GERB-UDF with a declaration to the Holy Synod against the visit of Russian Metropolitan Anthony

The parliamentary group of GERB-UDF issued a statement against the visit of the Russian Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, Anthony, chairman of the foreign department of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The MPs appeal to the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church not to allow it to be used as a political tool and to consider whether the time has not come for us to enter into Eucharistic communion with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

"Although this visit was announced as a church-celebration, dedicated to the celebration of the feast of St. Nicholas' Church to the Russian sub-parish, the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Department claims that the visit was "working", which confirms fears that instead of protocol-celebratory, it pursued political goals that are not openly declared. The presence, on 6 December, at the service in the Russian sub-parish, of the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors and of Bulgarian public figures involved with the “Rusophile” Association confirmed this suspicion and the fear that there was a danger that the Church would be used as a political tool.

In this context, we of the GERB-UDF parliamentary group wish to state the following:

- We condemn the consistent line of the Russian Federation to turn the Moscow Patriarchate into an instrument of its foreign policy. For it is the duty of every local church to prevent itself from being used by political power;

- We condemn the aggressive Russian policy, including by military means, directed for decades exclusively against Orthodox countries such as Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. A Church faithful to the spirit of the Gospel cannot and should not become an apologist for this policy, because our Savior said that peacemakers, not war-mongers, would be called sons of God;

- We declare our categorical support for the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, proclaimed in accordance with the canons by the Tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as the sole Mother Church of the Kyiv Metropolia;

- We address a filial request to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church not to yield to foreign provocations, much less from a country engaged in a grave fratricidal conflict. And also to consider whether the time has not come for us to enter into Eucharistic communion with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Something that has already been done by the Orthodox Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Cyprus and Eladria and which is about to be done by the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The Bulgarian Church has the historical memory to appreciate how difficult and thorny the path of an Orthodox nation to establish its own local church can be. On the eve of the Christmas holidays, as Orthodox Christians, we pray for a speedy end to war, for peace on Earth and goodwill among men," the declaration reads.