On May 23, 2024, the clerics of the Lovchan Diocese of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church issued an appeal to the Synod of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in connection with the case of the co-service of the Church’s episcopate with representatives of the OCU in Istanbul. The clergy believe that the hierarchs, who went to the canonical crime, should be held justly responsible for their actions. This is reported by the website “Glasove”.

“1. We categorically object to the participation of the BOC in political affairs that, among other things, take place outside our country. We remind that the canonical Church of Christ within Ukraine has always and for everyone been the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, now headed by Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev, and the newly created and intensively promoted by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the OCU: at best a geopolitical project in ecclesiastical garb, and in any case a false church. 2. We demand that the three metropolitans and the two bishops be held accountable for the grave self-incrimination with which they inflicted a wound not on themselves, but on the whole ecclesiastical body and just before the choice of the Patriarch brought grave confusion that threatens the unity of the Church of Christ in Bulgaria. 3. We express indignation at the innovations of the Phanar and the increasing use of the ecclesiological terminology of “Mother Church” and her “daughters”, which substitutes the original understanding of the Church as the sacramental Body of Christ and as the visible flock of the shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ; instead, the idea of the Church as a global human institution of a corporate nature is imposed. We express surprise and deep incomprehension as to why such terminology has been heard from the mouths of Bulgarian bishops, and at the highest level. 4. We declare that the presence of Patriarch Bartholomew at the upcoming elections of the Bulgarian Patriarch, to which he was allegedly invited, is definitely undesirable. By his actions and statements of recent years, Patriarch Bartholomew has invariably become a source of grave temptation for the majority of the faithful in Bulgaria, and, after the establishment of the OCU, for the Universal Church. We do not desire his presence also because of the current involvement of the Bulgarian bishops in their lawlessness. 5. We emphasize that we have written this letter not under anyone’s compulsion or suggestion, but guided solely by the conscience of priests and Christians,” – the statement said.

Recall, May 19, 2024, in Istanbul monastery of the Patriarchate of Constantinople Valukli (the temple “Life-bearing spring”) held cult events, which were led by the head of the Phanar Patriarch Bartholomew. During the service, the fact of co-service of some hierarchs of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with representatives of the OCU was recorded.