The annual session of the Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) started yesterday in Sremski Karlovci, with a ceremony on the occasion of the centenary of the restoration of the Pec Patriarchate and the receipt of Tomos by the Constantinople Patriarchate in 1922, which recognized the SOC as the ”. The session of the Assembly continues today in Belgrade is the working part, which, according to the announcements, is expected to discuss the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on May 9 to recognize the MOC-OA as a canonical church.

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porphyry, in a message on the occasion of the beginning of the Assembly stressed that and the Metropolitanate of Serbia, the Archbishopric of Karlovac and the Metropolitanate of Serbia, with the Dioceses of Dalmatia-Istria and Boka Kotorska, the Archbishopric of Cetinje and the Metropolitanate of Montenegro, Brdo and Primorye, then the Dioceses of Skopje, Ohrid-Presko-Raska, Prespa-Prespa, a part of the Diocese of Voden, the Diocese of Poljana and the dioceses of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Dabro-Bosnia, Herzegovina, Zvornica-Tuzla and Banja Luka-Bihac, united in one autocephalous single SOC.

- This great holiday is really a holiday of unity and harmony. And today, after a hundred years, we joyfully announce and celebrate this historic event, whether we live in our homeland, whether in some of the Serbian or surrounding countries, whether in displacement scattered under the storm of historical winds everywhere on the six continents , stated Patriarch Porphyry in the epistle.

The ceremony began with a liturgy which, as the SOC announced, was served by "the Blessed Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje Mr. Jovan, Metropolitan of Dabrobosani Mr. Chrysostom, the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Ioanikije, as well as the consecrated gentlemen, Bishops of Srem, Mr. Basil, Buddhist Mr. Lucian, Canadian Mitrofan, New Grace-Midwestern American Mr. Longin, Wires Mr. Justin, Forestry Jovan, Mr. Zvornichko-Tuzlan Fotij, Krusevac Mr. David and Buenos Aires and South Central America Cyril ”.

The annual session of the Serbian Assembly is regularly held in May and is attended by bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church from Serbia and abroad. The Assembly is decided by a majority of votes, and the vote of the patriarch is decisive only when the number of votes is equal. At the end of the session, the Assembly issues a statement on the adopted decisions, but announcements are not excluded during its holding on some particularly important issues.

Among those issues is the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to recognize our Church as a canonical "under the name of the Ohrid Archbishopric". According to Serbian media, with his decision for canonical recognition of the Ohrid Archbishopric, Patriarch Bartholomew acted as "the first in honor" who resolves misunderstandings between the churches and that by recognizing the MOC as canonical "wants to take over its dioceses abroad."

Even before the announcement of the decision of Patriarch Bartholomew, the Bishop of Zvornica-Tuzla, Fotije, announced on May 6 that there was a meeting between representatives of the SOC and the MOC-OA.

- It is possible this month at the May Assembly of the SOC in Belgrade, the MOC, ie the Ohrid Archbishopric, to return to canonical unity with the SOC and thus resolve the schism of 1967. These days, as part of the Synod of the SOC, I accompanied His Holiness to a meeting with representatives of the Macedonian Orthodox Church in the Diocese of Nis. It was an interesting dialogue of love, faith and hope and we hope that if God gives there will be unity, but first let us all pray to God. The Macedonian Orthodox Church, ie the Ohrid Archbishopric, will return to canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church at this year's session of the Assembly in Belgrade in May, and thus to canonical unity with all local Orthodox churches, said Bishop Fotije.

He did not state what it specifically means, ie whether the SOC will recognize the autocephaly of the MOC, but pointed out that the Assembly of the SOC is facing a "great challenge."

- Before us is a great challenge and if God allows the prayers of Bishop Nikolaj Ohridski and Zichki, the prayers of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saints Clement and Nahum and other saints, Saint Sava Srpski, to establish that unity, to heal that schism that exists since 1967. We are now on the threshold of solving that problem, God willing, so I call on you to pray to God, all of you and all of us, to solve it for the glory of God and for the good of our holy churches. But also for the good of our Serbian people and for the good of the Macedonian people, which are two brotherly nations, said Fotije.

