EGN NEWS DESK
A tense election within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on 30 June ended with the enthronement of Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin as the brand new metropolitan of Sofia and patriarch of all Bulgaria, giving the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow an obvious ally because the church and its sponsor, Vladimir Putin, look to strengthen its affect within the Balkans.
A 52-year-old former monk, Daniil was elected by simply three votes over his important competitor, Metropolitan Grigori of Vratsa, by the 140 lay and clerical delegates on the church’s electoral council. At 52, simply two years older than the minimal age church legislation permits for the Patriarch, Daniil will probably maintain the submit for a few years.
Since the outbreak of full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, church buildings throughout Eastern Europe have been riven over their connections with the world’s largest Orthodox physique, the Moscow Patriarchate, and recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which proclaimed its independence in 2018.
Many who opposed Daniil fear that his election represents a pointy flip away from the insurance policies of his predecessor Neophyte I, who’s remembered as a unifier.
“For many people observers, these elections had been a referendum of the place a Bulgarian church is heading by way of the broader Orthodox Church,” Andreja Bogdanovski, a scholar and analyst on Orthodox Christianity, instructed RNS. “Up till every week in the past, there was a distinction between pro-Russian teams among the many hierarchies and in addition those that wish to see nearer relations with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarch.”
Eastern Orthodoxy is a fellowship of greater than a dozen unbiased church buildings — “autocephalous” in Greek — every led by a patriarch or different chief and ruling an outlined geographical area.
In 2019, Russia broke communion with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, thought to be the “first amongst equals” among the many patriarchs, after Bartholomew acknowledged the transfer by Ukraine’s anti-Moscow Orthodox Christians to arrange as a semi-independent church. The transfer prompted Kirill to declare the Russian invasion to be a holy conflict.
Since then, Bartholomew has lent his assist to different Orthodox parishes looking for to exit from the Russian church and introduced them underneath his wing. In Ukraine, the United States and elsewhere, Russia has been accused of utilizing its church as a kind of shadow overseas service, or perhaps a spy community. Last summer season, the ROC’s top-ranking priest in Bulgaria was expelled from the nation on prices of espionage.
The Bulgarian Church, nevertheless, has not taken a remaining place on Ukraine’s autocephaly, regardless of Neophyte I’s generally harsh criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Daniil, however, has rejected calling Russia the aggressor within the conflict and has spoken out harshly in opposition to the independence of the Ukrainian unbiased church whereas attacking his Bulgarian church colleagues who’ve supported it.
In 2019, Daniil’s letter to Orthodox leaders around the globe strongly criticizing the Ukrainian Church earned him a rebuke from the synod of the Bulgarian Church. Days earlier than his election, in an interview with Bulgarian media, Daniil in contrast the Ukrainian Church’s independence with Soviet repression of the church, evaluating the Soviets’ “slaughter of monks, destruction of a whole lot and 1000’s of temples, try to exchange the establishment itself by a renewed schism,” to the creation of “the so-called Orthodox Church in Ukraine.”
Daniil had an in depth relationship with Archimandrite Vassian, the Russian Orthodox priest expelled final summer season, after which he publicly defended the accused spy and lambasted the Bulgarian synod for its choice to briefly take over operation of the Russian Church.
“His actions are being perceived as very pro-Russian, giving us a touch about what the long run holds for the church, which has nearer ties to Moscow and Patriarch Kirill strengthening his affect in southeastern Europe,” mentioned Bogdanovski.
For his half, Kirill congratulated Daniil in an announcement, saying, “Today the Russian Orthodox Church sincerely rejoices along with its beloved Sister Church, for standing at its helm is a God-wise hierarch identified for his piety, agency dedication to the sacred canonical order and willingness to work selflessly, strengthening the ecclesiastical unity.”
Daniil’s enthronement comes at a time when the Russian church has been strongly centered on constructing its assist within the Slavic nations of southeastern Europe. The Russian church has lengthy had robust ties with the Serbian Orthodox Church, a lot because the Russian state has with the Serbian authorities underneath the presidency of Aleksandar Vučić.
While Russia had damaged ties with Constantinople over the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, it backed the 2022 choice to grant autocephaly to North Macedonia’s orthodox Christians who had beforehand been subsumed underneath the Serbian church. That angered Constantinople, but additionally Greece, which objected to the church being named “Macedonian,” simply as they’d blocked the state from becoming a member of NATO till it added “North” to its title.
While Bulgarians have been extra divided on Russia than different European Union states, a majority nonetheless view Putin unfavorably and really feel that Russian affect is a menace to each the EU and NATO, in response to current polling.
© Religion News Service
