Talk:Autonomy

Father Andrew, you removed the Archbishopric of Ohrid from the list of autonomous churches, with a short note that it is "recognized only by Serbia".

Your argument is in contradiction with the definition of autonomy in this page which states that: "is the status of a church within the Orthodox Church whose primatial bishop is confirmed by one of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches."

Assumably, by Serbia you mean the Church of Serbia - which is autocephalous canonical orthodox Church (complies to the requirement "one of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches"). It issued a tomos for autonomy to the Archbishopric of Ohrid and confirmed the primatial bishop to be Archbishop of Ohrid.

If there are some other criteria that has to be met - they should be written on this page too.

It is not understandible why the Church of China, which unfortunately, has no clergy (no bishops, no priests) can be listed, and a canonical church that has (at this moment) four bishops and is in full communion with all canonical orthodox churches, can not be listed on this page?

K.panteleimon 10:05, June 2, 2009 (UTC)

A denial of the statement "recognized only by Serbia", and an explanation how autonomy is percieved in the orthodox world by Metropolitan Kiril of Varna, (canonical) Orthodox Church of Bulgaria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLNsNcGH5nY who, asked about the autonomy of the Archbishopric of Ohrid and how the Church of Bulgaria sees this matter, says that "when one a canonical orthodox Church reaches a decision, we accept that without disputes. For us it is vaild." and later "it is not correct that I comment on the decisions of another Church, it is their internal matter". He gives nice explanations, please take your time to hear his statements. K.panteleimon 18:29, June 2, 2009 (UTC)

On OrthodoxWiki, we go by what are generally recognized, third-party sources. The Ohrid archdiocese is not listed in these sources as one of the autonomous churches of Orthodoxy. It's not a matter simply of what the Church of Serbia says or one Bulgarian bishop speaking on camera says, but rather what is generally practiced and recognized throughout the Orthodox Church.

This is, by no means, a comment on the legitimacy of the Ohrid archdiocese or its autonomy. It's simply a matter of what is generally recognized throughout the Orthodox world.

In any event, if it really is simply an "internal" matter, then that means that the Ohrid archdiocese is still part of the Serbian church and not one of the separate, autonomous churches in the way that Finland (for instance) is.

It is very much worth noting that autonomy means different things in different cases. Clearly, the tomos given to the Ohbrid archdiocese by the Church of Serbia regards it as "in full liturgical and canonical unity with our Patriarchate of Pec, i.e., with the Serbian Orthodox Church," meaning that it is not autonomous in the same sense as other autonomous churches, which really are fully independent, excepting only the confirmation of their primate. —Fr. Andrew ^talk contribs (THINK!) 01:18, June 3, 2009 (UTC)