“Strictly speaking, this parish is ours, the Russian Church, and only the Patriarch of Moscow can appoint priests there,” Archimandrite Vassian told TASS. “I cannot anticipate the decisions, but, as I understand it, another rector should be appointed instead of We have “The state has two full-time clerics at the complex. Two have been extradited and the other two may arrive.”
He reminded that the temple of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia is currently closed and the Bulgarian priests appointed there by the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Neophytos to take care of the temple and perform divine services will not be able to get there. , because “the parish of the Russian Church is registered there.”
According to Archimandrite Vassian, the temple will open only when a new rector arrives: a cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church appointed by Patriarch Kirill.
“At this point it is like that. If any other decision is made it will probably be announced, but I have that information,” he clarified.
The Department of Foreign Ecclesiastical Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate, following the expulsion of the Metochion employees, stated that the Bulgarian authorities are trying to undermine the traditionally friendly relations between the Russian and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches and protect brotherly peoples from these countries. against each other. The DECR also noted that the Russian Church of Saint Nicholas in Sofia, where the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church is located, has been a symbol of the spiritual unity of Russians and Bulgarians for a hundred years.
