Bulgaria: Metropolitan Naum called for the Opening of the Russian Church in Sofia

Metropolitan Naum of Ruse called on the Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan Neophyte of Sofia to order the opening of the "Saint Nicholas Mirlikiiski" church in Sofia, also known as the Russian Church, and the services in it restored.

In a statement published on his profile on one of the social networks, Nahum called the "locking of the temple by outsiders" unacceptable, after the State Agency "National Security" ordered the expulsion of three priests - one Russian and two Belarusians, who are part of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia.

"In recent years, the Bulgarian ephemeral priests, for reasons unclear to us, were successively removed from this temple, which is fundamentally absurd, due to the fact that its functions are only representative in nature. And accordingly, its material property cannot be considered Russian, because of the above, just as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church cannot claim that the temple-courtyard in Moscow is Bulgarian property, since the status of the two courts is reciprocal", it is said in the position of Metropolitan Nahum.

"The Russian Church in Sofia 'Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker' will cease its activities at this stage, its further fate will be decided by the Russian Orthodox Church", reads a message on the Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria.

Today in front of the church there is an organized demonstration of opponents of the expulsion of the priests.

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