Macedonian schismatics commune at Greek hierarchical Liturgy in Athens

Athens, December 8, 2021

Macedonian monastics sang and communed at the Liturgy in Athens. Photo: bigorski.org.mk Macedonian monastics sang and communed at the Liturgy in Athens. Photo: bigorski.org.mk     

A delegation from Bigorsky Monastery of the “Macedonian Orthodox Church” (MOC), headed by its abbot Bishop Partenij, visited Athens over the weekend to participate in an international Orthodox music festival.

On Sunday, the Bigorsky choir helped sing the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon in Athens. The service was celebrated by Bishop Philotheos of Oreoi, vicar of the Greek primate Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, the monastery reports.

Recall that the MOC separated from the Serbian Orthodox Church in the 1960s and has been considered schismatic by the Orthodox world ever since, although, unlike the situation in Ukraine where the canonical Church is the largest confession and the schismatics are divided amongst themsleves, the MOC unites the overwhelming majority of the North Macedonian population.

Although the MOC is officially unrecognized, the monastery reports that its brothers communed during the Greek Orthodox Liturgy:

The spiritual unity of the Orthodox brothers from both countries was further strengthened by the union with the pure and immortal Mysteries of Christ, through the Holy Communion of the Cup of the Lord.

This report was confirmed to OrthoChristian by a source close to the Macedonian delegation.

The report concludes: “The participation of the Bigorsky brotherhood in the First Festival of Byzantine Singing and the services in the Athenian temples was greeted with joy and warmth and was very positively and warmly accepted by the Orthodox brothers in Athens, including by high Church and state representatives.”

Sources in the Serbian Orthodox Church have informed OrthoChristian that the MOC delegation also traveled to Istanbul for discussions about the MOC receiving a tomos of autocephaly from the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The discussion went well for the MOC, though no formal plan has as yet been drawn up. The Patriarchate stipulated that the MOC must remove the word “Macedonian” from its title and rename itself the Ohrid Archbishopric, after which the Patriarchate is willing to issue a tomos of autocephaly.

North Macedonian politicians have met with and called upon Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephaly to the MOC several times, and ecclesiastical representatives have expressed confidence that they’ll eventually receive a tomos.

Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his opposition to the use of the word “Macedonian” in the name of the church already in September 2018, given that Macedonia is also the name of a region in Greece.

