Originally posted by Prolet
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This is from Peter Hill, The Macedoanians in Australia 1989.
"After World War II a group of Macedonians in Melbourne, ..., approached the Australian authorities with a view to setting up a church of their own and were assured they had the right to do so proivded they did not get involved into politics. The collected a donation of 20 pound each and brought out Bishop andrey Velichky, Metropolitan of the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of North and South America, who at this stage did not accept the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod in Sofia, which was considered to be under Communist influence, if not direct control.
Bishop Andrey ordained a Macedonian from Kotori/Lerin, Petre Filipov, to serve as a priest for the new church. ... the Macedonians involved in the project signed a constitution for the "Macedonian Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius" (27th September 1960).
... The sucess of the Macedonian church, which under the influence of an anti-communist Bulgarian bishop, dismayed the old Macedonian activists, who decided to set up an independant Macedonian church, St George's.
...(Just paraphrasing here; It then goes on to say that the original Macedonian priest died, and then the congregation needed a new one, however they were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop Andrey Velichky, who by now reconciled with the Holy synod in Sofia, and so fell under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Bulgaria. It says that the following two priests were Macedonians (first one from Tetovo the second from Kalenik, lerinsko), however they were ordained in the Bulgarian orthodox church)
...On 17th march 1985 the trustees of the Church of Sts Cyril and Methodius formally renounced the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but this decision was not recognised by the Supreme Court of Victoria, which, in February 1986, after protracted legal proceedings, confirmed Bishop Andrey, and Father Popov (a non-Macedonian), as having jurisdiction over the church."
That is where the source finishes. Not being from Melbourne I am unfamiliar with the rest of the history, would you please be able to fill me in?
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