The Serbian daily "Kurir", citing sources in the Patriarchate of Belgrade, states that the Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church will officially confirm the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to "recognize the autonomous Ohrid Archbishopric, instead of the so far unrecognized so-called The Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) ”.

The daily says that the SOC wanted to canonically recognize our Church, but "it was deliberately prevented by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who wanted it to turn out that this decision for canonical recognition was made solely thanks to him."

"Kurir" points out that the hierarchy of the SOC was ready to negotiate a church community with the MOC-OA, which was directly and indirectly discussed several times in the previous period, and even in early May at a meeting in Nis of Serbian Patriarch Porphyry and Archbishop Ohrid and Macedonian Stefan, accompanied by the hierarchs of both churches.

According to the Belgrade daily, the recognition will also mean that there will be "serious personnel changes within the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric (POA)" of Jovan Vraniskovski, emphasizing that "the POA will practically take over the current schismatic hierarchy in Northern Macedonia and will be called the Ohrid Archbishopric." .

The daily says that Vraniskovski "will retire due to his poor health", and the three proclaimed bishops of the POA would retain their episcopal rank and receive administration of one of the monasteries in the country or be assigned "dioceses within the Ohrid Archbishopric".

The Belgrade daily adds that the SOC planned to recognize the unity with the MOC-OA at the end of yesterday's Assembly, after which the dignitaries of the two churches would celebrate the Holy Hierarch's Liturgy, which will mark reconciliation and renewal of unity.

The portal Religija.mk estimates that if the announcements of "Kurir" prove to be correct, the Assembly of the SOC will essentially try to create a false image against reality, equating the recognition of the canonical status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the recognition of the canonical status of the SOC as identical to MOC-OA.

- But they have two huge differences. The first is the order, and the second is the administrative status of the church. MOC-OA, first recognized by the SOC as canonical, receives a resolved canonical status, but de facto also receives a resolved administrative status, but as autonomy, because it returns to where it separated from it. MOC-OA, recognized first by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, receives a resolved canonical status, but remains in informal autocephaly with an unresolved administrative status, because it does not derive from it, the portal states.

According to Religija.mk, the first good news in the allegations of "Kurir" is that the SOC may have decided not to obstruct the process and leaves room for the MOC-OA to reach the desired autocephaly, and the second good news is that the SOC will practically recognize the decision of the Space Patriarchate and will be the second Orthodox Church to agree that the MOC-OA is not a schismatic church, but a church with a correct canonical status, which should encourage other churches to make such a move, but also to "silence the Russian Orthodox Church." .

- The first bad news is that in this way the SOC is trying to sell to the public the story that MOC-OA is now becoming an autonomous church and that practically what Vraniskovski was until now, from now on will be Archbishop Stefan. The second bad news is that this scenario reveals that the SOC did not have very sincere intentions, and the Macedonian bishops who were in the past period of meetings with the Serbian bishops were prepared a classic trap through which they would de facto become an autonomous church and recognize the Nis document from 20 years ago, adds Religija.mk.

The portal estimates that this clearly shows the importance of the decision of Patriarch Bartholomew on May 9, by which the MOC-OA was practically saved from the idea of ​​returning to the arms of the SOC and that the Serbian bishops knew what was to come and tried to " overtake the Ecumenical Patriarchate. "

According to Religija.mk, if we take into account the proximity of "Kurir" to the government, if we analyze the dictionary used in the text and if we capture the sentences intended for the Serbian public how to sell the news, and the SOC not to be the losing side, the information presented in The text of the Belgrade newspaper should have a high degree of credibility.

- The role played by the Ecumenical Patriarchate is complete derailment. Instead of triumph, the SOC is in a position to follow the decision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, because the resolution of the canonical status of the MOC-OA comes through the Ecumenical Patriarchate, using the instrument of appeal, and not through the Serbian Orthodox Church. The difference is that if the MOC-OA returned to canonical unity through the SOC, it would be practically an autonomous church. And one day autonomy, without any guarantee of autocephaly is a cataclysm. With the current situation, the MOC, returning to the canonical unity through the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is practically in an informal autocephalous status, which has yet to be made official, concludes Religija.mk.

Source: MIA