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Bulgarian Churches

The Bulgarian Orthodox church has a long history dating back to 865 AC when King Boris was baptised by Greek missionaries. In its early days, the Bulgarian church was under the leadership of both the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Roman Pope. On March 4, 870 at an ecclesiastical council in Constantinople, the Bulgarian Church was given a separate diocese (the eighth) within the Eastern Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate. During the Ottoman years, the Bulgarian church was controlled by the Patriarch in Constantinople, while the Bulgarian population was under political and spiritual repression. Some of the population was Mohammedanised and forced to speak Turkish, while another part was Mohammedanised and given the option to retain their native language. The Bulgarian Church was excommunicated in 1870 and re-established as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1945. During the communist era the property of the church was confiscated, religious activities were repressed and the population brought up as atheists. After the fall of the communist regime, changes in the constitution in 1991 allowed for freedom of religious practice and reinstalled Eastern Orthodoxy as the official and traditional religion of the Bulgarian state. The Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church today comprises 11 dioceses under the leadership of Patriarch Maxim and the Holy Synod.

Both churches in Melbourne belong to the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese in the USA, Canada and Australia and Metropolitan Joseph

550-A West 50th St
New York, NY 10019
212-246-4608 Chancery phone and fax
Metropolitan.joseph@att.net

Links

http://www.bulgariandiocese.org/about_orthodoxy.html

http://www.bulch.tripod.com/boc/

http://www.sv-atanasii-varna.org/calendar_11.php

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