LETTER OF SUPPORT FROM OUR CLERGY IN BULGARIA

July 17, 2004

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Clerics and faithful of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church,

We, the Bulgarian clergy and faithful of ROAC, are very confused and saddened on account of the recent events in the USA, concerning the life of our Church there. We hoped that Metropolitan Valentine's pastoral visit to the USA would be beneficial for the settlement of the administrative structure of ROAC in America.

The elevation of Archbishop Gregory of Denver and Colorado in the dignity of Archbishop was a good sign for us, because it seemed very strange that our Church had a ruling bishop in America, who is restricted to his own diocese in Colorado, but over the whole rest of the USA there is another "ruler" - "administrator", who is a simple priest. So we had a good hope that Archbishop Gregory's well-deserved elevation meant an adjustment and correction of the existing administrative chaos in the USA.

But surprisingly almost immediately after that, we read accusations against the new Archbishop from Metropolitan Valentine in his Ukaz #130. These accusations became a matter of common knowledge through the Internet, which we think was not correct. Unfortunately, in this case, we cannot see a spiritual approach in deciding the problems of our Church in America. Even if we assume that all accusations against Archbishop Gregory are true, the real cure is not possible if we repeat the sin of Ham; on the contrary, we should be followers of Shem and Japhet, who covered the nakedness of their father Noah.

But in fact, we cannot support the accusations against Archbishop Gregory. One of them is that he violates the dogma of Baptism and requires all people, who convert to ROAC to be baptized. It is difficult to find a reason to dispute the problem of receiving people into the Church, i.e. the problem of akreibia/oeconomia, (strictness/economy) when an official statement of our Church concerning other Church jurisdictions does not exist. That is why any ruling bishop is able to use his own discretion in every single case of reception into the Church, until the Synod makes an official proclamation concerning who is Orthodox and who is not.

Considering the situation in the Bulgarian parishes of the ROAC: until now, a year and a half after the formation of the first parish of All Saints in Sofia, we have not received any official documents from the Synod of the ROAC in Suzdal regarding our subordination to the Metropolitan or to the Synod. The only official documents we have are the Paschal and Nativity Encyclicals from the Metropolitan and our appointment certificates for the respective parishes in Bulgaria from Archbishop Gregory. It is obvious that these parishes of the ROAC in Bulgaria exist only because of the missionary work of Archbishop Gregory, and if he was not such a genuine orthodox bishop we wouldn't be in the ROAC at all. We never though that our bishop was anyone other than Archbishop Gregory.

So His visit to Bulgaria, in the end of June of this year, did not destroy the life of our communities at all: on the contrary, we were very glad to see Vladyka Gregory, to serve with him and to be under his spiritual guidance. It was also a very joyous event that we had the ordination of Deacon Marian, who wants wholeheartedly to serve Christ and His Church.

During the whole period of our membership in ROAC, Archbishop Gregory was the primary and sole representative of the authorities of our Church, who cared for our spiritual needs and always supported us.

Continuing our reflections about the administrative status of the Bulgarian church, we must make mention of what happened to the ROAC mission in Switzerland. We were invited to go there and to take care of the members of our Church in Geneva, with the blessing of the Metropolitan. After three visits there, we found out that there was some gossip and slander against us, the aim of which was to discredit the two priests from Bulgaria. Despite our written defense, very soon we found out that Metropolitan Valentine decided to forbid us from visiting the parish in Geneva. Without an investigation of the real situation, we were told simply that he has other plans for Switzerland. We were very grieved at this decision, because we believe that if there were mistakes on our part, we should be told exactly what they are, for the benefit of our pastoral work in the future. Unfortunately, nothing of the kind happened, we were simply removed from our service in Switzerland without any clearly explained reasons. In addition, there were people from France who wanted to join our Church, but now their transfer has failed. We do not know what happened to them.

The events in Switzerland revealed to us something very strange: in our Church there is a favorable ground for slanders, gossip and lies, while at the same time, the Church herself suffers from slanders, gossip and lies from the enemies outside of her.

So all these facts, and especially the recent events in the USA, confirmed our fears about the Church authority's approach to certain questions concerning the life of our Church. The lack of clear criteria and regulations promotes incorrect speculations, unclear interpretations and a double standard.

In these last times, we must be true confessors of the Orthodox faith, ignoring our own pettiness, and we must be true to the vows, which we gave in front of the Holy Table. This is a particular obligation of Orthodox Bishops. Therefore, we will pray fervently for our hierarchs, that they acquire divine wisdom in ruling the Church.

With love in Christ,

The clergy of the Bulgarian Church under the jurisdiction of ROAC

(This letter was written before the final decision of the Synod.)