site.btaElection Begins; Ecumenical Patriarch and Foreign Delegations to Attend Enthronement

Metropolitan Grigorii of Vratsa, who is the interim leader of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), and all other BOC diocesan metropolitans and bishops led the Election Council delegates from the Palace of the Holy Synod over to the Academic Hall of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in downtown Sofia on Sunday morning. There, Grigorii opened the Election Council proceedings with a short prayer. An Election Bureau was set up.

Later in the morning, the Election Council delegates left the Academy of Sciences building and walked back to the Palace of the Holy Synod, where the voting for a new BOC leader began.

The election follows the death of Patriarch Neophyte on March 13. The new leader is expected to be named on Sunday afternoon.

Orthodox churches of other countries have sent delegations to Sofia for the enthronement of the new Bulgarian patriarch. Since Friday, delegations have come from the Archbishopric of Cyprus, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Archbishopric of Athens and the Orthodox Churches of Georgia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Albania, Ukraine and North Macedonia.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople is also here.

The guests were given an official welcome at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St Nedelya on Sunday. After a Holy Communion ritual, Bartholomew said a prayer for those present in the cathedral and the Bulgarian people. He then chanted the hymn Trisagion at the grave of Patriarch Neophyte just outside the St Nedelya Cathedral.