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12/8/2021

See also
After what Constantinople did in Ukraine, anything can be expected from them—Serbian hierarch Jovan After what Constantinople did in Ukraine, anything can be expected from them—Serbian hierarch Jovan After what Constantinople did in Ukraine, anything can be expected from them—Serbian hierarch Jovan After what Constantinople did in Ukraine, anything can be expected from them—Serbian hierarch Jovan
At its May session, the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church resolved to reopen the dialogue with the “Macedonian Orthodox Church” (MOC), a formerly autonomous body within the Serbian Church that departed into schism and declared itself autocephalous in 1967. However, as His Eminence Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid, a canonical hierarch of the Serbian Church serving in North Macedonia, states in a recent interview with Politika, the talks have stalled, through no fault of the Serbian Church. Constantinople hierarchs concelebrate with cleric from schismatic Montenegrin church Constantinople hierarchs concelebrate with cleric from schismatic Montenegrin church Constantinople hierarchs concelebrate with cleric from schismatic Montenegrin church Constantinople hierarchs concelebrate with cleric from schismatic Montenegrin church
Metropolitans Emmanuel and Amphilochios of Constantinople served with “Archimandrite” Boris Bojovic of the “Montenegrin Orthodox Church.” Ecumenical Patriarch will not recognize Macedonian Church as long as it uses title “Macedonian” Ecumenical Patriarch will not recognize Macedonian Church as long as it uses title “Macedonian” Ecumenical Patriarch will not recognize Macedonian Church as long as it uses title “Macedonian” Ecumenical Patriarch will not recognize Macedonian Church as long as it uses title “Macedonian”
The Ecumenical Patriarchate addressed the issue of the schismatic Macedonian Orthodox Church at its recent Synaxis of Hierarchs, held in Constantinople from September 1-4.
Comments
Simon Wiesenthal 2.012/11/2021 11:48 pm
God will judge. I pray that you find your way back to Him before then.
Ioann12/11/2021 3:19 pm
Simon: Why aren't I suprised that you were banned from a group?
Jesse Dominick12/11/2021 1:01 pm
Simon, as I told you, Fr. Joseph Gleason is involved with RUSSIAN FAITH, which is a completely separate site, so obviously he has nothing to do with any of our OrthoChristian social media pages or groups either. You are remembering incorrectly, and being quite stubborn at that. You're literally trying to correct the OrthoChristian team about who is on our team...
Simon Wiesenthal 2.012/11/2021 11:23 am
Jesse, if you run the OrthoChristian MeWe page, then you must know the distinction that MeWe draws between "pages" and "groups". Russian-faith has a "page", but no group, to the best of my knowledge; OrthoChristian/Pravoslavie has both a "page" and a "group". You claim to run the former; and I was banned from the latter by an someone who had repeatedly identified themselves as Joseph Gleason, banned me for stating the obvious truth that any church that will not let you speak out against slavery and communism, cannot be the body of Christ. I do not know how I can possibly make this any clearer to you; nor do I honestly care to, since it is increasingly clear how preposterous this whole situation is: I am arguing an illustration of my seriousness being dismissed as irony by the editor of an (allegedly) Orthodox website, with someone who claims to run that website's MeWe page, and who refers to the history of the Orthodox church as an "odd mix of obviously ridiculous ideas", while placidly endorsing revisionism by totalitarian schismatics that has been debunked ad nauseam for centuries...
Jesse Dominick12/10/2021 8:21 pm
Simon, I run the OrthoChristian MeWe page. That's why I said Fr. Joseph has nothing to do with "our" page. Fr. Joseph Gleason runs Russian Faith, which is a completely separate site.
Simon Wiesenthal 2.012/10/2021 7:49 pm
Jesse, as the editor has made clear that I shall not be allowed to address your other outrageous nonsense, I shall restrict myself to your lie (or very self-assured mistake) regarding Joseph Gleason's MeWe shenanigans. Since I repeatedly corresponded with Gleason on MeWe prior to his banning me, I can assure you that he is, (or at any rate was at that time) an administrator of the Pravoslavie MeWe group (the group, I do not know about the MeWe page). Or are you trying to imply that some administrator of the group was impersonating Gleason? If so, I certainly hope they got his blessing to do so, as identity fraud is expressly against MeWe's terms of service... The Lord knoweth we that are His, and of those that are not, scripture tells us: "all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" and "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness". May God have mercy on your souls.
Editor12/10/2021 1:01 pm
It's clear that a provocation is brewing here with the Greek vs. Macedonian theme. Official end of conversation--we will not be opening any more such comments.
Jesse Dominick12/10/2021 12:20 pm
Simon, Fr. Joseph Gleason has absolutely nothing to do with our MeWe page, and we've blocked no one. And your comments are such an odd mix of obviously ridiculous ideas that it's hard to believe anyone could honestly believe with ideas that seem like you could plausibly mean them seriously that it's impossible to tell what your actual point is.
Simon Wiesenthal 2.012/10/2021 12:15 am
I ask that the editor does not suppress this response, like he has done with my comments in the past. Ironic? No, I am being no more ironic than I was when Joseph Gleason banned me from OrthoChristian's MeWe for saying that any church that will not let you speak out against slavery and communism, cannot be the body of Christ; or when I told the banderites Panagiotis and Herman that their denial and trivialization of the Volhynian and Galician massacres is completely unacceptable in any Christian. I am merely repeating the truths that are already known to all Orthodox faithful, and which are evident to anyone who knows any ecclesiastical and secular history. The Macedonian Orthodox Church has been an autocephalous Patriarchate since 381, when the First Council of Constantinople installed Saint Gregory Nazianzen as its Patriarch. So yes, the self-proclaimed "ecumenical" "patriarchate" of Constantinople are unironically schismatic imposters. Those pretending Dimitrios Arhondonis rather than Patriarch Stefan is his current successor, are endangering the sanctity of their immortal soul through lies, by merely repeating the same old tired revisionist propaganda that the schismatic