Istanbul, June 10, 2022
orthodoxianewsagency.gr
Patriarch Bartholomew officially welcomed the Macedonian Orthodox Church into communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople yesterday at the Monastery of the Life-Giving Spring in Istanbul.
The Patriarch handed His Eminence Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid, who is in Istanbul for the upcoming feast of Pentecost, a document confirming the canonical and liturgical unity that was announced following the session of the Holy Synod of Constantinople on May 9, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.
Recall that the Constantinople Synod decided to enter into communion with the Macedonian Church just days after it became known that Serbian and Macedonian Churches were well on their way to reconciliation. The Macedonian Church was previously an autonomous Church within the Serbian Patriarchate, but departed into schism in 1967.
Constantinople stipulated that the Macedonian Church can only be called the “Ohrid Archbishopric” and that it cannot have any dioceses or churches outside the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia, which would cut the Church off from its four dioceses in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
On the other hand, the Mother Church of the Macedonian Church, the Serbian Patriarchate, placed no such stipulations on it.
Just a week after the announcement from Constantinople, the Macedonian Church was received back into communion as an autonomous Church by the Serbian Patriarchate. A week later, His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije announced that the Serbian Bishops’ Council had resolved to grant autocephaly to the Macedonian Church, and two weeks later, the Patriarch handed Abp. Stefan its tomos of autocephaly during a Liturgy in Belgrade.
Following Constantinople ecclesiology, Abp. Stefan has said that he awaits a universally recognized tomos of autocephaly from Constantinople.
Follow OrthoChristian on Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
