The Serbian archbishops’ decision to accept the decision by the Synod of the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church to return under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is a great and significant event not just for the SPC, but for the Orthodox Christianity across the world in general. It preserves the unity of the Orthodox Slavs.

The fact that the reconciliation liturgy will be served on May 19 by the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije and the Macedonian Archbishop Stefan in the St. Sava Church in Belgrade goes to show, symbolically and essentially, that the schism has been overcome.

According to legal historian Zoran Čvorović, if we start with the Holy Fathers’ thesis that a schism is a festering wound on the body of a church, then it is clear that overcoming the Macedonian schism — the most painful since the American one, which was overcome during the tenure of the Patriarch Pavle — is a significant event in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Severe Blow to Constantinople

As Čvorović says, this decision by the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has completely annulled all consequences of the non-canonical act passed on May 9 by the Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Starting with a distorted interpretation of the three canons of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, Čvorović says, Fener attempted to appropriate the highest judicial power in the Orthodox Church in the Macedonian case, as well as in the case of the Ukrainian schism, and present itself as an appellate court reigning above other local churches.

This decision by the Serbian Orthodox Church, Čvorović estimated, presents a severe blow to the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s papal tendencies, which became apparent during the non-canonical establishment of the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine.