News and events
 
 
 
 
 

Letter to the Heads of the Local Orthodox Churches ( 14.06.2005 )

 

Subject: The Public Announcement from the Archbishop's Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church, held in Belgrade from 15 – 26 May 2005.

 

 

Your Eminence, with the abovementioned Announcement from the Archbishop's Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church  has attacked the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which is an unprecedented act in the history of the Orthodox Church, and it has nothing in common with the Holy Canons of the Ecumenical and the Local Councils of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

            Namely, parallel with the existence of a live Church of God with 10 bishops, 13 Dioceses, 7 of which in the Republic in Macedonia and 6 in the Diaspora, with approx. 500 parishes and more than 500 active priests, with more than 2.000 churches and monasteries, with a Seminary and a Theological Faculty, and with more than 3 million faithful people in and out of the Republic of Macedonia, the Serbian prelates, with their decision, want to create some structure, allegedly of the Church, which consists of merely 50 people and without one single church, with the task to destroy the MOC, the only Orthodox Church in the Republic of Macedonia.

            In the name of keeping of the dignity of Orthodoxy and the dignity of all Local Churches, we appeal to You that Your Holy Church does not accept such a decision from the Prelates' Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

            At the same time, we ask You, most beloved brother in Christ our Lord, to help our God-loving people, because it has kept Orthodoxy and has the right to be accepted in the community of the Holy Church of Christ, and to be guided by its own prelates and pastors because of pastoral and ecclesiastic reasons. We believe that You will have love and understanding and that You will reach with Your right hand to help the Macedonian Orthodox Church to get rid of the national-chauvinism of those who mind its very existence, so there would be no future obstacles for the completion of its pastoral and saving mission.

            Your brother in Christ and in prayers,

 

HEAD

OF THE HOLY SYNOD OF HIERARCHS

OF THE MACEDONIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

                                                            ARCHBISHOP OF OHRID AND MACEDONIA

†  S T E F A N

            

 

Addendum: A historical summary of the MOC.