What is most important to Macedonian Orthodox Church is to return to canonical field, says Russian bishop

FOCUS News Agency
29/4/2012

Sofia. What is most important to the Macedonian Orthodox Church is for it to return to the canonical field, bishop Hilarion, Chairman of External Church Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio.

He says there are many models of church structure, which, without obligatory recognition of autocephaly, can give the church actual independence.

“I think we should not stick to Greek terms, such as autocephaly and autonomy. It is necessary to set up a model that would satisfy the Macedonian church, but which will enable it [the church] to keep in contact with the canonical Orthodox churches and not to stay outside this process, as it does now,” said bishop Hilarion.

According to him the issue should be settled in a dialog between the Serbian and Macedonian orthodox churches. The Russian Orthodox Church is always ready to help in this process and suggest solutions based on our own experience, he added.

He says the Balkans is a very complex region.

It is not an accident that the world wars started with the Balkans and today the region is at a crossroads of two civilization paradigms. On the side, this is the western civilization, which works in favor of secular values, and the view of the world through this prism. On the other side, the east Christian heritage preserved by the local orthodox churches is very important in the process of globalization when the Balkan countries integrate into the European Union, bishop Hilarion said further in the interview.

He also noted the relations between Russia and Bulgaria were developing and added there were no problems between the two churches.

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