Source: Deutsche Welle

Author: Sveto Toevski

Translated by UMD staff 

Archimandrite Gavrilo on a private visit of Macedonia as a gesture of good will 

Serbian Archimandrite Father Gavrilo from St. Archangel Monastery of the Srem Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, was given permission from his overseeing administrator, His Eminence, Bishop Vasilije for a private trip to the Polog-Kumanovo Diocese of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) to partake in blessing the waters and foundation of a new holy water well in a Macedonian Orthodox church in the (Tetovo) village of Varvara.  Yesterday, the Serbian archimandrite held service in the Macedonian language.  Srekjko Angelkovski of the managing board of the National Assembly of Macedonians in Serbia says: “The Venerable Hegumen, Father Gavrilo had his first steps into monasticism exactly here, in the foundation of Orthodoxy in Macedonia.  The Macedonian and Serbian people are connected by an unbelievable and eternal core, and that is Orthodoxy.”

Very Reverend, Dimitrija Krstevski, elder in the Monastery in Leshok, host to the Serbian archimandrite told Deutsche Welle that the venerable monk was enabled to take part in the liturgy as another spontaneous gesture of friendship and the need to create the sought after bridges of cooperation: “The Macedonian and Serbian people, the Macedonian and Serbian clergy have no misunderstandings between them.  This is a phenomenon in the heads of some higher bodies and organs, in other churches.”

“This is a reunion,” Serbia’s Macedonians' National Assembly head Jovo Radevski said.

Yesterday, the archimandrite came out against former Bishop Jovan's (Vraniskovski) actions and so-called Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric: “There is already an archbishop for all of Macedonia -- Bishop Stefan.”

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