The Supreme Court docket of Cassation has allowed the entry of the Bulgarian Orthodox Previous Type Church (BOOC) into the register of spiritual denominations on the Sofia Metropolis Court docket, overturning the choice of the Sofia Metropolis Court docket, later confirmed by the appellate magistrates.
Thus, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is now not the one one that may be referred to as “Orthodox” by regulation in Bulgaria.
In response to the supreme judges, there aren’t any goal circumstances on the idea of which it may be assumed that the registration of the BOOC would have an effect on the rights of the “Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate” and its members.
“It’s plain that this spiritual establishment, having existed for hundreds of years, has participated in strengthening the Bulgarian nationwide spirit and statehood, that it at the moment unites the vast majority of Orthodox Christians within the nation, that it’s united, authoritative and enjoys the distinctive respect of the establishments and society. On the identical time, the requested registration is for a small spiritual neighborhood that has existed for 30 years and has no claims to the interior group and property of the “Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate”,” the supreme magistrates wrote of their determination.
The Primate of the now authorized Bulgarian Orthodox Previous Type Church is the Triaditza Metropolitan Photius, and the Synod contains the Bishop of Sozopol Seraphim and the Archbishop of Chisinau and Moldova Georgi, who’s a short lived member.
The Previous Type Church has 18 church buildings within the nation, and its cathedral church “Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos” is positioned within the capital’s “Bukston” district. Theirs can be the nunnery within the “Knyazhevo” district, the place 60 nuns serve.
The truth is, the separation of the monks of the old-style church from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church occurred in December 1968, when the Synod of the Bulgarian Patriarchate revealed a “Message to the clergy and all the youngsters of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church”, wherein it introduced the upcoming reform of the church calendar – the adoption of the so-called new Julian calendar. In it, the fastened holidays (Christmas, Epiphany, Annunciation, Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and many others.) coincide with the Gregorian calendar, and for the movable (Lord’s) – Resurrection of Christ and people associated to it, the Julian calendar is used.
Nevertheless, the change was rejected by the then archimandrites Seraphim (Aleksiev), Sergiy (Yazadzhiev), Panteleimon (Staritsky), hieromonk Seraphim (Dmitrievsky), abbess Seraphim (Liven) and your complete sisterhood of the monastery “Safety of the Most Holy Theotokos” within the “Knyazhevo” district. They acknowledged in a letter to the Bulgarian Patriarch Kirill that they might not settle for the reform in conscience, because it contradicted the liturgical Statute, the liturgical and canonical custom of the Orthodox Church.
Since 1989, makes an attempt have been made to formalize the Previous Type Church, however with out success.
Photograph: Metropolitan Photius of Triaditza, Primate // Bulgarian Orthodox Previous Type Church
