The Patriarch of Moscow & the Bulgarian Orthodox Church

(Directions to Orthodoxy) - The Inokentii synod (that is, under Metropolitan Bishop Inokentii), which wants independence from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, has received the backing of Strasbourg's European Court of Human Rights.

At the end of January, the court in Strasbourg ruled that Bulgaria had violated the right to religious freedom and that the Bulgarian Government has intervened disproportionately by appointing patriarch Maxim as the ruler of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The court has set up a time frame of three months in which the alternative synod of Inokentii and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are to resolve the controversy surrounding the ownership of about 100 pieces of property. Alternatively, Strasbourg will pass on a solution regarding that matter as well.

This potential schism within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has been regarded as a highly combustible matter, something that, according to Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, "could have serious implications not only for Bulgaria but the entire region". Consequently, in light of the decision for the Strasbourg court to interfere in Bulgarian religious affairs, Purvanov is now pleading with the Russian Patriarch to give his support to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and prevent the potential rift, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reports.

Human rights lawyer Yonko Grozev says that President Purvanov's request for intervention from the Russian patriarch is a very alarming development. "This is completely against the principals of freedom of worship and the freedom of individual rights," he said, as reported by Dnevnik daily.

According to Grozev, as reported earlier by the Bulgarian National Radio, "the decision by Strasbourg has put the Bulgarian Government in a good position: it can either decide to assist the two synods to reach consensus or it may register them as separate Orthodox denominations which are free to preach their own form of orthodox Christianity". "...free to preach their own form of orthodox Christianity" - words such as these should run as a chill down the back of ones spine.

Ivan Zhelev, the former head of the Cabinet's religious affairs direction of the Cabinet said that "this is normal behaviour – when one has a problem it is normal for one to seek assistance from one's neighbours. Russia may not be our geographical neighbour, but we are religiously and culturally related. Purvanov's plea for help once more simply underlines the vassal position in which the big brother comes to the assistance of the smaller one. The issues revolving around the right of religious worship in Bulgaria have to be decided in Bulgaria and by no one else," he said.