What is most important to Macedonian Orthodox Church is to return to canonical field, says Russian bishop
April 29, 2012
What is most important to the Macedonian Orthodox Church is for it to return to the canonical field, bishop Hilarion, Chairman of External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio.
He says there are many models of church structure, which, without obligatory recognition of autocephaly, can give the church actual independence.
“I think we should not stick to Greek terms, such as autocephaly and autonomy. It is necessary to set up a model that would satisfy the Macedonian church, but which will enable it [the church] to keep in contact with the canonical Orthodox churches and not to stay outside this process, as it does now,” said bishop Hilarion.
According to him the issue should be settled in a dialog between the Serbian and Macedonian orthodox churches. The Russian Orthodox Church is always ready to help in this process and suggest solutions based on our own experience, he added.
He says the Balkans is a very complex region.
It is not an accident that the world wars started with the Balkans and today the region is at a crossroads of two civilization paradigms. On the side, this is the western civilization, which works in favor of secular values, and the view of the world through this prism. On the other side, the east Christian heritage preserved by the local orthodox churches is very important in the process of globalization when the Balkan countries integrate into the European Union, bishop Hilarion said further in the interview.
He also noted the relations between Russia and Bulgaria were developing and added there were no problems between the two churches.
If canons are so important, Macedonian Church should return to Bulgarian Church: historian
April 29, 2012
If you consider the issue from the point of view of the genesis of today’s Macedonian Archbishopric, it could return to canonical communication with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, historian Associate Professor Plamen Pavlov, a lecturer with the University of Veliko Tarnovo, said in an interview with FOCUS News Agency.
He was asked to comment on the statement of bishop Hilarion, Chairman of External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, that the Macedonian Orthodox Church should return to the canonical field and its future should be determined in a dialog with the Serbian Orthodox Church, from which the Macedonian one separated.
“I do not think the event of 1967 and then of 1991 – separation of today’s Macedonian Archbishopric from the Serbian Patriarchate – rests on any serious historical reasons. It rests on a huge historical injustice – seizure of these lands by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, also known as Yugoslavia, which was inherited by Communist Federation of Yugoslavia after the WWII,” said the historian.
According to him the Russian Patriarchate cannot say anything different. “If it says that the Macedonian Church should separate, the self-proclaimed Ukrainian Patriarchate could separate as well; so could the bishoprics in Moldova. The Russian church has the same problem with Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and, quite naturally, it will support the Serbian [Church]. But if it considers canons and orthodoxy so important, the Macedonian Church should return to the Bulgarian one. After all, Joseph I was the last legal spiritual head of these people,” he added.
