site.btaRussian Church in Sofia Reopens

The Russian Church of St Nicholas in Sofia reopened on Friday. The new dean of the metochion, Archpriest Vladimir Tyschuk, appointed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and the three Bulgarian clerics, appointed by Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte, officiated at a prayer service for health and prosperity.

Attending were Russian Ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova, ABV leader Rumen Petkov and Bulgarian Journalists Union Chair Snezhana Todorova. 

Speaking to journalists, Ambassador Mitrofanova said she was happy and satisfied with the reopening of the church. She described the closure of the church as "a political act by which someone had to show something to someone else". Of the ownership of the church, Mitrofanova said that all legal documents are available and they show beyond any doubt that it belongs to the Russian Embassy.

The St Nicholas the Miracle Worker Church in Sofia was shut down on September 21, 2023 after all three non-Bulgarian clergymen officiating there: Russian nationals Nikolay Zmeyev (Archimandrite Vassian), dean of the metochion, Archpriest Yevgeny Pavelchuk, secretary of the metochion, and Belarusian national Vladimir Bonko, staff member, were expelled from Bulgaria by order of the Chairperson of the State Agency for National Security "for implementing various elements of Russia's hybrid strategy for purposeful impacting of socio-political processes in Bulgaria in favour of Russian geopolitical interests."

On October 11, Archpriest Vladimir Tyschuk, so fare a cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church diocese of Vienna and Austria. was appointed by the Russian Holy Synod representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Bulgaria and dean of the metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia.