Sofia, October 4, 2023
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church discussed at its session yesterday the situation surrounding the Russian representation church in Sofia, which was closed last month.
The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, home to the relics of St. Seraphim (Sobolev †1950), has served as a representation of the Russian Orthodox Church for many years, but the rector and another priest and a church employee were branded threats to national security and expelled from the country on September 21. The former rector, Archimandrite Vassian (Zmeev), was also recently banned from entering North Macedonia.
There is now a debate in Bulgaria about who owns and is responsible for the church. His Holiness Patriarch Neofit appointed Bulgarian priests to serve in the church, as it is within the territory of his Metropolis of Sofia, but the Russian embassy in Sofia holds a deed to the church that it was granted in 1997, the legality of which is being investigated by Bulgarian authorities.
Following its session yesterday, the Synod announced that it “fully supports the letter and actions of the Bulgarian Patriarch in his capacity as the Metropolitan of Sofia regarding the church-podvoriye St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Sofia, as well as the sending of the letter to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.”
Further, “The Holy Synod expresses hope that the church will be opened as soon as possible, but this falls outside the competency and authority of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.”
The Synod also assigned its canonical-legal commission to study the regulations governing the functioning of the Russian representation in Sofia and the Bulgarian representation in Moscow, “after which a decision will be made.”
The Synodal report notes that His Eminence Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin “expressed a dissenting opinion specifically regarding the first point.”
Met. Daniil explains his stance:
We have expressed a dissenting opinion on the first point of the decision. While wholeheartedly supporting His Holiness the Bulgarian Patriarch Neofit, we fully accept the position of the Holy Synod, as formulated in the second point of the same decision. Namely, it is not within the competence and authority of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, including the Bulgarian Patriarch and the Metropolitan of Sofia, to decide on the opening of the church and, consequently, the appointment of a clergyman representing the representation of another autocephalous Church, which, according to secular law, is considered a foreign legal entity. The status of the podvoriye, i.e., the representation of the Russian Patriarchate to the Bulgarian Patriarchate in Sofia, as the church has been since 1953, as well as the ownership of the church, determine its subordination.
We also express principled disagreement with precedents that violate Apostolic Canon 34, Article 39, and Article 50 of the Statutes of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church-Bulgarian Patriarchate. These rules safeguard unity and love within the Holy Orthodox Church.
Some Bulgarian faithful have also come out to protest the closing of the church, which has made the relics of St. Seraphim inaccessible to them.
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