^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Macedonian Orthodox Church

Regarding the arms and flags of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the arms is posted at the aforementioned site. The flag is red with the arms but only the outlines in yellow can be found at http://heraldika.org.mk. Macedonian Eparchies (and Bishops) do not use separate arms or flags, apart from the one of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Only Bishop Jovan during his office as a head of the Povardarie Eparchy used the arms (or flag black outlined double-headed eagle on yellow) in question as the arms of the eparchy and used a somehow modified arms of MOC as his arms of office.

After the conflict regarding the status of the MOC and its recognition by other orthodox churches (Bishop Jovan took the position that the MOC should ask for its authocephalous status from the "mother" church, the Serbian OC) he was dismissed from this office and from the MOC as a whole. Since he did not recognize the authority of MOC for his dismissal, he still claims to hold the same office, Bishop of Povardarie Eparchy, plus he got the title from SOC as the head of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric (which neither the MOC nor the Republic of Macedonia recognize in any way). Thus this arms although in use, was never officially recognized as the arms (flag) of the Povardarie Eparchy of the MOC. It was posted on my site during its usage as the arms of Povardarie Eparchy of the MOC. It has been removed from the site once it ceased to be the arms of the Povardarie Eparchy. But I guess some of the older backup pages that cannot be reached from the home page, could be reached directly.

Finally, it is used now as the arms of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric, a small group of people who consider them self under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. They never bothered to have any connections to the actual Povardarie Eparchy, as their activities are outside the territory of the Eparchy in question. Zoran Vraniskovski AKA Bishop John at the moment is serving his sentence for financial fraud during his office as a Bishop of Povardarie Eparchy.

Jovan Jonovski, 13 February 2006