Russian Church Prepared to Send Monk Envoys to Kosovo

SOURCE:  Sofia News Agency novinite.com

The Russian Church is ready to send monks as envoys to help Christians in Kosovo, said Russian Church external relations chair, Metropolitan Bishop Hilarion.

Bishop Hilarion is part of a large Russian church delegation, headed by Patriarch Kirill, which is in in Bulgaria since Friday.

"We support this idea and like we have said before, we are ready to send monks to Kosovo," said the Russian Church foreign affairs head in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio Sunday.

"In case we do that, we are obliged to act in the interest of the Serbian Orthodox Church," stressed Russian metropolitan Hilarion.

"The situation in Kosovo is quite complicated, and this includes monasteries located in the territory populated by a majority of ethnic Albanians, who are hostile not only to Serbia and to Serbs, but also to their religion," explained he.

Bishop Hilarion said that monasteries in Kosovo are vexed with problems relating to security, preserving the monastic life, and preserving the cultural heritage.

He stressed that the Russian Orthodox Church will co-operate with its Serbian counterparts to help them in that complicated situation.

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 If Canons are so important, Macedonian Church should return to Bulgarian Church: historian SOURCE:  FOCUS News Agency, Bulgaria

Veliko Tarnovo. If you consider the issue from the point of view of the genesis of today’s Macedonian Archbishopric, it could return to canonical communication with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, historian Associate Professor Plamen Pavlov, a lecturer with the University of Veliko Tarnovo, said in an interview with FOCUS News Agency.

He was asked to comment on the statement of bishop Hilarion, Chairman of External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, that the Macedonian Orthodox Church should return to the canonical field and its future should be determined in a dialog with the Serbian Orthodox Church, from which the Macedonian one separated.

“I do not think the event of 1967 and then of 1991 – separation of today’s Macedonian Archbishopric from the Serbian Patriarchate – rests on any serious historical reasons. It rests on a huge historical injustice – seizure of these lands by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, also known as Yugoslavia, which was inherited by Communist Federation of Yugoslavia after the WWII,” said the historian.

According to him the Russian Patriarchate cannot say anything different. “If it says that the Macedonian Church should separate, the self-proclaimed Ukrainian Patriarchate could separate as well; so could the bishoprics in Moldova. The Russian church has the same problem with Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and, quite naturally, it will support the Serbian [Church]. But if it considers canons and orthodoxy so important, the Macedonian Church should return to the Bulgarian one. After all, Joseph I was the last legal spiritual head of these people,” he added.