Bulgarian clergy condemn archimandrite who concelebrated with OCU

Archimandrite Nikanor at a "service" with the OCU. Photo: OCU

The clergy of the Sofia Eparchy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church have condemned the uncanonical actions and public slander of Archimandrite Nikanor (Mishkov), who concelebrated with Epifaniy Dumenko at St. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv, Romfea reports.

On July 30, 2026, the clergy of the Bulgarian capital gathered in Sofia under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Daniel. During the meeting, the priests presented a draft Declaration of Support for Patriarch Daniel in response to the systematic attacks launched by Archimandrite Nikanor, abbot of the Gigin Monastery, through the media and social networks.

The clergy stressed that their "long and patient silence could have been interpreted as indifference or tacit agreement with the accusations" that the abbot has been spreading daily in the public sphere.

Particular outrage was sparked by Archimandrite Nikanor's statements of July 28, 2026, in which he described the Bulgarian Patriarchate as "a semblance of the Church" and "a lackey of Russian imperialism." In response, the priests declared: "As clergy of this very Church, we do not feel like anyone's lackeys, nor do we serve God in some 'semblance of the Church.' Rather, we are ministers within the Body of Christ."

The authors of the declaration noted that such rhetoric revives the atmosphere of the schism of the 1990s, when "coarse and anti-church language allowed every kind of verbal abuse to be directed at the Patriarch."

The archimandrite was accused not only of insulting the Church but also of serious breaches of ecclesiastical discipline, including concelebrating abroad with "uncanonical clergy" without the blessing of his ruling bishop. The declaration also states that Nikanor went so far as to call for a "church-and-people's struggle" to establish what he described as a "true people's church," something the clergy denounced as a "demonic desire."

"Turning public self-expression into a kind of 'media asceticism' has in practice replaced monastic silence and obedience with political propaganda and systematic provocation," the clergy of the Sofia Eparchy said.

The priests called on the competent Church authorities to examine Nikanor's case with the utmost seriousness, emphasizing that "ecclesiastical punishment is not an act of revenge, but a spiritual remedy and a necessary boundary that the Church is obliged to establish."

Concluding their declaration, the clergy reminded the faithful of their duty to defend their Primate: "When your father, whom you love, is unjustly slandered, remaining silent is shameful. When the Church in which we hope to be saved is slandered, failing to speak out is a sin."

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church suspended Archimandrite Nikanor from ministry after he concelebrated with the OCU.

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