National Assembly legislates that Bulgarian Orthodox Church is country’s sole representative of Eastern Orthodoxy
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the sole representative of the country’s traditional Eastern Orthodox Christianity and it alone may use the term “Orthodox” in its name, Bulgaria’s Parliament voted on January 31, approving the second and final reading of amendments to the Religious Denominations Act.
The amendments, approved with 186 votes in favour, one against and no abstentions, are a response to the December 2024 ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation that the Bulgarian Orthodox Old-Style Church must be granted court registration.
The supreme court’s ruling followed on by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that Bulgarian courts had erred in refusing registration to the Bulgarian Orthodox Old-Style Church.
Founded decades ago, the Bulgarian Orthodox Old-Style Church has as its main tenet that the church should use the Julian calendar, while in the 1960s the Bulgarian Orthodox Church went over to the Gregorian calendar, meaning – among other things – that Christmas is on December 25.
The ruling by the supreme court caused a hullabaloo among several Bulgarian politicians and a campaign against it by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the country’s majority church, while the Bulgarian Orthodox Old-Style Church is said to have a mere 1000 adherents.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Old-Style Church now has two months to change its name or its registration will be revoked.
The amendments, tabled by GERB-UDF, Vuzrazhdane and the Bulgarian Socialist Party – United Left were opposed by We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria’s Atanas Slavov.
“It is important that we are here as a National Assembly, not as the Holy Synod (the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s governing body), and this is by virtue of the constitution – the church and the state are separated,” Slavov said.
“It is important to preserve pluralism in our society and this is a fundamental democratic value,” he said.
“This legislative intervention will also affect the independence of the Bulgarian court, because already closed cases with decisions that have entered into force will have to be reopened and re-decided by virtue of the law. In other words, we are also affecting the principle of the rule of law and the separation of powers,” Slavov said.
Slavov said that the Bulgarian government would have to explain itself to the Council of Europe, which has expressed a negative position on the bill.
Vuzrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said that the amendments put an end to an attempt “at a schism under foreign influence”.
Yordan Tsonev, of Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning group, said: “It is not a question of there being a threat to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and its unity from any denomination. At least from the Old Style Church in question. It is a question of the fact that the real threat to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church is the court, and not the entire court, but the court of Soros.”
The leader of Parliament’s smallest group, Mech, Radostin Vassilev, also spoke about the “ultra-liberal Soros-like structures.”
Vassilev said that Slavov was showing “an apparent concern for legal rules” in order to protect “a few hundred heretics.”
(Photo, of Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Sofia: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
Please support The Sofia Globe’s independent journalism by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon: