Macedonian Archbishop Stefan is visiting Serbia at the invitation of Serbian Patriarch Porfiry. The officially stated reason is the third anniversary of the election of Patriarch Porfiry. Obviously, this is only an occasion for the visit, which was not announced in the Macedonian media either – in fact, Patriarch Porfiry was elected on February 18, and the visit of the Macedonian delegation was a month later. At the same time, the visit is administrative and, until now, without festive cooperation, which indicates that it is of a business nature.
Together with Archbishop Stefan, Metropolitans Prespano-Pelagoniski Petar and Debar-Kicevo Timotei arrived in Belgrade, together with Irakliski Bishop Kliment, secretary of St. Synod. At their meeting with the Serbian Patriarch, they discussed “current problems in the Orthodox world”.
The visit of the Macedonian church delegation coincides with the visit to Serbia of the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the ROC Volokolamsk Metropolitan Antony and the adviser of the Moscow Patriarch Kirill o. Nikolay Balashov, who have been in Serbia for four days and already had a meeting with the Serbian Patriarch and members of the synod of the Serbian Church.
This means that a meeting of the delegation of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate is not excluded, but such a meeting has not been officially announced.
Mitr. Antony met with the Serbian Patriarch Porfiry and the Bishop Irenaeus of Bačka, and the laconic message about their meeting says: “In a heartfelt and meaningful conversation, the mutual satisfaction with the fraternal cooperation between the two churches and the two peoples of the same faith was highlighted. The interlocutors paid special attention to overcoming the challenges facing the Orthodox Church”.
Metropolitan Antony also met the Russian ambassador in Belgrade, and the same sentence was used for the content of the talks: “… special attention was paid to overcoming the challenges facing the Orthodox Church”, without specifying what exactly they were.
Analysts assume that the head of the MOC has been invited to Belgrade to hold a meeting with the Moscow delegation. The information portal “Religia.mk” reports that the invitation to a meeting in Belgrade comes a few days after St. The Synod of the MOC has decided to form a commission to review its attitude towards the autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine. For the Kremlin, the ecclesiastical isolation of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine is a key element of their policy in Ukraine.
