OSLO (Norway) – The President of the Republic of Macedonia, President Boris Trajkovski, has received the 2002 World Methodist Peace Award for his leadership and efforts to bring peace to his region of the Balkans.
He was presented the award on Sept 18, 2002 at a special ceremony during the Executive Committee meeting of the World Methodist Council (WMC) in Oslo.
“It is a joy to receive this award from my family,” he said. “It means I am still in their hearts and their prayers and they will back me,” he said, smiling.
President Trajkovski is a lay leader and President of the United Methodist Church Council in Macedonia. He grew up in the United Methodist Church and was active in youth programmes. His pastor, the Rev Mihail Cekov, travelled to Oslo to give the benediction at the end of the award presentation.
“Every nation strives for peace,” President Trajkovski said in his acceptance speech. “But the only peace that lasts forever is found through a true and lasting relationship with Jesus Christ.”
The people of Macedonia deserve the credit for the peace in their country, he said. They are “seeking the light”, he said, and he asked the WMC Executive Committee to pray for them.
“In the course of last year, during the most challenging period of my life, I experienced Christ’s words, I lived with His words, and I survived only because of His words,” he said.
Bishop Sunday Mbang, Chairman of the WMC, presented the award to President Trajkovski. “For his courage as a leader and a stabilising influence, for his consistency in working towards governmental soundness and bringing peace to a region that is emerging from a socialist country to a republic, and for his creativity as a world leader and as a disciple of Jesus Christ, the World Methodist Council honours Boris Trajkovski with the World Methodist Peace Award for 2002,” Bishop Mbang said. –
By Kathy Gilbert of the United Methodist News Service.