The primate of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is Stefan Veljanovski, the Metropolitan of Skopje and Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia.

In 1967, on the bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the Macedonian Holy Synod unilaterally announced its autocephaly from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

[6] Following Vardar Macedonia's incorporation into Serbia in 1913, several of the Bulgarian Exarchate's dioceses were forcefully taken over by the Serbian Orthodox Church.

[1] In 1945, the first clergy and people's synod met and adopted a resolution for the restoration of the Ohrid Archbishopric as a Macedonian Orthodox Church.

At the time, the Serbian church had the support and protection of Yugoslav politician Aleksandar Ranković, until his dismissal from all positions in July 1966.

As a result, at its third synod on 17–19 July 1967, on the bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid,[13] the Macedonian Church proclaimed its autocephaly (full administrative independence) unilaterally.

The Catholic Church maintained ties with MOC and the latter established annual May commemorations at Saint Cyril's tomb in Rome.

[22] On 12 November 2009, the Macedonian Orthodox Church added "Archdiocese of Ohrid" to its official name and changed its coat of arms and flag.

[26] On 27 November, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian patriarchate accepted the proposal that it become Macedonia's mother church and agreed to work towards recognition of its status.

[32] On 13 January 2020, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew received North Macedonia's prime minister Oliver Spasovski and his predecessor Zoran Zaev.

[34] In September 2020, the President of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, wrote a letter asking the Ecumenical Patriarch, asking him to recognize the MOC.

[35] On 9 May 2022, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized the Macedonian Orthodox Church, its hierarchy and faithful, and established eucharistic communion with it.

[36][37] However, the Ecumenical Patriarchate explicitly refused to recognize the word "Macedonia" or any other derivative to designate the church, and stated it would use "Ohrid" to refer to it.

The Holy Synod stated that full ecclesiastical autonomy was restored to the MOC under the Patriarchate of Serbia, bringing the MOC-OA fully into communion with the mainstream Eastern Orthodox world.

[45][50] On 5 June 2022, during a concelebration of the Divine Liturgy in Belgrade between the SOC and the MOC, Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia gave a tomos of autocephaly to Archbishop Stefan.

[55] The formal statement from the MOC released the following day explained that it viewed the document it had received from the SOC as a mere "recommendation [...] of autocephaly".

[59] On 10 June 2022, on a visit to Istanbul, Archbishop Stefan was handed the Patriarchal and Synodal Act confirming the canonical and liturgical unity with the Church of Constantinople.

[60][61] On 12 June, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Stefan concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of St. George in the Phanar.

[75] In the same month, metropolitan Petar along with the political party Desna (right) started collecting signatures for a Declaration "for preserving the name of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric."

[83] Per North Macedonia's president Stevo Pendarovski, based on information from NATO, people from MOC's Synod cooperated with Russian secret services.

[84] Metropolitan Kyrillos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate challenged the validity of the tomos of autocephaly granted by the Serbian church and accused it of having a pro-Russian orientation.