Bishop Agatangel blesses Orthodox believers at a church near Skopje. Archive photo: EPA/GEORGI LICOVSKI
The traditional pruning of the vineyards near the south-eastern town of Kavadarci for St. Tryphon’s Day on Monday turned sour when the Bishop Agatangel of the Macedonian Orthodox Church called in his sermon for the opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party to return to power.
In the sermon, which was attended by VMRO DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, Agatangel said that it was “the largest and the holiest party in the country”.
He added that he believes that “God and Mother Mary will help Mickoski take back everything that is Macedonian and [that forms part of Macedonian] national [identity]” when the party returns to power.
His remarks fitted into the opposition party’s narrative that since it lost power in 2017, the ruling Social Democrats’ government has been committing a series of treasonous acts – first with the 2017 friendship agreement with neighbouring Bulgaria, then with the 2018 landmark ‘name’ deal with Greece, and now with renewed talks with Bulgaria over Sofia’s blocking of North Macedonia’s path towards EU accession.
The sermon caused a slew of negative reactions on social media, with some users accusing Bishop Agatangel of politically dividing people instead of uniting them, and saying he should keep his distance from politics.
Later on Monday, Minister for Local Government Goran Milevski said Agatangel was bringing shame on the church.
“Like worms and flies are pests for the winemakers, so is Agatangel… doing harm and causing shame for the church, the people and the public,” Milevski said.
Although it is known worldwide as St. Valentine’s Day, February 14 in North Macedonia, a wine-producing country, is also celebrated by winemakers as the day of St. Tryphon, their patron saint.
It is believed that St. Tryphon is the protector of vineyards and inns, and also of marital love and fidelity, so on that day, winemakers in North Macedonia go to the vineyards for the first time in the new calendar year to begin to trim their vines.
It is also traditionally believed that on this day, St. Tryphon sticks a torch into the ground so that the snow can begin to melt, symbolically waking up spring and love among people.
While the Macedonian Orthodox Church, by far the biggest religious community in the country, is not known for interfering in everyday politics, this is not the first time that Bishop Agatangel, who leads the Povardarska diocese in the central and southern parts of the country, has caused a political ruckus.
During the May 2017 celebration of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius holiday, instead of a liturgy in the village of Vatasha, Agatangel made a political speech in which he spoke against the so-called Tirana platform, calling it an “evil” and “doom for the Macedonians”.
This Tirana platform got its name from a meeting in the Albanian capital in December 2016 between the main ethnic Albanian political parties from North Macedonia, at which they set their terms for their participation in any future government.
Later in 2017, during the Epiphany holiday in Kavadarci, Agatangel appealed to God for the town’s mayor at the time, Aleksandar Panov, to win the next election.
In 2018, he also used a liturgy to appeal to people to boycott the ‘name’ referendum, at which the people were asked whether or not they supported the agreement struck that year with Greece that stipulated that the country would change its name to North Macedonia in exchange for Athens unlocking the country’s route towards joining NATO and the EU.
Credit: Source link
