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Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje Jovan

Your Eminences and Graces, dear brother clergymen, people of God,

 

That generation which can celebrate these kinds of longlasting jubilees is indeed a priviliged one. Thousand years is a lot in comparisson to a man’s life, which acording to the psalmist is on average between 70 and 80 years. But, what are hundered years for God? They are not even one drop in the ocean of eternity with which only the Holy Trinity reigns, however, 1000 year jubilee of one Church is nether trivial, nor insignificant in front of God. That is exactly half of the time since God became like one of us, half of the time since Christ accepted onto Himself this created nature, with the one and only goal, to bestow etermity upon her.

The Ohrid Archbishopric takes that path to eternity which the God-man Himslef openned, which the apostles widened, which the holy martyries moistened, the holy fathers tempered, but which was asphalted by our praise-worthy anscestors from the lineage of the Ohrid Archbishops, some of whom have already been canonized.

Flourishing through time, even though this Archbishopric was faced with not few temptations, the spiritually healthy men and the bright examples of Archbishops who did not stray from the path that Christ Himslef traced, transformed the hurdles set by the temptations into victories, for them, for the people they led, for the whole Church of God.

To know everything about the historical journey of this famous Archibishopric of 1000 years would be too much to ask. However, those instances that history managed to preserve are enough for us to reconstruct thrustworthily the development of the church life on the territories which were under the jurisdition of this Church.

The Ohrid Archbishopric was administratevely founded in 1018 by the Emperor Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer. Her predecessor on this territory, Justiniana Prima, was also founded by an Emperor, the way the Archbishopric of Sinai was also founded by a Emperor. These are three churches in the history of the Church that were administratively founded by an Emperor.

We say administratively, because since the earliest centuries of Christianity these territories were leavened with evangelical preaching and life according to her. Some of the Bishops of Hereclea, modern Bitola, Stobi, modern Veles, Bargala, modern Shtip, Skupi, modern Skopje, Tiveriopolis, modern Strumica, signed the acts from the Ecumenical and Regional Councils.  

 We cannot forget the deed of the first Slavonic Bishop Clement, who never carried the title “from Ohrid”, but because he transferred to the Heavenly Jerusalem from the Slavonic Jerusalem, i.e., Ohrid, he is called Saint Clement from Ohrid posthumously. On this occastion, we could not forget the Ohrid Archbishop Leo, who during the years before and after the great divide with the Catholic Church, wrote texts and letters in which he elaborated in detail the mistakes made by the Church in the West. And Theophylact, the Ohrid Archbishop, the omni-talented man established cults of many saints from these regions. His name is synonymous with scholarship in the middle ages. His written legacy was a beneficial text for many theologians, but especially profitable for the church people in our time, even though many centuries have passed since the times when he lived.

The saintly image of the Ohrid Archbishop Constantine Cavasila is most strikingly visible from the frescography  in the temple of Holy Theotokos Perivleptos in Ohrid, where he stands next to Saint Clement. The Ohrid Archbishops Nicola and Prohor with their saintly halos are also portrayed in several of the Ohrid churches. 

This Archbishopric used to be nursery of literacy among the Slavonic churches. She was a herald of the byzantine culture among the Slavs. Following that legacy, we believe that even today, the canonical Church on this terriory needs to nourish that legacy. The religious services used to be both in Greek and in Slavonic. Therefore, we invited a choir from our neighbouring Greece, to participate in the fullness of this event. We are truly grateful for their participation.

The way the Ohrid Archibishopric was founded by imperial authorities. in 1018, it was also abolished by imperial authorities in 1767.  Thus, the continuity of the uninterrupted adminstrative existence has been abolished for several centuries. That of course, does not mean that the Church has been abolished, because the Church can be abolished only by the one who founded it, and that is Christ. However, from an organizational point of view, as an autocephalous Church, the Ohrid Archbishopric does not exist for 251 years.

The godless communist authorities in former Jugoslavija allowed for a national Church, subjugated by  the regime, to be created; however, the church as a communist deed was acknolwedged by all the Orhodox Churches, but was not recognized then and continues to be unrecognized even today.  

