TITLE: Macedonian among global delegates
Release # 003 {2867} April 17, 1996
General Conference '96
DENVER (UMNS) -- For years, the Rev. Kitan Petreski knew that if he preached on Sunday, he would be questioned by local police on Monday about his sermon.
That was a fact of life in the former Yugoslavia.
These days, as United Methodist district superintendent for an independent Macedonia, Petreski has much more freedom; but he also has to deal with economic depression, ethnic clashes and continuing political conflict.
The 48-year-old pastor, clergy representative for the Macedonia-Yugoslavia Annual Conference, is one of 138 international delegates participating in the United Methodist General Conference here April 16-26.
Representing the denomination's six Central Conferences outside the United States, the group is the church's largest international delegation ever.
In addition to Central Conference delegates, there are 33 delegates from affiliated autonomous Methodist churches, 10 from other partner denominations, and two United Methodist observers from Russia. Translation services are being offered at the conference in eight languages, ranging from Spanish to Swahili.
United Methodism currently is experiencing its fastest membership growth in the Central Conferences. By the end of 1994, more than 1.5 million of the denomination's 10.2 million members worldwide were from outside the United States.
As West Ohio Bishop Judith Craig pointed out in her April 16 episcopal address, "Every day, new professions of faith are made in chapels, house churches, cathedrals and open air meetings around the world."
Petreski, whose grandfather was a staunch Russian Orthodox, made his own profession of faith as a teenager. A local Methodist pastor was his mentor and helped him get admitted to a Baptist theological school in northern Yugoslavia in 1964.
He served as pastor in several churches, including a two-point charge near his birthplace from 1975 to 1990. After the continual government harassment of those years, Petreski said he finds it hard to adjust to the fact that United Methodists now can witness their faith in the streets.
"Democracy in our situation is so new we cannot really understand it," he explained. Macedonia became independent in 1991.
Since being appointed district superintendent in 1993 by Bishop Heinrich Bolleter, he has helped Macedonia add two new congregations to its 10 existing churches. One of those congregations is specifically for gypsies, an ethnic group that faces widespread discrimination there.
Petreski -- who also was a delegate at the 1988 General Conference in St. Louis -- believes there was a period of time when the European church "was left aside" by U.S. United Methodists.
But he expressed satisfaction about improved global relationships across the church in recent years. "The connection is returning back, which makes me joyful," he said.
--Linda Bloom
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