In a special session held on May 21, 2025, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America resolved, with immediate effect, to recognize the canonicity of the Macedonian Orthodox Church–Ohrid Archbishopric and to affirm full communion with its bishops, clergy, and faithful. This joyful announcement was shared with the wider Church by His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon in his report to the 21st All-American Council, which convenes this week in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 15, 2025.

The decision followed a request from His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia, who, in formal correspondence with Metropolitan Tikhon, appealed for the Orthodox Church in America to acknowledge the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church–Ohrid Archbishopric, as granted in the Tomos issued by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Plans are currently underway between the offices of Metropolitan Tikhon and His Beatitude Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid for a joint liturgical celebration between the two Primates. This concelebration is expected to take place at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Tikhon’s episcopal seat. As he informed the All-American Council, the event will culminate in the formal recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church as a fully autocephalous local Orthodox Church, standing alongside the Orthodox Church in America.