Macedonia's new president outlines vision of peace, healing

The United Methodist lay pastor recently elected as president of Macedonia invoked the "healing words" of Abraham Lincoln at the end of his Dec. 15 inaugural address.

Boris Trajkovski noted that Lincoln "paid the ultimate price" to bring the United States back together after its civil war.

"He (Lincoln) said, `We hold no anger toward anyone.  Instead, we offer charity to all,'" Trajkovski said.  "'As God gives us the ability to see what is right, let us strive to finish the work we are in. Let us heal the country's wounds and care for those among us. If we do this, we will achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all countries.'"

Such challenges also face Trajkovski, 43, whose election was confirmed Dec. 8 after a partial rerun of the original balloting in November.

"Today represents the first time in the modern history of Macedonia that the peaceful transition of power from one president to the next is taking place," he declared during his address.  "This occurrence is nothing less than a miracle.  Our country of Macedonia is taking its rightful place among the family of democratic nations."

The week before his inauguration, Trajkovski presented a report and participated in worship services during the charge conference of the southern district of the United Methodist Annual Conference of Yugoslavia and Macedonia.  The meeting took place in Strumica, where he grew up.

He also joined United Methodist Bishop Heinrich Bolleter, who is based in Zurich, Switzerland, for a visit to the patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Macedonia.  "We were telling the Orthodox leader there that we really want to be in a good relationship and friendship," Bolleter reported.

Although United Methodists remain a tiny minority in Macedonia - which is about 60 percent Orthodox and 30 percent Muslim -- the denomination represents the largest and, historically, the oldest Protestant group in the country.  Macedonia has 11 active congregations, according to Bolleter, and in a few small villages more than half the population calls itself Methodist.

Past persecution against the denomination has made it difficult to get an accurate membership count today.  "In the communist period, they were really under hard oppression of the regime,& Bolleter explained.  Pastors and superintendents were imprisoned, and lay members lost their jobs and their ability to attend university because of their church-related activities, he said.

Trajkovski, a lawyer who grew up in a Methodist family, has always been active in the church.  He has served as president of the church's Council of Finance and Administration since 1993 and has been a delegate to several General Conferences, the denomination's top legislative body.

Last December, he was elected vice minister for foreign affairs in the government of Kiro Gligorov, the president who led Macedonia after its break from Yugoslavia seven years ago.  Bolleter credits Gligorov with preventing the country from entering a war with Serbia.  "He (Trajkovski) has a predecessor who really was laying the ground for peace in the future," the bishop said.

The Rev. Philip Wogaman, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, became acquainted with Trajkovski during General Conference sessions, particularly in Denver in 1996, and from Trajkovski's visits to Washington to seek U.S. financial support for Macedonia's refugee operations during the war in Kosovo.

Trajkovski was largely responsible for handling the refugee situation, Wogaman said.  "He became a pretty positive force in Macedonia. He was very popular among the people for his even-handedness and his efforts to encourage reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians."

An article in the Nov. 20 issue of The Economist stated that votes from ethnic Albanians "won the election for Mr. Trajkovski."  Although suspicion was cast on some of the election results in western Macedonia, where most Albanians live, the rerun election assured his victory.

In his inaugural address, the married father of two children pledged to continue the tradition of peace set by Gligorov and to "extend my hand in friendship to all of those throughout Macedonia who will join me in this most noble cause."

He cautioned that Macedonia "cannot and will not be an island, even though we have been an island of stability in a sea of chaos, even when our detractors said we could not survive."

"Instead," he said, "we will reach out to our friends in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Yugoslavia so that they will know that we will work with them, hand in hand, for the betterment of our citizens and theirs as well.  And we will work together, knowing that friendly, democratic and free-market societies never attack each other."