Sofia, April 20, 2015
Reports from Sofia indicate that the hierarchy of the
schismatic “Alternative Synod of the Bulgarian Church” has, following a long
process of trial and error, returned to full unity with the
canonically-recognized Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
The schism came about when in 1992 the
government-established Board of Religious Affairs announced that the 1971
election of Patriarch Maxim was illegal as he had been appointed by the then
Communist government, which led to a group of three bishops calling for his
resignation.
The overthrow of the Bulgarian Communist regime was accomplished
in 1989, and the new government sought to appear as acting against all
Communist vestiges. Soon after the then War Minister gave the dissenting
hierarchs permission to occupy the official Palace seat of the Bulgarian
hierarchs, and in 1996 they elected their own independent Patriarch, although
the 1998 Pan-Orthodox Council of the Bulgarian Church in Sofia of course
recognized Maxim as the legitimate Patriarch.
The Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I
played an important role in the reunification, as the RINSU (Religious News
Service of Ukraine) noted in their April 2015 report on the UOC-KP/UAOC
dialogues for unity: “Recently, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been an agent
of reunification of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, although there were also two
branches very aggressive against each other,” stated professor of Religious Studies
Oleksandr Sagan.
The Bulgarian government also had a stake in the process and
had been trying to heal the schism since 1998 when then-President Stoyanov
called for the resignation of the Patriarch of both synods that a single
successor might be elected to end the schism. This plan remained unexecuted and
the Patriarch of the Alternative Synod reposed in 1999. His 2008-elected
successor, Inokentii, called for a healing of the schism in 2010. A number of
Alternative Synod bishops refused to reunite at that time but have one-by-one
reconciled with the Bulgarian Patriarchate, thus bringing an end to the
Bulgarian Patriarchate/Alternative Synod schism.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου