Serbian Orthodox Bishop Jovan was arrested in Macedonia, on Sunday, for attempting to perform a baptism in a Macedonian Orthodox Church and was sentenced to five days soliatary confinement in prison. The Macedonian government has claimed to Forum 18 News Service that it "has no links with this arrest, it is an issue of public peace and order". Serbian prime minister Zoran Zivkovic has stated that the Serbian and Montenegrin ministers of Foreign and of Religious affairs will protest to the Macedonian authorities about both this sentence and the ban on Serbian Orthodox priests entering Macedonia in their vestments.
Metropolitan Jovan (Vranisskovski) of the Serbian Orthodox
Church (SOC) has been arrested in Bitolj, Macedonia on Sunday 20 July 2003. He
was trying to baptize a grandchild of his sister in a Macedonian Orthodox
Church (MOC), the Church of the Great Martyr Dimitrije, was prevented from
doing so and then arrested and sentenced to five days solitary confinement.
Metropolitan Jovan left the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) last year after a
Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) invitation to end a 35 years long schism between
the SOC and MOC, and was installed as the SOC bishop and patriarchal egzarh for
all of the dioceses of the Ohrid archbishopric only ten days ago,
"Relatives of the Bishop Jovan stated that he is in prison in Bitolj, in
solitary confinement," reported KIM Radio service on 21 July. "No one
is allowed to see him or to talk to him." Relatives and co-workers of
Bishop Jovan are concerned about his medical condition, because they claim that
he was brutally arrested and physically molested afterwards.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church claimed on 22 July that the Metropolitan
"violated the MOC and has endangered its spiritual and material values,
violating the sanctity, order and peace of the Temple as well as the safety of
the priests and believers.
"The Ministry of Interior or the Macedonian government has no links with
the church canonical issues or disputes in this regard," Ms. Mirjana
Konteska of the Macedonian Ministry of the Interior told Forum 18 on 22 July.
"To our knowledge, Mr. Jovan Vranisskovski, was defrocked from the
Macedonian Orthodox Church three weeks ago and thus has no legal rights to
perform religious rites in religious sites. He has made an attempt to baptize a
child in the church of St. Dimitrije in Bitolj, an active church of the MOC. He
was not allowed to do so by the priests in the church, the police were called
by them, on charges of disturbing public peace and order regulation. He
resisted an officer, and after arrest he, and his party, were brought before a
magistrate judge, who sentenced him to five days in prison for disturbance of
public peace and order and resisting a police officer. Again, this has no links
with the government or Interior ministry, it was all done locally, according to
public order regulations. Mr. Vranisskovski party was released after an informative
questioning in the police station. The investigating judge will decide whether
there is a place for criminal charges."
KIM Radio and the Info-service of the Raska and Prizren Diocese, who first
reported on this incident, stated that "Bishop Jovan who accepted the SOC
invitation to leave the MOC... was lately under specially strong pressure of
hierarchs of MOC, local media and the Macedonian police."
Since renewed disputes between SOC and MOC after negotiations broke in June
2002, several incidents have been reported. In the last two weeks, Macedonian
border police prevented SOC monks, priests and bishops, from entering Macedonia
in their priestly vestments. In May, four Greek Orthodox priests were turned
back from the border for the same reasons. However, this is a part of wider
governmental policy that affects priests and clerics of the SOC travelling to
Macedonia.
Fr. Sava (Janjic), deputy abot of the SOC Decani Monastery, told Forum 18 on 24
July that in 1994 he and other priests were prevented from entering Macedonia
on their way to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, in Greece because they were
wearing priestly vestments. "We had to travel through Bulgaria. It seemed
that this measure was not implemented in all cases, but selectively. There were
instances where we passed the border with no problems, so my impression is that
every officer could decide whether to implement it or not. This was used
frequently to humiliate the clerics of the SOC, who had to wait a long time for
"consultations with Skopje", only to hear that they had to take off
their vestments. My personal opinion is that one of the reasons for this
'measure' is an attempt to prevent Serbian priests from ministering to Serbian
nationals, believers in northern Macedonia who wanted church services in their
language and without the interference of 'macedonian national ideology' via the
Church."
The Mascedonian state news agency reported on 10 July that "The MOC will
request state institutions to ban Vranisskovski from wearing the priest's
wardrobe, as he was discharged and because a Serbian priest is not allowed to
perform religious services in Macedonia." MOC Bishop Timotej stated that
the "Macedonian Church will urge the relevant authorities to make sure
that Zoran Vranisskovski never wears the insignia of a priest or bishop,"
adding that Vranisskovski does not have the right to the post of Serbian vicar
in Macedonia. "According to the Holy Orthodox [Christian] canons, Zoran
can not switch to any other Orthodox Church unless his mother church, i.e. the
Macedonian Orthodox Church, agrees to it." The Macedonian Orthodox Church
is not recognised by any other Orthodox Church.
The SOC told Forum 18 on 21 July that "all indications … are that this is
all according to an earlier prepared scenario, in order for the SOC, its
hierarchy and the faithful people to be prevented from performing their world
wide recognised religious rights."
Serbian Prime minister Zoran Zivkovic stated on 22 July 2003 that "There
is no reason to deny to representatives of any church or religious community
the fundamental human right to the freedom of movement if they have valid
travel documents," noting that this might be a political act, rather than
an act of customs or police offices. The Serbian and Montenegrin Minister of
Foreign Affairs and the Serbian Minister of Religion will protest to the
Macedonian authorities about the ban on SOC representatives entering Macedonia
in their clerical vestments."