Skopje, March 20, 2026
Photo: liturgija.mk
The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Macedonian Orthodox Church–Ohrid Archbishopric (MOC-OA) has elected a new ruling hierarch for the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, ending a period of nearly 30 years during which the diocese was administered by His Eminence Metropolitan Petar of Prespa and Pelagonia.
At its regular full session on March 19, the Holy Synod considered Met. Petar’s proposal to be relieved of his duties as administrator of the Australia-New Zealand Diocese and for a new diocesan bishop to be appointed in his place. The Synod accepted his proposal, released him from his administrative role, and elected His Grace Bishop Nikola (Trajkovski) of Velica as the new Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand, reports Liturgija.mk.
His appointment takes effect from the date of the election.
The newly elected Metropolitan Nikola was born in 1974 in Skopje. He studied general and comparative literature at the Blaze Koneski Faculty of Philology at Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, and completed a two-year academic residency in the Department of Byzantine Studies at Charles University in Prague, where he focused on medieval literature.
He was tonsured a monk at the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration in Zrze in 1998, ordained to the diaconate that same year, and ordained to the priesthood the following year. In 2006, he was elevated to the rank of igumen and appointed abbot of the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Mariovo. From early 2008, he devoted himself to the revitalization of the monastery complex, overseeing a series of conservation and restoration works in the church, the renewal of liturgical and spiritual life, and the development of the monastery's economy.
In 2008 he defended his master’s thesis, “The Contribution of Russian Clergy to Church Life in Macedonia in the 20th Century," at the Faculty of Theology of St. Clement of Ohrid University in Sofia, which was subsequently published in both Macedonian and Russian. He is also working towards a doctorate at the same faculty.
He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite in 2012. In 2023, he was elected vicar bishop of the Prespa-Pelagonia Diocese with the title Bishop of Velica, and in 2024, he was consecrated to the episcopate in the cathedral church of St. Demetrius the Great Martyr in Bitola.
Met. Nikola has published articles and participated in academic conferences in Macedonia and abroad on topics in medieval and modern Church history, hagiography, and ecclesiastical literature. He is a member of several archiepiscopal and diocesan Church bodies and organs.
The Holy Synod’s announcement offered a prayer that God’s grace would be poured out upon the faithful as they complete the remaining days of the Great Fast and prepare to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ.
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