North Macedonia: Request to the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant Autocephaly

19/05/22 - 02:37 pm

Published by VEMA

The President of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, sent a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, thanking him for the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to restore the canonicality of the Orthodox Church in his country.

In this letter, Pendarovski believes that the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s acceptance of the Church of Northern Macedonia in canonical unity and Eucharistic communion “restored the historical injustice committed against our Church and it’s faithful and healed the deep wounds caused by decades of isolation.”

In this letter, the President of North Macedonia expressed his hope and expectation for a final settlement of the administrative status of his country’s church in the near future through the granting of an Autocephaly Tomos by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, stressing that the completion of the autocephaly of the church of North Macedonia is a top national interest.

It is recalled that last week, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate accepted the appeal of the Orthodox Church of North Macedonia and decided to restore the canonicality of this church, recognizing it with the name “Ohrid Archdiocese” while excluding the term “Macedonian” and any other derivative of the word “Macedonia” for its name.

The country’s Orthodox Church seceded in 1967 from the Serbian Patriarchate and proclaimed its autocephaly as the “Macedonian Orthodox Church”, which is not recognized by any official Orthodox church in the world.

Just the day before yesterday, the Serbian Orthodox Church also accepted the return to the canonicality and the Eucharistic communion of the Church of North Macedonia, which is no longer considered schismatic.

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