That day came on 19 July 1967 when the famed “Church – People’s Council” held in Ohrid
decided to brake its ties with the Serbian Patriarchate and the Universal Orthodox Church proclaiming itself “autocephalous” (independent) under the name of “Macedonian Orthodox Church” (MOC) from every Orthodox Christian ecclesiastical body in the world (except, of course, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia). Comrade Done Ilievski, long serving communist official responsible for religious matters in Macedonia, in one of his books
1 describes the background of this momentous event: