/Поглед.инфо/
To
His Holiness
BARTHOLOMEY
Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and
Ecumenical Patriarch
Your All-Highness,
Our Orthodox faith and our love for the truth, which our God Jesus Christ Himself tells us will make us free, gives us the reason to turn to you as faithful children of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which is the first-born daughter of the Constantinople presided over by you patriarchy.
It is a historical fact that at the local council in Lampsak in 1235, the then head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and your distant predecessor – St. German II, with the consent and signatures of the patriarchs of the ancient churches of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem elevated the Bulgarian Orthodox Church from an Archdiocese to a Patriarchatewhose first capital was the capital of the then Bulgarian state – Tarnovo. Thus, until the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the 14th century. The Bulgarian Patriarchate occupies the fifth place in the diptychs of the Orthodox churches. This fact is eloquently seen in the Manual of the Chancery of the Patriarchate of Constantinople of 1383, Section One (“How the Patriarch Corresponded”), where The Bulgarian Patriarchate (Tarnovo) is placed fifth in the diptych, right after the Jerusalem Patriarchate. According to the tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarch German II and the other patriarchs, the elevation to the patriarchate is “eternal and irrevocable”.
Unfortunately, in our time, the ancient Bulgarian Patriarchate is deprived of this historically due dignity and in the diptychs of the local Orthodox churches, it appears only at the last place in the list of patriarchies. We believe that this is a historical injustice that harms the spirit of brotherhood and unity in Holy Orthodoxy. It is not right that churches that received liturgical books and clerics from the Bulgarian Patriarchate, and were later elevated to patriarchal dignity by it, should today occupy places in the diptychs before it, and that it should be last. This question was also asked by the delegation of the Bulgarian Patriarchate of the Inter-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Commission in Chambési (Switzerland) in the fall of 2011.
As head of the Mother Church, from which the Bulgarian Patriarchate received its dignity in the 13th century, we ask most filially Your Holiness to put the question of it being returned to its rightful fifth place in the diptychs of the upcoming Pan-Orthodox Councilwhich you intend to convene in 2016 and for which the Orthodox Bulgarian people prayerfully support you.
As representatives of the scientific and public elite, we assure you that we express the mood of the entire Orthodox Bulgarian people and we believe that such an effort on your part will contribute to deepening the ties between our two Churches – mother and daughter, will strengthen the spirit of mutual love and consensus and will place Your Holiness among the Patriarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople – St. Photius I, St. Germanus II and Benjamin, to whom our Orthodox people pay due respect for their services to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
October 19, 2015
St. John of Rila the Miracle Worker
We kiss your holy right hand:
(256 signatures follow)
This CALL for the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate to its historically rightful fifth place in the diptychs of the Orthodox churches was signed by 256 academic scientists, university professors, intellectuals, publicists, poets, writers and public figures from various professions and public spheres.
Among the signatories of the CALL are Academician Vasil Gyuzelev and Academician Georgi Markov, the prominent Old Bulgarian scholar Prof. Klimentina Ivanova, the world-renowned Byzantologists Prof. Vasilka Tapkova-Zaimova and Prof. Ivan Bozhilov, medievalists Prof. Hristo Matanov, Plamen Pavlov and Georgi Nikolov, the professor at UNSS Prof. Hristo Kozhuharov, the Old Bulgarian scholars Prof. Anna Maria-Totomanova and Prof. Boryana Hristova, director of the National Library, teachers from Sofia, New Bulgarian, Veliko Tarnovsk, Plovdiv and Blagoevgrad universities – a total of 28 professors, 32 associate professors and 16 doctors of science (historians , theologians, doctors, economists). The signature was also supported by Prof. Hilde Fai (a Catholic, but an ardent supporter of the BOC), a well-known researcher from Germany of Pencho Slaveikov.
The CALL is also supported by members of the chamber choir “St. Ioan Kukuzel” and the “Filip Kutev” ensemble.
The initiators of restoring the historical fifth place of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the diptychs of the Orthodox churches are the journalists Velislava Dureva and Goran Blagoev.
The document was supposed to be handed to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during the announced briefing on November 9, but he – alas! – tried to avoid the meeting with the Bulgarian journalists.
#Appeal #behalf #Orthodox #Bulgarian #people
