NOTE: A photograph is available. This feature may be used as sidebar to UMNS story #419.
A UMNS Feature By Kathy L. Gilbert*
The president of Macedonia, who recently won the World Methodist Peace Award, owes that honor to two people in New Jersey whom he had never met.
It all started because the Rev. Thomas Trainor is a devoted reader of the New York Times.
Trainor read an article about Boris Trajkovski, the president of Macedonia, and shared it with the Rev. Ed Carll. Trajkovski's vision of a united country, with both Macedonians and Albanians living in peace, helped him win the Albanian vote in the 1999 elections. Trajkovski also played a crucial role in pushing Macedonia's parliament to approve a new constitution that recognizes the Albanian minority as well as the main non-Orthodox religious groups.
Deciding Trajkovski would make a perfect recipient of the annual peace award, the two pastors nominated him.
"The article mentioned he was United Methodist and was involved in administrative council in his small church in Macedonia and a lay preacher as well. We decided out of that article in the Times that this is a person who is really deserving of this award," Carll says.
"We thought, 'How many people know about this guy and the work he is doing?' For that matter, how many people even know where Macedonia is?" Carll says, laughing.
Carll and Trainor were pastors at First United Methodist Church of Tuckerton (N.J.) at the time they nominated Trajkovski. Since then, Carll has been appointed to First United Methodist Church in Westfield. Trainor is a retired pastor serving as minister of missions at Tuckerton.
First United Methodist Church of Tuckerton is near Atlantic City, in an area known as the Pine Needles, Trainor explains.
"It is a group of people with a sense that they belong to a world church, and they appreciate that," says Trainor. He adds that New Jersey also has a population of Macedonian Serbs.
The sense of being part of a world Methodist church began with the congregation's involvement in Church World Service and Crop Walks, Carll says. The church developed a close relationship with Peter Mikuliak, a Greek Orthodox, who worked with Church World Service and later with refugee resettlement in Bosnia.
In fact, Mikuliak preached a couple of sermons from Bosnia by way of a speakerphone set up in Tuckerton's sanctuary.
"After the sermons, we had questions and answers from the congregation, so there was a connection there because of Peter," Carll says.
First United Methodist Church of Tuckerton has an average of about 220 for worship and a membership of about 400.
A few of the church's members have traveled to Russia, and the congregation got involved in fund-raising campaigns to make those trips possible.
"They come back and tell their stories, and the congregation gets involved. It stirs things up in a neat way, it gets people looking outward. Once they start, there is more outward looking and less inward looking," Carll says.
The resolution to nominate Trajkovski for the peace award went through the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. Once approved, it was sent on to the World Methodist Council in Lake Junaluska, N.C.
"We sent the resolution and didn't hear anything for a long time. Then, less than three months ago, the phone rings, and it is George Freeman (top executive of the council), and he says, 'We passed your resolution, and you are more than welcome to come as guests and see the award ceremony.'"
That is how Carll and Trainor found themselves sitting in the beautiful Trefoldighetskirken Lutheran Church in Oslo, Norway, watching Trajkovski receive the award.
The congregation in New Jersey couldn't believe it, Trainor and Carll say. "We couldn't believe it when Boris won. People who hear about it in other churches just can't believe that this would happen to a parish church," Trainor says.
"We are so proud we were able to nominate him and then meet him. It was wonderful to hear him say how moved he was by the presentation and that he could sense the spirit of God moving in the World Methodist Council and in that ceremony," Carll says. "Here he is, the head of state, and he is one of us. Clearly, there was a feeling he was a brother Methodist."
The singing of the hymn, "This is My Song," stood out for Carll as a memorable part of the ceremony.
"When we sang the words, 'But other hearts in other lands are beating, with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine,' Trajkovski raised his hands and touched his heart."
"This is a fellow who is putting his life on the line, his faith on the line," Trainor says. "We were told he had six attempts on his life last year. He just lives his faith."
"He just fit the World Methodist Peace Award."
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*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service.
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