North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has issued a sharp response to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić over his claims concerning the Orthodox Church in North Macedonia.
Unlike the more restrained response from the Macedonian Orthodox Church to Vučić’s claims that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) is the same in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Australia, Serbia, and North Macedonia, Prime Minister Mickoski responded directly, saying that the Macedonian Orthodox Church is a pillar of Macedonian identity. He described the Serbian president’s remarks as statements belonging to the last century.
“The Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid Justiniana Prima represents something that is the brightest part of Macedonian Orthodox identity. Of course, we also have Macedonians who belong to other faiths; they are not all Orthodox. But as a pillar of Macedonian identity, the MOC is something above all else, at least for me personally. I neither intend to comment on such statements nor do I want to engage in everyday communication with remarks that belong more to the last century,” the prime minister said.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić made his remarks during a commemoration for the victims of the Croatian military offensive “Operation Storm.” He said that there had been “polycentric ideas” within the Serbian Orthodox Church regarding its federalization and confederalization, while insisting that the Serbian Church is one and the same everywhere in the world.
“The Serbian Church is the same here in Mrkonjić Grad, the same in Pirot, the same in Sydney, the same in Skopje, the same in Frankfurt, in Melbourne, and everywhere else in the world. We too must know what our vital national interests are,” the Serbian president said.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church responded to Vučić’s claims the previous day using more measured language.
“As the legitimate bearer of the fullness of the grace of the First, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and at the same time as the successor of Justiniana Prima and the restored Archdiocese of Ohrid, the MOC-OA carries out its spiritual and pastoral mission toward all Orthodox Christians within its canonical territory, without any conditions based on their national, political, cultural, or ethnic affiliation. The Gospel of Christ, faith in the Resurrection, and the well-being of the souls entrusted to it are the primary and sole guiding principles of the MOC-OA’s work, and it rejects all political and ideological agendas or platforms, regardless of where they originate.”
After more than five decades of division and schism, a turning point in relations between the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid and the Serbian Orthodox Church came in May 2022.
