Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society 6 (2020) 385–412 brill.com/jrat Orthodox-Pluralized … Nurturing the Culture of Dialogue A Macedonian Experience Gjoko Gjorgjevski Professor, Faculty of Orthodox Theology “St. Clement of Ohrid”, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, North Macedonia
[email protected] Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe the relations between the religious communities in the Republic of North Macedonia. This paper will examine the history of each of the most numerous traditional religious communities in the country, the history of the dialogue between them and its present situation, the communication and mutual in- fluences, as well as the attempts to overcome disagreements and misunderstandings. It is an overview of the most important activities of the dialogues and challenges in relation to the events and changes in the country. Keywords interreligious dialogue – orthodox – Muslim – Macedonia 1 Country Overview: Negotiating Religious and National Identities The Republic of North Macedonia lies in the southern part of Europe’s Balkan Peninsula. The landlocked, mountainous country is bordered to the north by Serbia and Kosovo, to the east by Bulgaria, to the south by Greece, and to the © Gjoko Gjorgjevski, 2020 | doi:10.30965/23642807-00602008 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-NDDownloaded 4.0 license. from Brill.com09/29/2021 09:19:19AM via free access 386 Gjorgjevski west by Albania. The total land area of the country is (around) 25,710 square kilometers. The cultural mosaic called Macedonia is special because of its deep reli- gious and national diversity.