OPEN LETTER
by clergy, monastics and laity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate
on the forthcoming visit of the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew to the Holy Monastery of Rila
 
Your Holiness, God-Wise and Eminence Archpastors of our native Church,
With a sense of sincere filial care, obedience to the Faith and true love for our spiritual Mother – the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate, we approach you, the spiritual pastors appointed by God, on the occasion of the decision taken by the Holy Synod of June 26, 2026 for the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to the Rila Holy Monastery on the day of the all-Bulgarian feast of our Venerable and God-bearing Father John of Rila the Wonderworker – October 19, 2026, in connection with the jubilee "1150 years since the birth and 1080 years since the Dormition of our Venerable Father John of Rila the Wonderworker – heavenly patron and protector of the Bulgarian people".
Driven by the fear of God and spiritual anxiety for the preservation of the purity of Holy Orthodoxy in our native Church, we dare to express to you the confusion and temptation that puts our Christian conscience to the test. The reason for this is the publicly announced decision not to invite the Primates of all Local Orthodox Churches to the Rila Holy Monastery, nor even the representatives of the ancient Pentarchy (to which the newly elected Georgian Patriarch Shio III could be included), as required by the traditional church protocol and as has been the case for decades. Instead, it was decided to invite only Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who is scheduled to preside over the festive Holy Eucharist on October 19 in the cathedral church of the Rila Holy Monastery.
It is with great spiritual pain that we follow the frequent public statements of the Primate of Constantinople in the current year 2026, which enter into a grave dogmatic and canonical cross-section with the Holy Tradition of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. In particular, we draw attention to his words delivered in Vilnius (June 8, 2026) and in Budapest (September 4, 2026), in which a new ecclesiology is propagated, aimed at the open abolition of dogmatic boundaries, introduced the pernicious concept of "juridical ecumenism" and legitimized the Roman Papist delusions, while completely ignoring the lack of repentance on the part of Rome. (A complete list of dogmatic digressions in these words is attached in Annex to this letter).
These deviations are not an isolated case, but part of a long-standing apostasy that has long gone beyond the framework of Christian ecumenism and turned into open interreligious syncretism. The Orthodox consciousness remembers with pain the statements during the years in which the truth of the Gospel was equated with other religions, and non-Christian mystical experiences (such as the notorious concept of "radiant emptiness") were praised as a legitimate spiritual path, which directly trampled on the First Commandment of God and blasphemed the Holy Spirit.
We cannot ignore in silence the fact that the same primate arbitrarily invaded foreign canonical territory and legitimized the schism in Ukraine through the issuance of the so-called "Decree of Independence". This deeply anti-canonical act, committed against the will of the multi-million Orthodox people in the country, opened a wound throughout world Orthodoxy. For the seventh year in a row, it has served as a justification for unprecedented persecution against the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the violent seizure and burning of churches, the desecration of the holy relics in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the throwing of confessors-bishops into prisons and the subjection of the clergy, monastics and laity to severe physical and administrative terror by the secular authorities in order to finally destroy the UOC.
Your Holiness, God-Wise Masters,