Macedonian Orthodox Church
The Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid, or simply the Macedonian Orthodox Church or the Archdiocese of Ohrid, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in North Macedonia. The Macedonian Orthodox Church claims ecclesiastical jurisdiction over North Macedonia, and is also represented in the Macedonian diaspora. The primate of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is Stefan Veljanovski, the Metropolitan of Skopje and Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia.
In 1959, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church granted autonomy to the Macedonian Orthodox Church in the then-Socialist Republic of Macedonia, as the restoration of the historic Archbishopric of Ohrid; the MOC was united with the Serbian Orthodox Church as a part of the SOC. In 1967, on the bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the Macedonian Holy Synod unilaterally announced its autocephaly from the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Serbian synod denounced the decision and condemned the clergy as schismatic. Thenceforth, the Macedonian Church had remained unrecognised by all mainstream Eastern Orthodox churches for 55 years.
The Macedonian Orthodox Church was formally reintegrated into the mainstream Eastern Orthodox community in 2022. The Ecumenical Patriarchate accepted the MOC into communion and recognised North Macedonia as its canonical territory. The schism between the Serbian and Macedonian churches ended, while the MOC was restored as an autonomous part of the Serbian church according to its 1959 status. Afterwards, the Serbian Orthodox Church officially granted autocephaly to the MOC, though not all autocephalous churches have recognised this autocephaly.
History
Background
Following the fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Emperor Basil II acknowledged the autocephalous status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and set up its boundaries, dioceses, property and other privileges. The Archbishopric was seated in Ohrid in the Byzantine theme of Bulgaria and was established in 1019 by lowering the rank of the autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate and its subjugation to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.In 1767 the Ohrid Archbishopric was abolished by the Ottoman authorities and annexed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
During the Bulgarian National awakening, efforts were made in Ottoman Macedonia for the restoration of a Bulgarian church in the region separate from the Greek Patriarchate, and in 1870 the Bulgarian Exarchate was created. In June 1870, the Macedonian side expressed openly and clearly its views on how the Exarchist Church should be governed in order for the Macedonians to join it, because "the high mercy was not promised exclusively to the Bulgarians, but the same was promised also to the Macedonians". The Christian population of the bishoprics of Skopje and Ohrid voted in 1874 overwhelmingly in favour of joining the exarchate. The Bulgarian Exarchate became in control of most of the Macedonian region. Theodosius of Skopje attempted to restore the Ohrid Archbishopric as a separate Macedonian church in 1890.
Following Vardar Macedonia's incorporation into Serbia in 1913, several of the Bulgarian Exarchate's dioceses were forcefully taken over by the Serbian Orthodox Church. While the region was occupied by Bulgaria during World War I and World War II, the local dioceses temporarily came under the control of the Bulgarian Exarchate.
The first modern assembly of Macedonian clergy was held in the village of Izdeglavje near Ohrid in 1943. It was sponsored by the High Command of the Macedonian Partisans who created a Bureau of Religious Affairs and appointed Veljo Mančevski to be the Commissioner at the Headquarters of the Partisan Detachments and be in charge of religious affairs. In October 1944, an initiative board for the organisation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church was officially formed. In 1945, the first clergy and people's synod met and adopted a resolution for the restoration of the Ohrid Archbishopric as a Macedonian Orthodox Church. It was submitted to the Serbian Orthodox Church, which since 1919 had been the sole church in Vardar Macedonia. The resolution was rejected, but a later one, submitted in 1958 at the second synod, was accepted on 17 June 1959, by the Serbian Orthodox Church. On 4 October 1958, Dimitrije Stojković was uncanonically appointed as the first archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Macedonia under the name Dositej II.
