wfn.org | Kosovar lay pastor reaches part of flock in Albania

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

May 26, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{295}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #296.

By United Methodist News Service

A United Methodist lay pastor from Kosovo is continuing to minister to
scattered members of his flock, along with other refugee families, during
their exile in Albania.

Mehmet Sopaj, a former history professor in Pristina, Kosovo's capital city,
had established a congregation there, as well as others in Sallagrazhde and
Suhareka, before being forced to flee to Albania.

Urs Schweizer, the secretary to United Methodist Bishop Heinrich Bolleter,
met with Sopaj during a May 13-17 visit to refugee areas in eastern Albania.
Bolleter, based in Zurich, Switzerland, is head of the church's Central and
Southern Europe Area.
 
While Sopaj has had no contact with any church members from Pristina, he has
found 10 families from the other two congregations whom "he now regularly
visits," Schweizer said in a May 25 telephone interview. The bishop's office
donated funds to buy medicine, food and clothing for Sopaj to distribute
among the families.

Sopaj also has established relationships with six Muslim refugee families.
"He feels responsible for them and he helps them," Schweizer said.

The Kosovar lay preacher and six family members are sharing a three-room
house with an eight-member Muslim family. He would like to return to Kosovo
as soon as possible, Schweizer noted, but is not confident that Serbs and
Albanians will be able to share a country again. 

"He said he prays every day for them (Serbs)," Schweizer added. "He even
prays for (Serb President Slobodan) Milosevic."

During his visit to Albania, Schweizer toured a refugee camp in an old
factory in Pogradec and met members of a United Methodist congregation in
the mountains. The Rev. Freider Weinhold, a United Methodist pastor from
Wismar, Germany, established that congregation. European Methodists have
been assisting refugees in Albania through a humanitarian organization run
by Weinhold and the city of Wismar, Bolleter said. They also are
coordinating efforts with the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
and its ecumenical partner, Action by Churches Together (ACT).

"We've had a very good response from all of the European Methodists in
regard to the crisis in the Balkans," said the bishop, noting that $250,000
had been raised so far from those churches.

The real need among refugees will come once they are placed in more
permanent living situations for the winter, he said. ACT is working with
NATO to build and staff refugee camps and to provide food for refugees and
their host families.

UMCOR has formed a partnership with CitiHope International to address the
health needs of Kosovar refugees in Macedonia. Funds from UMCOR will help
equip the 230-bed Tetovo Regional Refugee Hospital and provide for two
full-time staff.

A refugee trauma relief counseling center will be set up at the hospital to
address psychological pain, and local United Methodists in Macedonia will be
encouraged to distribute personal hygiene kits to refugees.

UMCOR and CitiHope also are seeking to procure at least $6 million worth of
medical supplies and equipment for the refugee camps, to be airlifted to
Macedonia in mid-June.

Bolleter pointed to the need to assist Albanians and, especially,
Macedonians, who are struggling with the economic impact of an enormous
influx of refugees. And he hopes the church will be able to help Serbians
recover from the bombings once the conflict has ended.

Methodists are among the church leaders meeting to discuss the Balkans
crisis during a May 26-27 conference in Budapest, Hungary. The consultation
is organized by the World Council of Churches and Conference of European
Churches, in cooperation with the Lutheran World Federation, the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Ecumenical Council of Churches in
Hungary.

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