wfn.org | Macedonia's Methodist president visits Britain

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 9, 2000   News media contact: Linda Bloom (212) 870-3803* New York
*10-71B{365}  

By Moira Sleight*
LONDON (UMNS) -- In a region racked by ethnic conflict and friction,
Macedonia could be a model for its neighbors said the country's president,
Boris Trajkovski, when he met with British Methodist leaders at Westminster
Central Hall in July.

Trajkovski, who took up office last December and is the first Protestant in
politics in the Balkan region, said that his election was a "good symbol of
a multi-confessional, multi-ethnic state" where "people feel safe."
Macedonia, where Trajkovski serves as a United Methodist lay leader, is 67
percent Christian, with 98 percent of that number being Orthodox.

During a visit to London that included meetings at 10 Downing Street and
with the Queen, Trajkovski had been particularly interested in meeting with
British Methodists.

The president has long-standing links with British Methodists in Hemel
Hempstead and Berkhamsted through regular youth exchanges that have taken
place between that circuit and his own church in Skopje.  In December, he
twice met the then-president of the British Methodist Conference, the Rev.
Stuart Burgess, the then Vice-President, Brian Thornton, and Moira Sleight,
the editor of the Methodist Recorder, in Macedonia when the three were in
the region as part of a visit to British army chaplains in Kosovo.

At the July Westminster Central Hall meeting, Trajkovski outlined the
economic and political reforms currently being carried out in Macedonia,
both to provide the right climate for foreign investors and to develop
democracy.  Work was also being carried out to create a "good atmosphere of
reconciliation and dialogue," he said.

The purpose of his visit to London was to present Macedonia's needs and
goals, he said.  "We are a country promoting peace and stability in the
region and contributing to it," he said.  "We are a model to others and
deserve international support.  We must survive so we can be a place which
offers a zone for expanding peace and stability in the region."

A priority for Macedonia was to become a member of the European Union and
NATO.  "We wish to become part of the European family.  We are part of
Europe - we belong to it," he said, adding that with the enlargement of the
European Union, stability and security would come.

During the Kosovo crisis, NATO had made promises of assistance and aid for
Macedonia.  However, Trajkovski said nothing concrete had resulted from this
yet but "we are committed to these promises being kept."  Direct investment
was important, he said, pointing out that Macedonia had the best roads in
the region, best communications, best resources and was geographically
well-placed.

"If Macedonia is a good model it will be easier for the Serbian people to
see how things can be," he said.  "There would be a challenge to live like
their neighbors."

Proud of his country and proud of his church, Trajkovski confided as he left
that one of the things he most missed as a result of his election as
president was being able to preach on a regular basis.
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*Moira Sleight is editor of the Methodist Recorder in Britain, where this
article first appeared.

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United Methodist News Service
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