that the state is due to grant the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric. I deem that today, you, as the Prime Minister of the Government, are due to grant it to us for the sake of your reputation before the international factors, for the sake of the reputation of the country whose Prime Minister of Government are you, and at the end, although the following is more important than the first two things, for the sake of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia who are members of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, for the sake of the needs, of the fundamental human rights as well of the constitutional right to a freedom of religion thereof.

Congratulating your new office and expecting much from it, we remain respectfully,

+ J O H N,
the Metropolitan of Veles and of Vardar Valley and the Exarch of Ohrid