The hierarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Nicholas of Plovdiv, has said that in the Church no one gives orders to another and therefore it is resistant to change.

The press service of the Plovdiv Metropolitanate published such a statement by Metropolitan Nicholas after a joint divine service with Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, hierarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, at the Gornovoden Monastery of Saints Kirik and Julitta in Asenovgrad, Bulgaria.

“I have wondered why the Orthodox Church is so resistant to the winds of time? And the answer, in my opinion, is this: there is no single command center here to give orders. Here no one arrogates to himself the right to be the final source of truth. Here every voice is equally valuable and equally important and has the right to be heard”, – said Metropolitan Nicholas.

He also emphasized that now it is important to maintain dialogue and unity between the Churches.

“In these troubled times, it is very important that the bishops of the Orthodox Church stand firm in the positions to which God has placed us and keep the parts of God’s flock entrusted to us. It is equally important that we, the bishops of the entire Orthodox world, be united among ourselves, as our predecessors were united when it came to defending the faith and the Church. Yes, decisions in the Orthodox Church are made slowly, but they are made collectively, they are infallible. The voice of the Holy Spirit is heard in the synodality of the Church, as it was heard at the great councils of antiquity, and then through fraternal communion between the bishops of the entire Orthodox world, on the basis of mutual respect, the conviction that we share the same values, that we have the same goal and, ultimately, our love for each other and for Jesus Christ,” concluded the hierarch.