Greeks, much like the Ukrainians, have always given us. It's like when they lay false-claim the Republic of Macedonia's heritage by pretending Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great were Greeks, when Plutarch so clearly tells us that they were treated as foreign barbarians by the Greeks, who tried to prevent Alexander from participating in the Olympics which he won. But then, as soon as Alexander left his mark on the world, suddenly the Greeks started claiming this previously reviled hero as their own, and worse, denying his actual descendants their heritage. And, of course, the schismatic Greek "church" just couldn't help trying to leverage its influence to rewrite secular history just as it already attempted to rewrite ecclesiastical history. In truth, all of mainland "Greece", with the exception of the southern Peloponesos (i.e. Lakonia and Messinia) rightfully belongs to the Republic of Macedonia; so yes, Athens is unironically an occupied Macedonian city. Peace be to thee that readest.
Panagiotis12/10/2021 12:03 am
Alex, would you rather have them become the Macedonian Eastern Catholic Church? What is a valid reason why the Macedonian people cannot have their own independent church? And I don't want to hear the schismatic or non-canonical nonsense... The Serbian Church was considered schismatic when they left Constantinople. If the Serbian Church does not want to grant Independence to the Macedonian Church, then maybe the Serbian Church should return to Constantinople. Let us not be hypocrites. The Russian people have their own church. The Serbian people have their own church. The Greek people have their own church. And so forth. The Macedonian Slavs claim to be a separate ethnic group, and they are living in their own Nation, so they have every right to have their own Independent Orthodox Church. I do not take any pleasure in saying this, since I love the Serbian people, but the truth is the truth... To my Macedonian Orthodox Brothers: It does not help that some Slavic Macedonians make outrageous claims, such as that Alexander the Great was one of their own. Alexander the Great was pure Greek, and there were no Macedonian Slavs living in Macedonia at the time of Alexander the Great. The Macedonian Slavs did not arrive in Macedonia until many centuries after Alexander the Great. The Slavic Macedonian Nation, i.e. North Macedonia, also has absolutely no claim to Greek Macedonia, which is, and will always be, part of Greece. If you would have been a little more reasonable in the past, you may have had your own independent church recognized by now... All Orthodox Christians are my brothers... Now go ahead, let everyone from all sides criticize me... just my humble opinion as a Strong Orthodox Christian...
Marek Jakubowski12/9/2021 10:17 pm
It's a scandal that the Orthodox Church has allowed a whole nation to be cut off from the Church because of Serb nationalism. When will we grow up?
Editor12/9/2021 6:55 pm
Panagiotis: We're assuming that Simon is simply being ironic.
Panagiotis12/9/2021 5:35 pm
To Jorma: God bless you Orthodox Brother... I am surprised the editor did not respond to those comments... Maybe the editor has in the past and I missed it, but this is not the first time that comments like that have been made..... Just my humble opinion...
Alex12/9/2021 4:34 pm
As Jed Clampett would say, "Pitiful. Pitiful."
Jorma Kaukonen12/9/2021 2:11 pm
Simon, I cordially invite you to get back ON your rocker
Simon Wiesenthal 2.012/9/2021 9:53 am
GREEK SCHISMATICS COMMUNE AT MACEDONIAN HIERARCHICAL LITURGY IN OCCUPIED MACEDONIAN CITY OF ATHENS \\ \\ A delegation from Bigorsky Monastery of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), headed by its abbot Bishop Partenij, visited Athens over the weekend to participate in an international Orthodox music festival. \\ \\ On Sunday, the Bigorsky choir helped sing the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon in Athens. The service was celebrated by "Bishop" Philotheos of Oreoi, schismatic "vicar" of the Greek self-proclaimed "primate" "archbishop" Ieronymos of Athens, the monastery reports. \\ \ Recall that the Serbian "orthodox" "church" separated from the MOC in the 1960s and has been considered schismatic by the Orthodox world ever since. \\ \\ However, the monastery reports that its brothers communed during the Macedonian Orthodox Liturgy: \\ \\ The spiritual unity of the Orthodox brothers from both both occupied and free Macedonia was further strengthened by the union with the pure and immortal Mysteries of Christ, through the Holy Communion of the Cup of the Lord. \\ \\ This report was confirmed to OrthoChristian by a source close to the Macedonian delegation. \\ \\ The report concludes: “The participation of the Bigorsky brotherhood in the First Festival of Byzantine Singing and the services in the Athenian 'temples' was greeted with joy and warmth and was very positively and warmly accepted by the 'orthodox' brothers in Athens, including by high 'church' and 'state' representatives.” \\ \\ Sources in the schismatic Serbian "orthodox" "church" have informed OrthoChristian that the MOC delegation also traveled to Constantinople for discussions about the MOC already existing tomos of autocephaly being recognized by the schismatic "patriarchate" of Constantinople. \\ \\ The discussion went well for the MOC, though no formal plan has as yet been drawn up. The "patriarchate" stipulated that the MOC must remove the word “Macedonian” from its title and rename itself the Ohrid Archbishopric, if they whish to their tomos of autocephaly to be recognized by the schismatic "patriarchate". \\ \\ Macedonian politicians have met with and called upon "patriarch" Bartholomew to recognize the autocephaly of the MOC several times, and ecclesiastical representatives have expressed confidence that they’ll eventually receive recognition of the tomos. \\ \\ "Patriarch" Bartholomew expressed his opposition to the use of the word “Macedonian” in the name of the church already in September 2018, given that Greece demands that names is exclusively used for that part of Macedonia remaining under Greek occupation. \\ \\ Your welcome, now it's readable as a new report instead of as totalitarian revisionist propaganda.
Gary12/9/2021 7:02 am
So Bartholomew objects to them using the word Macedonian but doesn't object to causing Orthodox Christians in Ukraine from being harmed? Sounds pretty messed up.
Alexander Leitner12/8/2021 8:04 pm
Now they completely lost their minds! May Christ forgive us all.
Peter12/8/2021 7:57 pm
The Serbian Church should cease commemoration of Ieronimos I guess we know Bartholomew’s next marching orders.
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