Jovan
of Veles and Povardarie is the first Macedonian bishop so
far to accept an offer made to all Macedonian bishops on June
19, in which Patriarch Pavle urged them to accept autonomous
status within his church.
By
accepting the offer, the Macedonian public believe the bishop
is colluding with Greek and Serbian religious nationalists'
attempts to emasculate the Macedonian church by negating its
autocephalous status.
"Bishop
Jovan's attempt to separate part of the Macedonian church
and merge it with the Serbian church is the first step in
a hellish plan by the Serbophile and his mentors," raged the editor of the daily Dnevnik, Branko Gerovski.
Autocephaly, which amounts to ecclesiastical independence,
has a significance that transcends the clergy and the faithful
- an independent Macedonian church is seen as an essential
part of the country's nationhood.
Patriarch
Pavle's appeal followed the failure of a draft agreement signed
by commissions from both the Macedonian and Serbian churches
in Nis on May 17. The draft, which was subject to acceptance
by the synods of both churches, proposed abolition of the
autocephalous status of the Macedonian church, in exchange
for autonomous status within the Serbian church.
The
Serbian synod accepted the draft, but its Macedonian counterpart
rejected it. Like Bishop Jovan, Petar of Australia and New
Zealand, Timotej of Ohrid and Kicevo and Naum of Strumica
had supported the draft, but unlike him they accepted the
decision of the synod and ignored Patriarch Pavle's overtures.
Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid, the head of the Macedonian church,
has maintained a neutral position throughout.
The
status of the Macedonian church has long been a contentious
issue within Orthodoxy. Encouraged by the communist authorities,
the church unilaterally declared itself autocephalous in 1967.
It had not previously enjoyed autonomous status within the
Serbian church, although an offer of temporary autonomy was
hastily made in an attempt to stave off the declaration of
autocephaly.
Then,
bishops rejected the offer of temporary autonomy in favour
of autocephalous status, which has never been recognised by
the other Orthodox churches.
Today's
dispute is becoming acrimonious. Those who rejected the draft
from the start, including Kiril of Polog and Kumanovo, Agatangel
of Bregalnica, point out that the pro-autonomy bishops all
share a Greek or Serbian background. Petar and Timotej were
educated at the Belgrade Orthodox Faculty of Theology, while
Naum was a monk on Mount Athos.
Bishop
Jovan, who has a black belt in karate, attended the Thessalonika
Faculty of Theology. He was immediately made a bishop in the
Macedonian church after his return from Greece in 1996 and
maintains close relations with a number of eminent Greek theologians.
He is currently writing a PhD thesis on the question of autonomous
and autocephalous status within the Orthodox canon.
Bishop
Jovan insists his decision was based solely on theology. "I
concluded that now is the right moment (to accept autonomous
status)," he said in a statement to Bitola television
on June 26. "Some are accusing me of national treason
and that may be so, but as a bishop of the holy church I cannot
place national interests before spiritual ones. While the
church may recognise a nation, that always comes second."
"The
canons of the church are one thing and the feelings of the
people are another," retorted Professor Gorgi Marijanovic
in his daily Dnevnik column. "In a situation
where Greece even disputes the legitimacy of our name, people
are understandably outraged by Bishop Jovan's move."
This
is not the first time Bishop Jovan has upset his flock. In
2000, he was removed from the Bregalnica diocese after his
inflexible attitude to ritual and his insistence on conducting
part of the liturgy in Greek upset the local faithful. Clergy
from Bregalnica have since claimed in the Macedonian media
that Bishop Jovan frequently entertained Zoran Janackovic,
a former head of Serbian state security, who became ambassador
to Skopje in 1992.
On
June 25, 3-4000 believers in the Veles and Povardarie diocese
attended a rally to oppose the bishop. "He is trying
to sell us out to the Serbs. If he separates from all the
other believers, it is a sign he wants to increase his own
influence," said retired teacher Liljana Petrova,
who addressed the rally.
"Now,
in order to claim he has more support, he wants to bus people
in to Veles to attend the Sunday liturgy at St. Pantelejmon
Church. If this persists, I'm afraid it could have unpleasant
consequences, as people here are very irritated by the bishop's
behaviour."
However,
at the celebration of the liturgy the following Sunday, Bishop
Jovan showed no sign of backing down. He declared himself
a martyr and compared himself with the Orthodox saints Atanasij
the Great and Vasilij the Great. New protests are reportedly
being planned in his diocese.
Wary
of a looming schism, Archbishop Stefan and the other six bishops
have so far made no comment. Behind the scenes, the synod
of the Macedonian church is doing its best to diffuse the
dispute.
At
a secret meeting held at an undisclosed address outside Skopje
on June 26, Bishop Petar of Australia and New Zealand, who
originally brought Jovan into the Macedonian church, was given
the task of bringing his former protege and "renegade" bishop back into the fold.
However,
campaigners for autocephaly note that with the recognition
of other Orthodox churches withheld since 1967, their struggle
is still incomplete. For them, Bishop Jovan's move is just
another tussle in a long war.
Zoran
Bojarovski
