Contradictory to the recommendations of the health authorities urging the citizens to stay at home in order to prevent the danger of spreading the coronavirus, through the cities of the Povardarie, on open vehicles, priests sprinkled holy water and with a candle and prayer sought God’s blessing to stop the global pandemic and the deadly disease.
In their statement, they encouraged the religious believers to come to churches, stressing that if churches were not visited by the faithful, they would be turned into museums. The Macedonian Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric Church, objected to this statement, believing it to be contrary to the recommendations of the health authorities.
Particulary, these are the priests from the entire Povardarie diocese, which covers the cities of Kavadarci, Veles, Negotino, Valandovo, Bogdanci and Demir Kapija and is under the leadership of Metropolitan Mr. Agathangel. The metropolitan is known for his outspoken support of the ’Boycott Movement’, as well as for controversial statements that he is against the EU and NATO, so one of the vehicles that was used by the priests, was covered with the Kutlesh flag, the symbol of that movement.
In his written statement to the public, he wrote that he had been ill for some time, but that he believed that “the devil is using some people to harm the faithful and to harm the Holy Church”, at the same time ignoring all recommendations and guidelines for the protection of public health.
Events are following, despite the already held meeting of all religious leaders, with Technical Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski, where they all agreed that both religious communities and religious believers should be at the level of responsibility, to contribute and to prevent the spread of the disease and its side effects.
Members of the so-called “Tvrdokorni” patriotic association, which is part of the “Never Northern, Only Macedonia” coalition, joined in open support of the priests from the Povardarie diocese, reacting negatively to the announcement of banning liturgical rituals in the Macedonian Orthodox Church.
On the other hand, the event is thought to have followed immediately after images and videos circulated the social media, where priests across Serbian cities can be seen sprinkling the holy water , and a similar occurrence could be seen in Russia, where priests flew by helicopter over the Belgorod region and prayed for protection against the deadly virus.
Although the act of spraying the streets with holy water should not be viewed negatively, the problem lies deep in the act of massively calling the population to churches. “One thing is to spray the streets with holy water, and another thing is to maintain order, as was said, to keep a distance, to maintain hygiene, all that is recommended by the authorities in the State and not only in our State, but all over the world, “said Bishop Timothy.
At the same time, in the written statement of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate presided over by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew recommended:”Our Church respects medical science. It therefore encourages all religious believers to comply with the World Health Organization’s health recommendations as well as with the respective guidelines and legal provisions of individual States.”
According to the above it can be concluded that at a time when the world and the region are struggling with the coronavirus pandemic and the authorities of each country are calling for strict obedience to the pandemic protection measures, despite all the messages, the event organizers were clearlly aware that it will cause positive and negative publicity, unfortunately, they did not miss the opportunity to abuse it for political purposes and propaganda, which aims to promote a boycott of the Prespa Agreement and further divide of the people. For this purpose, in such moments, it is particularly important for the church to help the people, not to act contrary to the recommendations of the health authorities, and not to endanger public health.
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