“We decided to recall our supposedly pre-emptive rights”: The ROC commented on the recognition of the Macedonian Church by the Phanar

Commenting on the acceptance into Eucharistic communion of the Macedonian Orthodox Church under the name of the Ohrid Archdiocese by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said that the Phanar decided to “remind them of their supposedly preemptive rights.”

He noted that it is incorrect to compare the return of the Macedonian Orthodox Church to canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church and the non-canonical recognition of the OCU by Constantinople.

According to the hierarch, since 1967 the Macedonian Orthodox Church has been out of communion with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but recently the dialogue between them has been resumed. An agreement was reached on the return of the Macedonian Orthodox Church to canonical unity with the Serbian Orthodox Church and thus with all the Local Orthodox Churches.

“Then Constantinople, in order to recall its supposedly preemptive rights, decided to get ahead of the Serbian Church and announced the recognition of the hierarchy of the Macedonian Church,” the DECR chairman said.