We will work hard and patiently wait for that auspicious time when these things should be arranged. But please do not forget us and help us grow. You have the responsibilities and the rights and we have full confidence in you, Archbishop Stefan said in his address to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew after Sunday’s joint patriarchal and synodical divine liturgy at the Church of St. George in the Phanar in Istanbul.
You know well the longing of our hierarchy and our Orthodox people – to see the Ohrid Archbishopric restored and regulated as an autocephalous church. But God is our witness, that the greater our hope, the greater is our full confidence in your judgment, in your judgment of the time when the arrangement of these things should take place. We leave the judgment of time to you, but please – do not forget us, help us grow, said HH Stefan.
Archpishop Stefan told Bartholomew that he has the responsibility of the Mother Church for the welfare and prosperity of the Orthodox family.
