Historical-legal relations between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church until today

In: Politička revija: časopis za politikologiju, komunikologiju i primenjenu politiku = Political review : magazine for political science, communications and applied politics, Band 76, Heft 2, S. 115-134

Abstract

In the first part of the paper, the author talks about the unilateral declaration of the Macedonian Orthodox Church as autocephalous at the third Macedonian Church-People's Assembly on July 18, 1967, and the church St. Kliment in Ohrid vand the denial of the autocephaly of the MPC by its mother, the Serbian Orthodox Church. In the second part of the paper, the author talks about the donation of autocephaly by the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church to the Macedonian Orthodox Church - Ohrid Archdiocese. The decision on autocephaly of the MPC-OA was ceremoniously and administratively confirmed at the Holy Liturgy in the Cathedral Church in Belgrade on June 5, 2022, by the awarding of the Tomos on AutocephalyMacedonian Orthodox Church - Ohrid Archdiocese from the hands of His Holiness. Serbian Patriarch Porfirije (Perić) to the head of the MPC-OA Archbishop Stefan (Veljanovsko) of Ohrid and Macedonia. The author of the paper argues the point of view that the recognition of the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church - Ohrid Archdiocese is historically and canonically valid and that it is significant both for Orthodoxy in the Balkans and beyond, as well as for the collective national Macedonian identity and the further affirmation of North Macedonia as a sovereign state with international legal subjectivity.