site.btaAcademicians Support Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate

An opinion in support of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church-Bulgarian Patriarchate (BOC-BP) was adopted by the Assembly of Academicians and Corresponding Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), according to information published on the BAS website on Monday.

In mid-December the Supreme Court of Cassation entered the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria (OCOCB) into the Register of Religious Denominations with the Sofia City Court. This drew reactions from political parties and religious institutions.

According to the opinion, the Ecumenical Orthodoxy recognizes only one Orthodox Church on the territory of one country and in Bulgaria this is the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, called the Bulgarian Patriarchate. Accepting that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is a member of the Ecumenical Church, the legislator, in accordance with Art. 13, Par. 3 of the Constitution, recognizes that Bulgarian Orthodox Church which is confirmed according to the canons of Eastern Orthodoxy.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is a local autocephalous church and is in a faithful and canonical unity, prayer and eucharistic communion with the other Orthodox Churches.

The self-governing Bulgarian Orthodox Church - the Bulgarian Patriarchate is the heir of the Pliska Archbishopric, the Preslav Patriarchate, the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the Tarnovo Patriarchate and the Bulgarian Exarchate. It is unified and indivisible.

"The registration of a new Eastern Orthodox denomination in the diocese of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate, with the misleading name of Old Calendar Bulgarian Orthodox Church separated from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate, the imposition of its non-canonicality, misleads the Orthodox Bulgarians and poses a risk of disunity," according to the opinion.

It notes that the unity of our Eastern Orthodox Church is a matter of national and constitutional identity, so it is our duty and responsibility to strongly object to this act, which threatens the original Bulgarian values, our peace and public order, legal security, the authority of the Eastern Orthodox Church - one of the few remaining pillars of Bulgarian identity.