Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin is the new Bulgarian Patriarch, BGNES reports. Daniel got 69 votes; Gregory got 66. Three votes were invalid.
Daniel was elected in the second round. He received more votes than his opponent, Metropolitan Gregory of Vratsa.
There were three candidates for Patriarch. Besides Daniel and Gregory, the candidate was Metropolitan Gabriel of Lovchan, who received only 19 votes in the first round.
In the first round, 64 delegates voted for Metropolitan Gregory, and 51 for Daniel. Four ballots were declared invalid. Since neither of the two garnered two-thirds of the delegates' votes, a second round proceeded, where the candidate who received the most votes was elected Patriarch.
The Fourth Ecumenical Council opened this morning. The Vice President of the Holy Synod - Metropolitan Gregory of Vratsa, the Metropolitans and the Bishops led the delegates of the Patriarchal Electoral Ecclesiastical Council from the Synod Chamber of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS).
The Council opened after the verification of the delegates. Of the 140 candidates who registered yesterday, 138 were present. According to the statutes of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, a quorum of 105 is required.
In the hall "Prof. Marin Drinov" of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the election bureau was voted upon, after which the 138 delegates of the Fourth Patriarchal Electoral Church Council returned to the Synodal Hall, where the ballot box will be sealed. The election bureau is composed of Father Mikhail Mikhailov, Father Boris Petrov, Boris Kalibatsev and Assoc. Nikolai Yanev.
The future Patriarch must be a unifier, a prayer-bearer for the entire nation, work for the unity of the Church and unite all - clergy and people in the name of God. This is what Metropolitan Gregory of Vratsa, Vice-Chairman of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and one of the candidates for Patriarch, said before the elections began.
Metropolitan Gregory said that the tasks to be solved by the future Patriarch are many and the elected one has to decide what to start with.
Metropolitan Gregory's expectations for the Council, at which the spiritual father of the Bulgarians will be elected, are that it will be held in a normal atmosphere and that the Statute of the BOC will be respected.
Asked whether the new Patriarch would be elected quickly, he said, "It depends on the voters themselves; God alone knows who the next Patriarch will be."
While the vote was being cast, a service was celebrated at St. Nedelya Cathedral. The representatives of the local churches attended it. Shortly before 10.00 the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew arrived. For the first time the representative of Fener participated in the ceremony of enthronement of a Bulgarian Patriarch.
Bartholomew expressed his full support for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Asked by the BGNES reporter how he would respond to the destructive actions of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Balkans, the Ecumenical Patriarch replied, "We love you! We love you."
The BGNES reporter reminded that the Serbian Orthodox Church issued an uncanonical tome, which effectively blocked the full autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. However, the "tome" can only be handed down by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
On this occasion, Metropolitan Cyril, who is responsible for the ecclesiastical record of the Macedonian Orthodox Church in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, criticized the decision of the SPC to issue a "tome". "This is a shame for the Church. No old patriarchate and old autocephalous church has done what a new patriarchate, probably the lowest in the hierarchy, has done. Porfirije committed this great crime - to grant autocephaly. To whom? To a church that unfortunately for 50 - 60 years (the Serbs) have kept in isolation, tortured it, accused it, slandered it," Metropolitan Cyril added.
Also present at St. Nedelya's was Bulgarian Tsar and former Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, together with his grandson Boris, heir to the Bulgarian throne and son of the late Prince Kardam of Tarnovo.
After the service was over, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bulgarian and foreign clergy, as well as the laity bowed at the tomb of Patriarch Neofit, who died on March 13 this year. I BGNES
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