North Macedonia, Serbia Clerics Denounce Gender Equality at Easter

Orthodox Easter messages delivered by two senior clerics in North Macedonia and Serbia have sparked criticism, with Metropolitan Petar of the Prespa-Pelagonija eparchy of the Macedonian Orthodox Church causing particular outrage with his suggestion that gender equality is "blasphemous" and a "poisonous and perverted ideology" that threatens society.

"God created the male and the female, and anything else that is changed and different from God's creation is abnormal, and therefore unacceptable," Metropolitan Petar said.

The cleric also claimed that women's rights lead to divorce.

"In the past century, before feminism and the emancipation of women, [a woman] has been a wife, mother, housewife, and today she is highly emancipated and in top societal positions. But she is also often divorced and a single parent," he said.

North Macedonia's Social Affairs Minister Jovana Trencevska responded furiously with a message on Facebook addressing the cleric, saying that "this is not the time of the inquisition, Bishop".

"What is blasphemy is the poison that you unleash and with which you insult and humiliate 51 per cent of the population," Trencevska wrote.

"We live in a democracy, at a time when perhaps not every woman is loud and brave, but they are loud and brave fighting for gender equality. For their rights and the rights of every other woman. For the rights of every individual in society," she added

In neighbouring Serbia, Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church raised eyebrows with his Easter message opposing gender-sensitive language.

Last Thursday, at the start of the Orthodox Easter celebrations, he said that the Serbian language must be protected from "violence" imposed by legal provisions that...