Originally posted by Mikail
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Yes, Mitko Mitrev once served as a priest with the Macedonian Orthodox Church Community "Sv. Petka" in Rockdale, where he was fired for taking money from the church without legal authority and sending it to Bishop Petar in Melbourne, under Petar's direction. He now conducts services in a protestant i.e. Uniting Church of Australia parish on Fredrick Street in Rockdale. According to an interpretation of the Orthodox Holy Canons that's been published with Archbishop Stefan's blessing, attending services in a non-Orthodox parish is HERESY, but that doesn't seem to matter much to Petar and his priests when money and power are at stake. Mitrev has no problem singing on the graves of people whose funeral services have been conducted in our churches in Cabramatta and Rosebery, as long as he gets his 'bakshish'. The idea behind not recognizing baptisms and wedding ceremonies performed at Rosebery and Cabramatta is to coerce people into re-baptizing their children or re-marrying in Petar's churches, which means more payments for baptisms and wedding services. But they don't apply the same principle when it comes to the graves of people whose funerals have been performed at our parishes, as they can't exactly try and convince the families of the deceased to redo the funeral service, so there is no money to be made there - only money to be lost by refusing to sing on graves of people whose funerals were conducted at our parishes.
The Macedonian Orthodox Community of Sydney operates two churches - "Sv. Kiril i Metodi" in Rosebery and "Sv. Nikola" in Cabramatta. "Sv. Kiril i Metodi" is the oldest and largest Macedonian Orthodox church in NSW.
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