site.btaBulgarian Church Leader Receives Delegation from Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

The Head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), Patriarch Daniil, met in Sofia on Monday with Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon and with Archimandrite Aetios, the Grand Ecclesiarch and Head of the Office of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Bulgarian Patriarchate reported on its website.

The meeting at the Synodal Palace was also attended by the BOC metropolitans of Veliko Tarnovo, Nevrokop, Stara Zagora and Melnik, Prof. Ivan Zhelev, who is a translator from Greek, and Patriarch Daniil's canonical and legal affairs adviser Dr Alexander Smochevski.

Emmanuel conveyed brotherly greetings from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. He noted the support and the good relations between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the BOC and expressed his institution's willingness to cooperate with the Bulgarian Church in ecclesiastical matters.

Daniil thanked for the Ecumenical Patriarch's presence at his enthronement in Sofia on June 30, 2024.

The sides discussed issues of current importance for the Orthodox Christian Church and its spiritual mission in the world, including the dialogue between local churches, forthcoming observances of the 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea and other matters of shared interest.

The hosts emphasized the openness to dialogue and the tactfulness in inter-religious relations in Bulgaria. Patriarch Daniil briefed Metropolitan Emmanuel on amendments to Bulgaria's Religious Denominations Act passed at the beginning of this year in connection with the attempted legitimization of a parallel Orthodox church in the country and its registration.