Recent Church TOMOS hits Orthodox Faithful in the Soul

Read this if you want to be informed about the impact of the Serbian - Macedonian church dispute. I am pleased that this incident has opened the relations between the Macedonian and Russian Churches.


Recent Church TOMOS hits Orthodox Faithful in the Soul: "Recent Church TOMOS hits Orthodox Faithful in the Soul

By Chris M. Purdef

June 13, 2005

In response to Forum 18 News article Macedonia: Why is state interfering in Orthodox dispute? on June 8, 2005 by Branko Bjelajac http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=579

... Nonetheless, when it was clear that efforts to establish the new Archbishphoric in Macedonia were unsuccessful, the Serbian Orthodox Holy Synod, apparently deciding to discipline the Macedonian parish, took it a step further and issued a TOMOS, publicly recognizing the “Orthodox Archbishphoric of Ohrid” as the only canonically legal church in the Macedonia. The official Serbian Holy Synod declaration, for all intents and purposes, proposed to excommunicate the approximately 1.8 million Orthodox Macedonians; clear indication that Serbian Bishops have relinquished their pastoral ideals.

Still however, early indications demonstrate that the TOMOS has drawn little regional orthodox support. In a recent statement, the Patriarchic of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexy II, came out against the move taken by the Serbian Orthodox Church. It was only a few weeks before the TOMOS that the ROC had sent a representative to the Republic of Macedonia to strengthen Russian and Macedonian Orthodox ties with the announcement that the Moscow Patriarchic Chorus would be performing in Macedonia, bringing with them a written letter of support from Patriarch Alexey II. The official representative from Moscow gave this statement in light of the then rumored Serbian Orthodox TOMOS,