Prešov, Slovakia, February 13, 2023
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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