Mark Mullins and Alex Spak travelled to Albania and Macedonia to speak at some political events arranged by Leo van Doesburg from the European Christian Political Movement. The first stop was Tirana where we arrived on Tuesday 20th October in the evening. We were collected by Vladimir Lame who was the main Albanian organiser. The city was showing marked signs of economic revival. Traffic was something to behold. With the collapse of communism came the demand for over 2 million driving licences from people who had never before been allowed a car. Traffic lights and one way streets are therefore optional and the pedestrian crossing lights are not always in synchronisation with the main traffic lights. You have to have your wits about you!
Following the recent elections the opposition party is refusing to take their seats at the Parliament because they do not recognise the results amidst allegations of vote rigging. Interestingly politicians of both sides did however attend our conference at the start but were soon called away by their political masters after making opening statements. This meant sadly that we had a very small audience for our presentations on family life. However some useful contacts were made and in particular with one of the local church leaders.
On Thursday we undertook the long and at times mountainous journey from Tirana to Skopje along narrow winding roads with interesting precipices. We stopped by the beautiful Lake Ohrid which was crystal clear and fed by underwater springs.
We arrived in Skopje in time for a quick change and then a meeting with the Minister of Education (Mr Nino Todorovski). He was very interested in the work of CCFON and took away a presentational DVD as well as the DVD on the Equality Directive prepared by Professor William Wagner. He was very concerned to preserve the ability to teach Christian morality within schools and to ensure that legislation was not passed that would prevent it. They had a recent setback when the constitutional court ruled that they were not allowed to have religious education within government schools so they are having rethink how religious education can be presented in another format.
We had dinner at a traditional Macedonian restaurant called “Old City House”. Our host was Professor Pande Lazarevski who is Director of the Crisis Management Centre and a very influential member of Government. He was open to the need to preserve a Christian heritage in Macedonia and attended the afternoon part of our presentation the following day. We learnt of the difficulties being experienced by Macedonia on account of Greece’s refusal to recognise their name which had led to them exercising their veto on allowing Macedonia to join NATO and potentially also to join the EU.
The following day we spent ¾ of an hour with Trajko Veljanoski, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. He was also very interested in the work of CCFON and how to maintain a Macedonia’s traditional family life in the light of proposed anti-discrimination legislation from the EU which Macedonia would have to comply with as criteria for qualifying for EU membership.
At 11 o’clock we returned to the Holiday Inn for the conference which was chaired by the youngest member of Parliament for Macedonia (Hristina Runceva) aged 25. The first speaker Jacques Bazen (a Dutch Professor) who gave an overview of what EU membership would mean for Macedonia. The conference hall was full with about 150 delegates with full press presence. I had an opportunity to address them in the coffee break and to set out CCFON’s position on the sanctity of marriage according to the Bible’s teaching.
It was then my turn and I gave the first of my presentations on how to maintain Macedonia’s identity within EU integration. The conference presented a great opportunity to present the biblical view on marriage, divorce and other relationships outside marriage. It also allowed for the presentation of the Gospel which is a key aim in all the CCFON does for godly law is only our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24) and will not in itself save anybody or any society on its own.
In summary it was a fascinating four days in two countries of Eastern Europe which undoubtedly have their problems but who wish to maintain the traditions based on biblical values. This may sound surprising coming from a country like Albania but despite centuries of Ottoman occupation it has maintained a strong Christian identity.
Finally it was a privilege to be able to show our concern not just for the United Kingdom but for two small Eastern European nations whose citizens have the same need as all of us to come to personal salvation through Christ and to live according to his standards.
Mark Mullins