Wednesday 23 February IRREGULAR BULGARIAN CHURCH COUNCIL DEPOSES PATRIARCH MAKSIM by Janice Broun, Keston News Service Following a Pan-Orthodox Council's confirmation (on 30 September - 1 October 1998 in Sofia) of PATRIARCH MAKSIM as Bulgarian Patriarch, a state-subsidised Extraordinary Council has voted to depose the Patriarch. Maksim's validity has been contested and the Church rent by schism since 1992. Schismatic bishops repented in front of the top-level Orthodox Council which announced the schism was at an end. Despite this certain interested parties, with support from at least part of the goverment, are doing their utmost to keep the schism alive. The Extraordinary Council was convened (9/10 November) despite a specific warning by the Pan-Orthodox Council that no kind of Council should be convened without the consent of the Patriarch and Holy Synod. Key government figures attended it; the Board for Religious Affairs (BRA) subsidised the travel and hotel expenses of around 600 delegates and hired the Sofia Opera House for the occasion. According to Keston's informant in Sofia, some delegates, out of interest, checked the number of priests present; one estimate was 385, at the start. 'Certainly the turn-out did not come up to the organisers' expectations', he said.'There are around 700 full-time and 500 part-time pensioner priests so two-thirds of the clergy remained loyal to Maksim and boycotted it. A letter from a number of Holy Synod Metropolitans stated that though they would gladly attend a Council of Unity in the future they could not attend this one. At least one senior foreign cleric was present, but on an unofficial basis - possibly a representative from the schismatic Kiev Patriarchate.' The Kiev Patriarch FILARET believes in keeping all possible lines open - Catholics included. The Extraordinary Council was condemned by, among others, the priests SPAS MIHAILOV of the pro-Patriarchate Movement for the Unity of the Church and by BOYAN SARUEV. Saruev, who has a dubious background as an ex-police officer, has achieved considerable popularity in certain Orthodox and government circles since he made his speciality a mission to reconvert the Pomaks (Bulgarian-speaking Muslims) to Christianity. The Council voted unanimously for Maksim's dethronement. It passed draft By-Laws composed under the direction of BRA head LUBOMIR MLADENOV and the Dean of Sofia University's Theology Department Professor IVAN DENEV, which followed the precedent of the communist government back in 1950. It prepared the ground for another Council and elected its own Synod. Although Vice-Premier VESSELIN METODIEV registered the new By-Laws some elements in the government were sensitive to public and international Orthodox opinion and tried to keep their lines open with both sides. 'ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTOLOMAIOS hinted to Maksim at the Pan-Orthodox Council that if he were Maksim he would resign�, Keston's informant commented. (Maksim is 85 and even among supporters of legitimate church rule there is widespread feeling that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church needs a younger, fitter man to lead it out of its crisis.) 'But Metodiev's registration, the uncanonical Council and its demotion of Maksim were ridiculous.' The Holy Synod in a statement on 17 November denounced the Council, its composition and competence and said there was no provision in Bulgarian Orthodox Church canons or constitution for it. It regretted that 'a government organ encouraged and supported the participants with exhortations, financial inducements and promises of material benefits'. It appealed to Bulgarian clergy and members loyal to the Orthodox Church to stand firm and help promote the unity of the Church and people. The majority of church members regard Maksim as the legitimate Patriarch. (END)