The earliest Christian communities in Macedonia, according to Acts, were founded by Paul, about AD 50, who visited this region twice during his journeys through Europe and Asia.

The Slav colonisation of Macedonia in the 7th century however erased many of these communities, but the brothers Saints Methodius and Cyril, who came from Thessalonica, began to convert the new settlers in the 9th century. They created the Cyrillic alphabet and translated the Bible and several other scriptures so that the church services could be held in the vernacular.

As from 870 AD, Macedonia became part of the autonomous Bulgarian Archbishopric (autocephalous with the rank of Patriarchate since 927) which had its seat in Bulgaria's capital, Preslav. After the capture of Preslav by Byzatine Emperor John Tzimisces in 972, the seat of the patriarchate - along with the capital of Bulgaria - was moved to Ohrid. When the Bulgarian state was completely subdued by Byzantium in 1018, the patriarchate was reduced to a lower rank of church hierarchy (archbishopric). It existed under the name of Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid until 1767 when it was abolished by Ottoman ruler Mustapha III and its dioceses were annexed to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In March 1945, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, so as to limit the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church decided to create a separate administration in the newly-created People's Republic of Macedonia. In Skopje, a Resolution to create the Macedonian Orthodox Church was submitted to the Serbian Orthodox Church who had since 1919 been the sole titulary. This resolution was rejected, but a later one, submitted in 1958, proposing the Ohrid Archdiocese of Saint Clement as a Macedonian Orthodox Church was accepted by the Serbian Orthodox Church on June 17, 1959 under strong pressure from the Communist authorites. Dositheus was appointed the first archbishop. The Macedonian Orthodox Church at that time only held an autonomous status but during the Third Clergy and Laity Assembly on July 19, 1967, in Ohrid, the Macedonian Orthodox Church was proclaimed as autocephalous contrary to canonical law.

Since the breakup of Yugoslavia and the end of Communist repression of the Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church has been in conflict with the Macedonian Orthodox Church which yet to gain recognition from the Patriarchate of Constantinople or any other autocephalous church. The issue of dispute is the anti-canonical method used to gain autocephaly, the issue of the Serb Orthodox minority in Macedonia (at least some 40,000 strong) and the question of some hundreds of Serb Orthodox shrines from the medieval Nemanjic period. The two Churches had been negotiating a compromise reached in Nis, Serbia in 2002 which would have given the Macedonians a de facto independent status just short of canonical autocephaly. Unfortunately, the agreement was not respected by the Macedonian side save for bishop Jovan who was later arrested and removed from his bishopric as well as expulsed from Macedonia.

The jurisdiction of the Macedonian Orthodox Church spreads not only throughout Macedonia, but also in the church communities abroad.

External Links

• Macedonian Orthodox Church - the official site
• Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral Sts Peter and Paul-Crown Point, IN, USA