The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has written to the WCC formally advising its April 1998
decision to leave the council, but Bulgarian Orthodox participants at the assembly in
Harare have released a critical statement expressing their "pain" at the move.
The 27 November letter from Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria to WCC general secretary Dr Konrad
Raiser said the church’s Holy Synod had "decided to discontinue its membership
" and expressed thanks to the council "for the mutual contacts and the
respective mutual aid so far".
He said the synod had acted to "safeguard the fullness of our holy church". It
had "taken into consideration that the hopes from its (WCC) membership ... have not
been fully justified, as well as the confusion of the Orthodox Christians in this country
with that membership".
The statement from the seven Bulgarian Orthodox assembly participants said their
church’s decision to withdraw from WCC "has been taken in the context of
spiritual and moral tribulations, a long process of recovering from internal division,
paralysed mission and interchurch relations".
"Hence the Holy Synod of our church has been unwilling to benefit from consultations
with its own advisory bodies and constituencies. It even neglected the call of the
Orthodox meetings at Thessalonika (April-May 1998) and Damascus (May) to stay and witness
together with the sister Orthodox churches," they said.
But they also expressed greetings to the assembly from inter-church bodies in Bulgaria,
and described these as "positive signs" that their church may renew and continue
its ecumenical efforts.
The seven people who signed the statement included former WCC central committee member
Dimiter Kirov, former WCC deputy general secretary Todor Sabev, and assembly advisors Ivan
Dimitrov and Plamen Sivov.
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