The Religija.mk outlet with reference to the Bulgarian publication Doxologiainfonews reports that during a visit to Bulgaria, the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate asked the Bulgarian patriarch to finally fulfill his previous promise to recognize the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
This is about Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, who was on a visit to Bulgaria July 13 through 15. As part of this trip, the hierarch served a liturgy in the monastery of the Plovdiv Metropolis and met with the head of the BOC, Patriarch Neophyte.
“During the visit, matters of an ecclesiastical nature were discussed, including the fulfillment of the vow of the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte to add the name of the Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine to his diptych,” the website says.
The issue of the Orthodox Church of North Macedonia was also raised during the visit.
“Another important topic that was discussed and will be discussed is the strange decision of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church to recognize the pseudo-autocephaly of the Church in the Republic of North Macedonia. In the non-canonical Tomos provided by the Serbian Church, its superior is called: “His Beatitude Stefan, Archbishop of North Macedonia”, instead of, for example, “Archbishop of Ohrid, Metropolitan of Skopje and all North Macedonia,” writes Doxologiainfonews.
It is worth noting that Metropolitan Emmanuel occupies a rather important place in the structure of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and is actually the second-top figure in the Church after Patriarch Bartholomew. He also played a significant role in the process of granting the Tomos of autocephaly to the OCU and presided over the Unification Cathedral in St Sophia. The bishop visited Ukraine several times.
As reported earlier, the archbishop of Cyprus announced that all local Churches would soon recognize the OCU.
