Churches of Serbia, North Macedonia, end decades-old dispute

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES
Associated Press

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — The head of Serbia’s Orthodox Church says he will recognize the full independence of the church in neighboring North Macedonia, signaling an end to a decades-old religious dispute. The Macedonian Church unilaterally announced its independence, or autocephaly, from the Serbian Church in 1967, while the two predominantly Orthodox republics were still part of Yugoslavia. News that the church was no longer in schism with the rest of the Orthodox world was widely seen in North Macedonia as a historic event.