Self-proclaimed autocephaly
In May 1966, MOC requested autocephaly from the Serbian Bishops' Council but the Council refused to forward the request to sister Orthodox churches. At the time, the Serbian church had the support and protection of Yugoslav politician Aleksandar Ranković, until his dismissal from all positions in July 1966. After this, MOC sent a demand to the Council for autocephaly and threatened to act unilaterally if it was not granted. The Council declined the demand on 24 May 1967. As a result, at its third synod on 17–19 July 1967, on the bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the Macedonian Church proclaimed its autocephaly unilaterally. Serbian Church bishops denounced the decision and condemned the clergy as schismatic. The League of Communists of Macedonia welcomed the proclamation. For all the subsequent efforts to gain recognition, the autocephaly of the Macedonian Church was not recognised by other canonical Eastern Orthodox churches, due to opposition from the SOC. It applied to be part of the World Council of Churches in 1967 but Serbian patriarch German vetoed the admission. In 1981, there were 6 dioceses in Yugoslavia, one in Australia, and one in Canada; 225 parishes, 102 monasteries, around 250 priests, and 15 monks under the jurisdiction of MOC. The Catholic Church maintained ties with MOC and the latter established annual May commemorations at Saint Cyril's tomb in Rome.Since the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the Serbian Patriarchate had sought to restore its control over the Macedonian Church. MOC was introduced into the Macedonian constitution on 17 November 1991. In 2001, MOC demanded a military solution to the insurgency in Macedonia. The Islamic Religious Community of Macedonia accused MOC of "promoting civil war and bloodshed."
The Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric under the SOC, which had split from MOC, was created in the 2000s and was led by Jovan Vraniškovski. The later chain of events turned into a vicious circle of mutual accusations and incidents involving the Serbian Orthodox Church and, partly, the Serbian government on one side, and the MOC, backed by the Macedonian government on the other. Vraniškovski complained of a new state-backed media campaign against his church. The government denied registration to his organisation, and launched a criminal case against him. He was removed from his bishopric, arrested, and later sentenced to 18 months in prison, and had "extremely limited visitation rights".
In turn, the Serbian Church denied a Macedonian delegation access to the monastery of Prohor Pčinjski, which was the usual site of Macedonian celebration of the national holiday of Ilinden on 2 August and the site where the First Session of ASNOM was held. Macedonian border police often denied Serbian priests entry into the country in clerical garb. On 12 November 2009, the Macedonian Orthodox Church added "Archdiocese of Ohrid" to its official name and changed its coat of arms and flag.
Recognition efforts
In November 2017, Bulgarian National Television announced the content of a letter that the MOC had sent to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church requesting talks on recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The letter was signed by Archbishop Stefan Veljanovski. Among other things, the letter stated: "The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate, taking into account the unity of the Orthodox Church and the real spiritual and pastoral needs, should establish eucharistic unity with the restored Ohrid Archbishopric in the face of the Macedonian Orthodox Church". On 27 November, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian patriarchate accepted the proposal that it become Macedonia's mother church and agreed to work towards recognition of its status. The Serbian Church expressed its surprise over the Bulgarian decision to be "mother" to the Macedonian Church.On 14 May 2018, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church declined the invitation from the Macedonian Orthodox Church to participate in the festivities celebrating the 1000th anniversary of the establishment of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. They also declined to send a representative to the celebration. In late May 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople accepted the request from MOC to examine its canonical status.
On 13 January 2020, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew received North Macedonia's prime minister Oliver Spasovski and his predecessor Zoran Zaev. According to the Ecumenical Patriarchate's statement, "The purpose of the visit was to examine the ecclesiastical problem of the country. The previous stages of the matter were discussed during the meeting." It was announced that the patriarch would invite both the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church to a joint meeting in a bid to find a mutually acceptable solution to the country's ecclesiastical issue. In September 2020, the President of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, wrote a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch, asking him to recognise the MOC.
Communion with mainstream Eastern Orthodoxy
On 9 May 2022, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognised the Macedonian Orthodox Church, its hierarchy and faithful, and established eucharistic communion with it. It also stated that it recognised the MOC's jurisdiction as being over North Macedonia. However, the Ecumenical Patriarchate explicitly refused to recognise the word "Macedonia" or any other derivative to designate the church, and stated it would use "Ohrid" to refer to it. The Holy Synod also stated it was the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church to settle the administrative issues the Serbian Church had with the MOC. The decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was welcomed by North Macedonia's Prime Minister, Dimitar Kovačevski. After the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced communion with the MOC, the Russian Orthodox Church came to the conclusion that it recognised only the canonical rights of the Serbian Orthodox Church and refused to recognise MOC's jurisdiction over North Macedonia.On 16 May, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church released a statement that the situation of the MOC was resolved. The Holy Synod stated that full ecclesiastical autonomy was restored to the MOC under the Patriarchate of Serbia, bringing the MOC-OA fully into communion with the mainstream Eastern Orthodox world.