The Russian Church in Sofia will be Reopened

On Friday, the Russian Church in Sofia will be reopened, Nova TV reported. The first service is expected to be on Saturday. The temple was closed after Bulgaria recalled three Russian priests for violating diplomatic rules.

The cleric of the Diocese of Vienna and Austria, Archpriest Vladimir Tyshchuk, was appointed as the new representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill as head of the Podvorie (Court) of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sofia.

The temple was closed in September after a report by the State Agency for National Security (SAS) and the recall of three priests for violating diplomatic rules. Among them was the head of the temple, Archimandrite Vasian Zmeev.

Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte appointed priests from Sofia to take care of the temple, and the prosecutor's office ordered SANS to check the ownership and the right to use the temple.

However, the issue of the ownership of the church has not yet been resolved. Last month, the prosecution gave the go-ahead for the temple's ownership to be attacked in court. The deputy from the DPS party, Delyan Peevski, read this as an admission of the state prosecution that the "St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker" church in Sofia is Bulgarian.

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