Grozdanov also pointed to problems some communities face in changing the official designation of buildings to places of worship. "If we build or buy a house and then want to change the use of the building for church needs, we get the answer that no church is planned there so it is not possible to change the use of the building," he told Forum 18. "How we can say that we can freely worship, when for decades we have not been able to obtain places of worship?"
Even some of the five religious communities named in Macedonia's constitution - notably the Muslim community and the Methodist Church - face problems in obtaining building permission.
"The detailed urban plan of the town of Prilep needed to be changed, so that the legal possibility could be created to issue building permission for the new Methodist church," Sofija Trajkovski of the Methodist Church told Forum 18 on 26 March. "It is a slow process since the plan needed to be changed for a big area, not just for one house or street.
"It will take at least one more year." But she noted that in the south-eastern town of Radovis her Church has recently received building permission. "It is not easy but it is easier than before."
Methodists in some places are also pursuing alternatives to new buildings, by regaining property confiscated by the Communist state after 1945.
Reis ul Ulema Sulejman Rexhepi, the head of the state-favoured Islamic Community of Macedonia, said he hopes that the new Religion Law will reduce bureaucracy over building new mosques.
"It is clear that if the norms of this Law are respected, if believers or a religious entity evaluate that there is a need to extend or build a place of worship, there shouldn't be any problem," he told Forum 18.
Rexhepi did not comment on the two places of worship his community forcibly seized from the Bektashi Muslims in 2002. The Bektashis have been trying unsuccessfully to regain these buildings through the courts.
One section of the new Religion Law could be used to bar worship services in some buildings, or conducted by some people. Article 18 states that: "Religious rituals are to be performed in a religious building such as a church, mosque, house of prayer, synagogue, graveyard or other premises of a church, religious community and religious group."
It continues: "A religious ritual may also be performed in other public and private premises and places." However, it also states that these "may be performed and organised only by a religious servant of a church, religious community and religious group [the undefined registered categories given in the Law] in the Republic of Macedonia or upon their authorisation".
The same article also contains the statement that pilgrimage organisers are "obliged to enforce on the group of believers and religious officials the regulations for the protection of the population from contagious diseases".
It is not clear in what circumstances these provisions would be used by the authorities. However, unregistered communities such as the Serbian Orthodox Church's Ohrid Archdiocese, some Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses all hold worship services in private properties. Archbishop Jovan, who leads the Ohrid Archdiocese, along with Bishop Marko and several monks and nuns, were arrested in early 2004. Their "offence" was
worshipping in the home of Bishop Jovan's father.
