In Macedonia, journalists are pressurizing the MOC-OA over its support for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Macedonian journalist and religious scholar Marjan Nikolovski criticized the leadership of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (Archdiocese of Ohrid) for its decision to support the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The journalist believes that by supporting the UOC, the MOC took a pro-Russian position and doomed itself to conflict with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Nikolovsky’s comment was reported by KDP.MK.

“If you look at the moment when the reaction appeared, that is, almost a month after the decision of the Ukrainian parliament, it is quite clear that during this period someone asked the MPC-OA to declare itself in this context, in support of the pro-Russian church in Ukraine. The decision, of course, was initiated by the pro-Russian wing of the MOC-OA,” — Nikolovsky said.

In addition, the journalist is convinced that such a decision of the MOC-OA will negatively affect relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, because the Church is still in an uncertain status and it critically needs the Phanar’s decision to recognize autocephaly.

“Although the Ecumenical Patriarchate clearly understands the motives of the MOC-OA, I still think that in the long run it will not show much tolerance, because this is not the first time that the MOC-OA, a church with an uncertain administrative status in the Orthodox world, has chosen the Russian side in the church conflict in Ukraine. The Ukrainian church issue is, of course, very important to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and it expects responsible behavior from the MOC-OA. After all, it is too presumptuous to expect the Ecumenical Patriarchate to grant the Tomos of autocephaly, and in Ukraine to refuse to recognize the Tomos of autocephaly of the OCU from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This is uncivilized!” — the journalist added.