Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
August 1, 2003

The Serbian Orthodox Church to which the Monastery of Saint Prohor of Pcinja belongs would like to inform the public that it will enable the celebration of the state holiday of Macedonia in that Monastery, only if it receives the official assurance that the state bodies of Macedonia will in the future allow bishops, priests and monastics of the Serbian Orthodox Church enter Macedonia, make transit through that State and stay in it under the same conditions applicable for all the other persons, based on their travel documents and regardless of their hierarch rank or position in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Apart from that, the assurance should also include the obligation of the Republic of Macedonia not to allow molesting or any other form of discrimination of the members of Church or of some other religious communities just for their affiliation to a certain Church or religious community, taking into account international conventions and generally accepted human rights codex, and the right to the freedom of conscience and religious affinity, as well as bearing in mind generally accepted civilisational obligation of non-interference of state bodies into internal organisation, business and mutual relations of Churches and religious communities.

The mentioned proposal given by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church has represented a concrete path for removal of obstacles for the Serbian Orthodox Church to enable the celebration of the state holiday of the Republic of Macedonia in the Monastery of Saint Prohor of Pcinja.

However, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia has not accepted the proposal.

Had it been accepted, that would - in a nutshell - have meant: we accept the obligations which we otherwise must meet if we want to belong to democratic and cultural world, and if we want to prepare for the accession to the democratic Europe which has been uniting.