Ohrid hierarch rejects Phanar's right to unilaterally grant autocephaly

Metropolitan Gregory of Kumanovo and Osogovo. Photo: liturgija.mk

The hierarch of the Ohrid Archbishopric, Metropolitan Gregory of Kumanovo and Osogovo, published a detailed canonical analysis in which he substantiated the legal invalidity of the Constantinople Patriarchate's claims to unilaterally grant tomos of autocephaly.

In his address, the archpastor recalled that the canonical procedure for granting autocephaly is clearly established by the decisions of the Pan-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Commissions in Chambésy. According to the approved procedure, the right to decide on autocephaly belongs exclusively to the Mother Church under whose jurisdiction the autonomous region falls, after which the document is submitted for the attainment of pan-Orthodox consensus. The Serbian Orthodox Church, acting as the Mother Church of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MOC–OA), making the archbishopric's status final and legally binding.

Bishop Gregory separately addressed Constantinople's actions regarding Ukraine. "If the Patriarchate of Constantinople issues a tomos to some autonomous ecclesiastical region, as it did in the case of Ukraine, then such an individual act must conform to the general act from which it derives, that is, the decisions of the Fourth and Fifth Pre-Conciliar Conferences," the hierarch noted. According to him, the Ukrainian tomos issued by the Phanar came into direct contradiction with these decisions, and therefore "such an individual act (tomos) is annulled."

The bishop emphasized that the Patriarchate of Constantinople possesses only a "primacy of honor" and is obliged to forward the received Tomos to other Local Churches to achieve pan-Orthodox consensus but has no right to replace the Mother Church or issue its own tomos.

"The Patriarch of Constantinople himself is not a body genuinely authorized to resolve matters of granting a tomos of autocephaly beyond his own jurisdiction," stated Metropolitan Gregory, adding that the Patriarch of Constantinople employs "judicial activism," which entails making decisions based on his own views and controversial political considerations rather than on the canons.

The hierarch warned that Constantinople's unilateral actions are destroying the canonical order of the Church. "If the Patriarchate of Constantinople pursues the ambition of unilaterally granting autocephaly, this serves a single purpose — the introduction of a 'super-jurisdiction' of one 'universal see,'" Metropolitan Gregory concluded, pointing to the threat of an "Orthodox pope" with supreme authority over all autocephalous Churches.

The Tomos recognizing the autocephaly of the MOC–OA, issued by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2022, has been officially accepted by the Synods of the Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and several other Local Churches. The Patriarchate of Constantinople refuses to circulate the Serbian document and is pressing the hierarchs in Skopje to renounce the historical name "Macedonian Orthodox Church."

As the UOJ reported, Metropolitan Jovan of Kruševo and Demir Hisar stated that Constantinople created "additional divisions" in world Orthodoxy by granting the tomos to the OCU.

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