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Deacon Ivica Čairović, ThD
Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade
Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

THE ROLE OF VICAR BISHOP DOSITEJ (STOJKOVIĆ) AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH SCHISM IN MACEDONIA IN 1958

Vol. XXXVI, 2/2018, str. 155–186
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2018.2.cai.155-186

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

In the course of resolving, i.e., clarifying the Macedonian national question, the question of the resolution of the problem of the national Church also imposed itself. In the wake of World War II, the problem of the canonical and non-canonical hierarchy of the Orthodox Church in PR Macedonia, a federal unit of the FPRY, surfaced as a Church-historical problem in both Serbia and Yugoslavia as a whole. Everything pointed towards a schism, i.e., the forcible separation of a portion of territory under the jurisdiction of the SOC, and the proclamation of a new, non-canonical church hierarchy under the name of “Macedonian Orthodox Church.” After many discussions, the Macedonians, organized in the form of an Initiative Committee, and with the wholehearted help of the communist authorities, demanded autocephaly and/or autonomy, depending on the time period and political tactics, for the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, all the Orthodox Churches confirmed the violation of canonical-jurisdictional discipline in the activities concerning the Church in PR Macedonia and refused to recognize any independent ecclesiastical unit outside of the SOC on its territory. The communist authorities in the FPRY clearly and unquestionably took the side of the Initiative Committee, and the pressure rose with each day and each year. The death of Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo was followed by the election of Vikentije, from whom the communist authorities expected recognition of the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church. However, Serbian Patriarch Vikentije dragged his feet with the resolution of the Church schism in PR Macedonia, prompting the communist authorities to end their subsidies to the SOC and demand a quick resolution to the Church question in Macedonia. Interestingly, in their negotiations with Church prelates, the communist authorities complained about the pressure they were experiencing from the USSR and Bulgaria regarding the lack of resolution of the Church schism in Macedonia. As he took the SOC Patriarchal throne, Patriarch German was immediately faced with the existence of an open, parallel hierarchy in the southernmost Yugoslav federal unit and an incipient schism, as the local clergy did not recognize the Serbian Patriarch and SOC bishops, but demanded their own metropolitan for a primate, and their own bishops. The first “metropolitan,” Dositej (Stojković), previously a vicar bishop of the Patriarch of SOC, was elected by the lower clergy and the people at a church-national assembly, which is canonically inadmissible.

It can, thus, be concluded that it was ethnophyletism, which has been condemned as a heresy in the Orthodox Church that caused the schism within the SOC on the territory of PR Macedonia, where a new nation was formed within the bounds of a new Yugoslav federal unit/republic. It was, thus, the resolution of the question of the Macedonian nationality that gave birth to a self-proclaimed church – the “Macedonian Orthodox Church.” That state of affairs continues to exist to this day.

 

KEYWORDS: Serbian Orthodox Church, communist authorities in the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, Patriarch Vikentije, Patriarch German, “Metropolitan” Dositej (Stojković)

 

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