The ethnophyletism has done great meddles in the Church. It was condemned at the Council in Constantinopole in 1872, and unfortunately since the 19th century it hasn’t disappeared from the Church. It has been tolerated for more than a century and half, and lately some individuals in the Church, for reasons only known to them, act as if they have forgotten that. It is unacceptable, and even hypocritical, that Church which has been in schism for many years, to be accepted and recognized without repentance and even rewarded just because they were persistent in the schism.

If we remember that the Church was born through martyrdom, foremost through the archmartydom of Chirst and later through the martyrdom of His apostles and of those who were ready to suffer for the faith, we will not find it strange that the sole criterion for authority in the Church is exactly the readiness for martyrdom. The Church persevered through the most improbable situations, just because She was always ready to witness with blood.

It was Holy Martyr Erasmus who was the first one to convert the Ohrid people in the third century after Christ, in then-Lychnidos. He added the leaven on these territories so that we know how to lay the foundations for a Church, which if founded on martyrs’ blood, is bound to prevail over oncoming temptations.

The Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric, which today is a canonical Church for part of the territories that used to be under the jurisdiction of the Ohrid Archbishopric, is an autonomous Church in the canonical jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. She is not founded by an Emperor, but receives autonomy through a canonical way from that Church that had the right to provide that autonomy. On one hand, the Church is obliged to keep the traditions of the renowned Ohrid Archbishopric, but on the other hand to know how to witness the Word in the present, on the path to the quiet harbour in the Kingdom of God.

Therefore, at this festive moment we would like to express our gratitude to the Bishops and clergymen of the Ohrid Archbishopric, but most of all to the people of God who with dignity have endured the persecution of the Church on this territory, untypical for the circumstances of the 21st century. It is exactly these people that are perplexed, and even us the Bishops and clergymen, how is it possible that in the Church occasions arise for disagreements, especially because in our epoch solutions would be hard to find.

It is not possible for us not to worry about what is happening in the Church anywhere around the world. The Church is one and only as one it can be Christ’s. Because of everything we have said earlier, we feel it is righteous to instruct that no one in the body of the Church should create problems more difficult than the ones they can solve, because those kind of problems threaten to shake the church peace, which is vital for religious progress.

Us, who celebrate this grand jubilee, in really modest conditions that were created by the parties in power from this coutnry just because we opposed their irridentist polistics towards the neighbouring Greece, have the full right to speak about that which is well known in all of the regional Churches. There is nothing more important that the unity of the Church, in the faith, dogmas and in the canonical order.  

The schism is a problem for the whole Church, not only a problem for those who have seceded, but also a problem for the ones from whom they have seceded. Therefore, it comes as a no surprise the worry of the Firstthroned Church for the healing of all the schisms that exist in the Orthodoxie. However, no one can justify the healing of one schism by creating a new one. A new Holy and Great Council that would imporve on the weakness of the last one, should be called.

May the jubilee that we celebrate make all of us living in this coutnry responsible so that we approach history and the historical facts in a serious manner. Unfortunately, the disrespect of exactly those historical facts that was perpetrated by the state powers in this coutnry became an object of ridicule for the world. One cannot manipulate with the historical truth, especially not during the time of our modern days. Time flies so fast that it does not allow any room for half-filled gaps, for falsifications and untruths.

We take this opportunity to thank the representatives of the regional Churches that have honored us with their participation in this liturgical celebration. However, this celebration is not only ours. This is a panorthodox celebration, a celebration of the whole Church of God that lives as one body, as one organism. The Ohrid Archbishopric functioned as a regional Church, but always in the unity of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Not once in the history of the Church, had the Ohrid Archbishopric been in schism, and thus we wish this celebration to be a incentive for our brothers who are in schism to overcome the schism, certainly according to the ecclastiastical and canonical tenets of the Orthodox Church.

I hope that some other generation that would celebrate even a greater jubilee of the Ohrid Archbishopric, would not have to mention the problem with the schism, just because this jubilee would make all of us who can contribute to resolving and overcoming  this unnatural state of being more serious.

Translation:
Ilina Kachinske