The Macedonian Orthodox Church elected a ruling bishop for Australia and New Zealand for the first time

The Holy Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archdiocese (MOC-OA) made a historic decision, appointing for the first time its own ruling bishop for the Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand. Bishop Nicholas (Trajkovski) was elected to the post, whose mandate took effect immediately on the day of the vote.

According to the portal “Blagovest-info”, the relevant decision was made at the meeting of the Synod on March 19, 2026. Until then, the Australian community, which has existed for more than 30 years, had not had its own on-site leader – the diocese was remotely administered by Metropolitan Peter of Prespa and Pelagonia from Macedonia.

The newly elected Metropolitan Nicholas was born in 1974 in Skopje. He is a specialist in Byzantine and medieval literature, with a philological education and many years of experience in the restoration of monastic life. After accepting monasticism in the late 1990s, he was active in scholarship and Church history, and was ordained a bishop in 2024.

The appointment of a permanent bishop is intended to solve the logistical and spiritual difficulties of the region, where Orthodox parishes are separated by thousands of kilometers. The Synod expressed the hope that the permanent presence of Metropolitan Nicholas will strengthen church life and contribute to the consolidation of believers living in Australia and New Zealand.

We will remind, earlier the head of the PCU Epiphany Dumenko declared “non-canonicality” of the Tomos on autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Macedonia. Dumenko claims that the Macedonian Church illegally gained independence from the Serbian Church and “entered into an alliance with the Moscow Patriarchate”. The PCU head is convinced that the Russian Orthodox Church is planning to implement the same scenario in Ukraine.