Czech-Slovak Church recognizes Macedonian-Ohrid autocephaly

Prešov, Slovakia, February 13, 2023

The Czech-Slovak Holy Synod. Photo: eparchiapo.sk The Czech-Slovak Holy Synod. Photo: eparchiapo.sk     

The canonicity and autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church-Ohrid Archbishopric has been officially recognized by the Holy Synod of another Local Orthodox Church.

Meeting in Prešov, Slovakia, under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Metropolitan Rastislav on Tuesday, February 7, the Holy Synod of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

took note of the letters of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the restoration of Eucharistic communion with the dioceses in North Macedonia, as well as the letters of the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije on the reintegration of the Church in North Macedonia into the canonical structure of the Serbian Orthodox Church and on the granting of the autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in North Macedonia by the Patriarchal and Synodal Tomos of May 20, 2022. These canonical decisions of the sister Orthodox Churches were adopted with thanks to God for the elimination of the long-standing schism.

His Eminence Archbishop Juraj of Michalovce and Košice of the Czech-Slovak Church had previously concelebrated with three Macedonian hierarchs at the Serbian Church’s glorification of St. Irinej (Ćirić) of Bačka and the Holy Martyrs of Bačka in Novi Sad, Serbia, in October.

The autocephaly of the Macedonian Church is now recognized by the Churches of Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania, in addition to the Serbian Church that granted it.

Conversely, the Church of Greece explicitly rejects the MOC’s autocephaly on the grounds that only Constantinople can grant autocephaly, though it nevertheless accepts the MOC as canonical, following the earlier decision of Constantinople.

The Antiochian Patriarchate has also accepted the canonicity of the MOC and entered into communion with it, though with the “aspiration that the general Orthodox consensus about the name and legal status of this Church will be reached as soon as possible.”

MOC hierarchs and clergy have also concelebrated with hierarchs and clergy from the Churches of Jerusalem and and the Orthodox Church in America, though their Synods haven’t formally addressed the issue.

Thus far, there have no been Synodal decisions from or concelebrations with hierarchs or clergy of the Churches of Alexandria, Georgia, Cyprus, and Albania.

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2/13/2023

Comments
Jesse Dominick 2/16/2023 5:35 pm
Macedonia is Greece, according to the Prespa Agreement, though the country is North Macedonia, the adjectival form remains simply "Macedonian." The Church that exists in North Macedonia calls itself the Macedonian Orthodox Church-Ohrid Archbishopric, as you can see on its official website: http://www.mpc.org.mk/default.asp. It's not a rare situation in the world that two different places have the same name.
Macedonia is Greece2/16/2023 3:10 am
Stop calling it “Macedonian Church” when their country is not even called Macedonia (Macedonia is the northern region of Greece) and they are not Macedonians, they are slavs (the ancient Macedonians were Greeks and real Macedonians are still Greeks today). St Paisios fought against the skopian lies, St Paisios pray for us!
Jame P.2/14/2023 11:27 am
Common sense, please get some common sense. The Macedonian Church was granted autocephaly by its Mother Church. The Ukrainian Church was not. It was thrown together from a bunch of defrocked or never even ordained schismatics, by a Patriarch with no business in a jurisdiction that's not his. Your legalistic argument is very lame.
Common Sense2/13/2023 5:43 pm
So the Czech-Slovakian Church demanded a “pan-Orthodox” solution to Ukrainian autocephaly, but is okay with the unilateral Serbian granting of Macedonian autocephaly? Hmm.
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