| Present state of the Macedonian Uniat Church? | |
| LevMX | Hello First of all, I want to share with you my admiration for your nation and your historical monuments of Christianity such as the monasteries of Ochrid, and the history of your traditional religion. I want to tell you that I don't use the name "uniat" in a derogatory way, it's just that it is easier for people to understand what Church I am talking about, I know that the correct term would be "Macedonian Greek-Catholic Church". For those who would not know, Greek-Catholics are those descendents of Orthodox Byzantine christians who entered to communion with Rome and broke with the Orthodox Patriarchate they belonged to, while preserving the Byzantine tradition and rite. Greek catholics were suposed to preserve their traditional Eastern character and rite, and to have exactly the same liturtgy of the Orthodox Church, while being in communion with the Pope. However in some places, they got very "latinized" and adopted many non-orthodox costums (statues instead of icons, stations of the cross, latin vestments instead of the Orthodox vestments, etc). I was curious about the situation of Greek-catholics in your country, and if they are latinizd or not? are they still loyal to the Eastern Byzantine tradition and rite? is their liturgy truly the same as the Orthodox Church, without latinization? By the way, recently some Serbian newspapers wrote that the Macedonian Orthodox Church had broken communion with the Serbian Patriarchate and that some of its Bishops had the intention to establish communion with the Pope. Is that true? If someone likes to discuss this topics, about Orthodoxy, catholicism, Eastern Christianity and Ecumenism, you can go to: http://www.byzcath.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/newboard/index.php |
| DJ_SHEMA | LevMX The corect name for our church is Macedonian Orthodox Church. I have never heard of a Macedonian - Greek-Catholic church and I take it as a direct insult. According to the sources in the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul, Christ's disciple, began spreading Christianity in Macedonia in the middle of the first century AD. He visited this region on two occasions during his journey through Europe and Asia. He was followed by Timotheus and Sylla who remained in Macedonia after his departure. At that time, as a Roman province Macedonia often changed its borders and its ethnicity. As a result of the Christianisation conducted in the first three centuries, the Christians in Macedonia already had an organized Church with an established church hierarchy at the beginning of the 4th century. In the 5th century the Church had several metropolitan's residences and bishoprics. The Metropolitan residence in Thessaloniki and Skopje were the most distinguished among them. Several Christian basilicae originate from this period, including the one near the village of Bardovtsi in the western part of Skopje. For more accurate info, please visit http://www.mpc.org.mk/html_a/aenglish.html |
| LevMX | Thank you for your kind answer. You do not have to take it as an insult. I think that you have misunderstood some concepts and there is a confusion of terminology. I thought that my post was quite clear when I said I was refering to the Macedonian "uniat" Church and not to the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Here the name "Greek" does not mean Greek in terms of hellenic people, or Greek people but to the "greek rite", the byzantine rite, which developped in Constantinople and was then brought to the Slavic peoples through St. Cyril and Methodius. After the schism of 1054 between Rome and Constantinople, the Slavs of the Byzantine Rite were part of the Orthodox Churches. However some centuries later, small communities of these people broke with the Orthodox Churches and affiliated themselves with Rome (this movement is called "uniatism"), while preserving the Byzantine Rite. These are known as "Byzantine Catholcs" or "Greek-Catholics" (but this means that they are from the Byzantine Rite, not that they are Greek!) Most Orthodox Churches have a "uniat" counterpart. The Macedonian Greek-Catholic Church is not the Macedonian Orthodox Church, it is a different Church. Maybe this site will help you to understand the difference between the "uniat" Churches (Eastern Catholic Churches) and the Orthodox Churches: http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-catholiceastern.htm (about what is an Eastern Catholic Church) http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-fromtheorthodox.htm (about which are the Byzantine-Catholic Churches and what's the difference between them and the Orthodox Churches) http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-orthodoxchurch.htm (about the Orthodox Churches) http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-introduction.htm (about the Eastern Churches in general) This article has some information about the uniat movement in Macedonia (look at the part about the uniat movements in the 19th centuries): http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-macedonia-catholics.doc I hope this works |