Serbian Patriarch Brings “Good News” to Newly-Recognised Macedonian Church

"Mostly thanks to your prayers brothers and sister, and thanks to the prayers of all the saints, we established unity," Porfirije said in an address during the liturgy with Archbishop Stefan, the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, MPC.

Macedonian and Serbian churches held a joint liturgy in the St. Clement of Ohrid temple in Skopje. Photo: SPC

"And now we bring you one more piece of good news - that the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has unanimously met the pleas of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and has accepted and recognised its autocephaly."

"We are sure that all other churches will receive this news with joy."

Archbishop Stefan responded with the words, "Let God allow that this act of love be eternal."

Macedonian and Serbian churches held a joint liturgy in the St. Clement of Ohrid temple in Skopje. Photo: SPC

Tuesday's liturgy - on the day when much of the Orthodox Christian worlds celebrates the Byzantine theologians and missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius - followed a first joint liturgy between the SPC and MPC in Belgrade on May 19. Archbishop Stefan will hold another joint liturgy with Bartholomew I on June 12.

Unlike the Catholic Church, which is governed by one central figure, authority in the Orthodox world is dispersed.

Macedonian and Serbian churches held a joint liturgy in the St. Clement of Ohrid temple in Skopje. Photo: SPC

Many of the world's Orthodox churches are de-facto national churches, led by patriarchs.

But while the Patriarch of Constantinople enjoys theoretical primacy, much of the real power in the Orthodox world actually rests with the Patriarch of Moscow, as the head of the world's largest and richest Orthodox Church by...