“We will always be the Macedonian Orthodox Church, regardless of how others address us. As far as I know, we are not required to make a constitutional change to alter our name, but only in our mutual relations when addressing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we are to refer to ourselves as the Ohrid Archdiocese,” said Metropolitan Poemen, the Metropolitan of Europe within the Ohrid Archdiocese, in an interview with TV Sitel. He responded to a question regarding Archbishop Stefan’s statement that their church is being asked to omit the word “Macedonian” as a condition for being granted the Tomos of Autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Metropolitan Poemen believes that the requests from the Ecumenical Patriarchate for granting the Tomos of Autocephaly are not overly demanding and that a solution can be found. “This is not new,” he said, adding, “There are three conditions: the use of the name, the issue of properties in the diaspora, and cooperation with the Church of Ukraine. These issues are not insurmountable and can be resolved through dialogue.”
He expressed confusion about the rigid stance of the Archdiocese of Ohrid regarding the recognition of the Church of Ukraine and the need for the Holy Synod to analyze it. He suggested that this might be due to a certain sympathy towards the Russian Church but believes that this issue is also solvable.
On the matter of transferring properties in the diaspora, Metropolitan Poemen noted that these are church properties built by the diaspora, some of which are over a century old. Unlike the Church in Ukraine, which has no properties in the diaspora, the “Macedonian Orthodox Church” considers it unacceptable to give away properties built in the past.
However, he emphasized that this is not an explicit requirement. “While it might seem acceptable now, especially as many Ukrainians have moved around the world, for us, it is unacceptable to give away something that was built in the past. No church would give away its property. The Αrchbishop explained that if all other churches were to cede the diaspora to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, we would also consider joining,” he said.
