Bulgarian media publish a letter from Pat. Neophyte to Poroshenko about UOC

Patriarch Neophyte. Photo: glasove.com

Bulgarian media have published a letter from the late Patriarch Neophyte to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy, in which the Patriarch explained the Bulgarian Orthodox Church's attitude towards the UOC.

On June 12, 2017, the Primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Neophyte, sent an official letter to the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, regarding the growing schism in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Here is the full text of the letter:

"To His Excellency Mr. Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine (copy to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Mr. Andriy Parubiy):

The episcopate and clergy, monasteries, and the entire faithful of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church have a warm and sincere love for their Orthodox brothers living within the borders of Ukraine.

In the heart of every Orthodox Bulgarian lives the memory of the feat of the holy equal-to-apostles brothers Cyril and Methodius; each of us cherishes the memory that it was Bulgarian missionaries, disciples of the Thessalonian brothers, who more than a thousand years ago laid the foundation of Holy Rus, bringing the Orthodox faith to the banks of the Dnieper.

With one heart and one mouth, we confess the common faith with His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine and the concelebrant archpastors of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the Pochaiv Lavra, and other great Orthodox shrines of Ukraine are infinitely dear to us.

For the past three years, we have been watching with concern and sorrow the growing fratricidal war in Ukraine.

We are particularly concerned that in these difficult conditions, the schismatic "Kyiv Patriarchate" – a self-proclaimed non-canonical structure with no relation to the canonical world Orthodoxy – along with extremists, encroaches upon the sacred heritage of the entire Ukrainian people.

In 2015, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church already appealed to Your Excellency not to allow the transfer of holy monasteries to the schismatics.

Today, we sadly observe that new clouds are gathering over the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Two essentially anti-church bills have been introduced for consideration in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, providing for amendments to the existing Ukrainian legislation.

We believe that the proposed amendments are openly discriminatory – they clearly violate the equality of religious organizations in Ukraine before the law and place the fate of parishes in the hands of outsiders, laying a legal groundwork for the seizure of temples of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church by separatists and extremists.

We are convinced that this is extremely dangerous for the fragile inter-religious harmony in your country.

The proposed changes in Ukrainian legislation have no analogs in the modern civilized world. For the faithful of our Church, among whom there are citizens not only of Bulgaria but also of many other countries of the world, the above-mentioned bills cause bewilderment and indignation as they contradict the principle of non-interference of the state in the affairs of the Church and create conditions for gross violation of the rights of believers.

We would like to emphasize that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the only canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine – it is a patient, loving, and much-suffering Mother of the multi-million Ukrainian Orthodox people.

Any encroachment on Her interests can be fatal and destructive for the entire Ukrainian people and Ukrainian statehood.

The Bulgarian Church has traversed the horror of schism, so we are particularly sensitive to this crucially important issue for all Orthodoxy and are obliged to provide every possible support to our brethren within the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in accordance with the canons.

We appeal to you, Your Excellency, to show political wisdom and to use the powers you have to promote the earliest withdrawal from consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of discriminatory bills directed against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church."

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that according to believers of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the hierarchs who co-served with the OCU at the Phanar violated the canons of the Church.

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