Politics and positioning upset Bulgarian Orthodox

(Directions to Orthodoxy) - Delegates to the Holy Synod of the Church of Bulgaria have begun debate on a reform of the code of canon law that proposes an increase in the legal powers of the synod at the expense of bishops and clergy.

Meeting at the St John of Rila Monastery south of Sofia from Oct 6-8, the Sixth Church Convention of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church passed an ordinance forbidding the sale, mortgage or exchange of church properties --- an action that vests trusteeship of property in the synod rather than with local bishops, abbots or congregations.

The push towards centralization of property ownership comes in the 16th year of a schism --- a legacy of the Communist era in Bulgaria, and appears aimed at centralizing the control of property by the Synod and the leader of the church, Maxim, Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia, at the expense of dissident clergy and bishops.

Following Parliamentary elections in 1991, a non-Communist government was formed by the Union of Democratic Forces and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The new regime created a Directorate of Religious Affairs to initiate reforms within the Orthodox Church.

On May 25, 1992 the UDF government ruled that the election of Maxim in 1971 was invalid, as it had been engineered by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The Directorate ordered Maxim replaced by an interim council led by Metropolitan Pimen pending a new election. On July 4, 1996, a Church Convention organised by three of the churches 13 bishops elected Pimen as Patriarch and Bishop Inokentii of Krupnik as Metropolitan of Sofia.

Maxim refused to accept the government’s decision, and an appeal to the Supreme Court gave a split decision. The court held that the government had no power to order the creation of an interim council, but it could certify another person as representing the church in its dealings with the state.

The church quickly divided between Pimen’s blue faction and Maxim’s red faction, as the schism adopted political overtones with the rival patriarch’s drawing support from the country’s political parties. At the installation of President Petar Stoyanov in 1997, Pimen --- not Maxim --- was asked to give the church’s blessing. President Stoyanov later called upon by Pimen and Maxim to step aside, and allow a new Patriarch to be elected to unite the divided church.

The international Orthodox community backed Maxim and following a series of court cases in 2000 the Supreme Court ruled there were two religious organisation bearing the name Bulgarian Orthodox Church extant in Bulgaria. In June 2001, following Parliamentary elections, the government of the Union of Democratic Forces was replaced by a government formed by the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) --- led by the former Tsar of Bulgaria Simeon II, returned from an exile.

NMSII pledged to back Maxim as the legitimate leader of the Church and it promised to introduce legislation putting an end to the schism — and in return it received the support of the church.

On Dec 20, 2002, the NMSII government passed a Confessions Act --- revising the Communist era religious laws, and granting freedom of religion, the equality of religious groups before the law, and separation of church and state.

However, Bulgaria’s Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim community --- along with Pimen’s successor as leader of the rival synod, Bishop Innokentii --- objected saying the law favored Maxim and his Bulgarian Orthodox Church. A 2004 report by the EU criticized the law for interfering in the “internal affairs of religious communities” by backing Maxim. “The ex lege recognition” of Maxim’s faction, “exempting this institution from the usual registration procedure, which also includes a check on the legitimacy of the leadership, is generally seen as intended to settle the dispute between Maxim and Innokentii in favour of the former,” the EU said.

“The alternative synod is effectively barred from registering as a new religious institution by the prohibition against the registration of another institution using the same name and headquarters and the punitive provisions empowering the Directorate ‘Religions’ to sanction ‘unauthorised representatives’,” it concluded.

The new law appeared to be a form of political payback, the EU report said, as it “appears as the fulfillment of a promise made to Patriarch Maxim by the present Government and the new President to overcome the split within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.”

Five months after the Bulgarian Confessions Act was subjected to scrutiny by the Council of Europe, the government moved against the dissidents. On the night of July 20, the security services evicted 250 priests loyal to Innokentii from their rectories and parishes --- turning them over to clergy loyal to Maxim.

The purge of 15 per cent of the church’s clergy was accompanied by violence and arrests, and prompted Innokentii to file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for relief. In May 2007, the court rejected a motion from the Bulgarian government to quash the petition and set the matter down for review.

In its findings, the Strasbourg court noted that several church properties built by the Pimen/Innokentii faction after 1996 had been confiscated by the Maxim faction following the police raids of 2004.

While the property reforms instituted by Synod this week were introduced under the banner of good business practices, critics charge they set the groundwork for holding onto properties seized after the police raids, should the EU find in favour of Innokentii.