Macedonian Church Stalls Negotiations

The decision was made on Wednesday by the Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, MPC, the synod’s spokesman, Timotej, told media. The MPC was responding to the recent proposition by the Serbian church to include Jovan in the negotiations.

Once part of the MPC, Bishop Jovan is now head of the so-called Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric, POA, a small controversial religious community formed in Macedonia that opposes the MPC. The POA is subordinate to the Serbian Orthodox Church, under which it enjoys autonomy, while the Macedonian Orthodox Church aims to achieve equal status with all other churches in the Orthodox world.

The SPC, which has close ties with Orthodox churches around the world, blocked the recognition of the Macedonian Church by other Orthodox ecclesiastical bodies after Macedonia declared its independence from the former socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The Serbian church argues that the MPC should only be allowed an autonomous status under the SPC’s administration.

After many years of frozen relations, observers noted the possibility of renewed talks after the recent enthronement of the new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej. Irinej is considered to be less rigid on this issue than his predecessor, the late Patriarch Pavle.
 
The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian communion in the world, estimated to include as many as 300 million members.

Unlike the Catholic Church, the global Orthodox community has no central ruling figure. It is composed of numerous self-governing ecclesiastical bodies, such as the Serbian Orthodox Church, each geographically and nationally distinct but theologically unified.