Bulgaria’s Holy Synod Ready to Assist in Establishing Macedonia’s Church Status

The Holy Synod, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s governing body, decided on 27^th of November to hold talks with the Macedonian Orthodox Church and other Orthodox Christian churches for establishing the cannonical status of the neighbouring county’s church. This happens after the Macedonian Church asked the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to assume a form of parental authority over it.

Earlier this month, the Holy Synod received a letter from its Macedonian church requesting its recognition from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as mother church.

Campaigners in favour of the church accepting the request of the Church of Macedonia held a silent vigil outside the Bulgarian Orthodox Church's Holy Synod building earlier on 27th of November. “A historical chance that should not be missed,” that’s how the people who gathered outside the building described the outstretched hand of the Macedonian church.

The Macedonian archbishopric, as it calls itself the Macedonian church, dates back to the end of the Second World War, but remains unrecognised by no Orthodox Church in the world. The current Macedonian archbishopric claims that it was the renewed Archbishopric of Ohrid - the one that Byzantine Emperor Basil II created in place of the Bulgarian Patriarchate destroyed by him.

Asked by journalists why a decision about the Macedonian Orthodox Church is taking so long, Bulgarian Patriarch Nеophyte said because it is a complicated matter and should be considered very carefully.

“They are our brothers, our people and we will strive to keep its unity. Accepting the outstretched hand of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is the least we can do," Patriarch Neophyte said.

After 3-hour long meeting, the Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod read a decision saying that “the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, in full awareness of its sacred duty, undertakes to cooperate with, and assist the Macedonian Orthodox Church before the local orthodox churches to establish its canonical status."

The Holy Synod also decided to appoint a synodal commission of eight metropolitans to conduct the negotiations on the statute of the Macedonian Church.