Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric - Persecution

Persecution

Upon entering in the canonical and ecclesiastical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and through that with the whole community of Orthodox Churches, Archbishop Jovan was expelled by the police, without a court order, from his residence and cathedra in Veles on 7 July 2002. In the same manner, illegally and without a court order, the monks of four monasteries, were expelled from their monasteries, i.e. homes, in January 2004, immediately after joining the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric. A fifth monastery, Saint John Chrysostom in the village Nižepole near Bitola, was broken into by armed and masked men, who not finding the Archbishop Jovan they were after, harassed and threatened the nuns with machine-guns, cut their hair and set the monastery on fire, in February 2004.

The faithful people of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric were raided by the police, molested and threatened to lose their jobs or have other problems. The Church in the Saint John Chrysostom monastery was demolished by the state authorities on 15 October 2004. The chapel St. Nectarios of Aegina, after being broken into and vandalized on several occasions, was at the end completely demolished on 12 July 2005. The priest who served at that chapel, Fr. Borjan Vitanov, was beaten up twice.

Archbishop Jovan was sentenced to 18 months of prison in June 2005 for Instigation of ethnic, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance. The verdict stated the conviction relied on these three points :

1. he wrote a text in a religious calendar in which he slanders the Macedonian Orthodox Church
2. he agreed to be appointed as an Exarch of the Ohrid Archbishopric in Macedonia and participated in the ordination of the bishops Joachim and Marko and
3. he officiated at a religious service in an apartment owned by his parents.

He served 220 days in prison before the Supreme court declared the last two of the three points to be unconstitutional and his sentence was shortened to 8 months. Archbishop Jovan was sentenced for the second time, on charges for Embezzlement, and as a second defendant was sentenced to a higher prison term of 2 years than the first defendant (who was sentenced 1 year and 3 months) in 2006. He served 256 days before being released.

The declaratively secular state legalized its identification with a specific religious community Macedonian Orthodox Church, through the Parliament’s "Declaration for support of the autocephaly of the MOC" reached on 23 January 2004. The Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric is denied registration by the state authorities. Orthodox clergy is not allowed to enter the country.