Laity from Sliven Diocese call on Bishop Hierotei to answer the slander against him: Black Sea lighthouse

Silvia Shaterova

An open letter, with which the laymen of the Sliven Diocese call on Bishop Hierotei to respond to the slanders against him, was presented today to the Burgas church “St.St. Cyril and Methodius”.

It will also be sent to the president, the ombudsman, the acting prime minister and the commission on religious denominations.

The letter was read by Angel Kutsarov from the church “St. Cyril and Methodius”

The laity also sent the letter to the media. We put it without editorial intervention:

“Your Eminence, we, the lay people of Sliven Diocese, turn to you, our spiritual leader and shepherd, provoked by everything that has been happening in recent months, related to the election of a new Metropolitan of Sliven!

Since February, we have been listening to ridiculous claims spread by the diocesan elector and head of the church “St. Dimitar” in Sliven, staurophoric butler Evgeni Yanakiev and his brother, staurophoric butler Silvester Yanakiev, addressed to you as abbot of the Pomorie monastery “St. George the Victorious”. Their insults about the lack of stewardship shown by you in relation to the monastery are also the basis of your defamation campaign as a worthy bishop to be elected as Metropolitan of Sliven!

All the while they raised their voices and “threw” unproven claims into the public space, we kept quiet, prayed and as zealous Christians trusted God in our actions! We were humble and never once responded to their slander!

We raised our voice when the Holy Synod decided to cancel the elections for the Metropolitan of Sliven, which took place on February 18 and in which you, our shepherd, received 26 votes from the diocesan voters. Then we expressed our disagreement with the counting of the vote in the only possible way through appeals and signatures to the Holy Synod. We remained unheard! The bishops did not respond to our requests to observe the Statute of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and to finish the already started election for the Metropolitan of Sliven. On the contrary, they counted the vote again and scheduled a new date for its holding – May 19.

On the eve of Holy Week, the Holy Synod “dropped” the bomb by coming up with a new list of eligible bishops, from which the names of four worthy bishops, including you, are absent!

The masters did not stop there, on the contrary! The Western European and Central European Metropolitan Antony stated on the air of the Bulgarian National Television that you are not on the list of eligible bishops because, we quote: “A metropolitan, in addition to being a good cleric, must also be a good administrator – a person who can organize people.” .

Metropolitan Antony also said: “We saw that Bishop Hierotei stood idly by in the background of the protests. He should have distanced himself from the protesters and called for a halt to the protests to await the wise decision’!

Metropolitan Antony’s behavior is unbecoming of a bishop towards his fellow!

We know that as a worthy bishop and clergyman, you have not once violated the Statute of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, patiently and until now you are enduring in the Rila holy monastery, where you have been staying since the end of January, with patience, faith and prayer what is happening in you, with the cashing in the elections for the Metropolitan of Sliven and with the decision of the Synod to draw up the new list of eligible bishops, in which your name does not appear.

Not once did you break your obedience!

You didn’t blame anyone!

This is the behavior of a truly worthy clergyman!

Now, we, the lay people of the Sliven Diocese call on you to break the silence and answer the slander directed at you by brothers Evgeniy Yanakiev and Sylvester Yanakiev! And even in an ecclesiastical court to state facts to make it clear who utters the slander! Only and only in this way will you clear the stain from your name, which in an unworthy and unbecoming priestly way they threw against you – their bishop! And through their false statements, they misled the Holy Synod, which voted for the Metropolitan of Sliven on the basis of one complaint and a fabricated report with no evidence in it!

In the last 20 years, since you have been in our diocese, we believe that we have proved that we are worthy of you – our shepherd!

We hope that you will now hear our request, come out and refute the slander against you, to prove that you are also worthy of us as the spiritual leader of the Sliven Diocese!

We filially kiss Your shepherd’s right hand!”

The upheavals in the Sliven Hierarchy began after the bishop’s election was canceled, and then passions flared up even more when the Holy Synod left six candidates, and among them are not the main two bishops Hierotei and Michael, who were named by the diocesan electors, as their favorites. All this happens at the exact moment when Patriarch Neophytus died and the date for the election of a new patriarch was also announced.

Hierotei himself is currently in the Rila Holy Monastery, a mass of lay people stood behind him, demanding that he be returned to the list for the election of the metropolitan on May 19.

One of their questions is: “Why did the Holy Synod leave the third Arsenius, but removed the first two who gathered the most votes?”

Between the first and second elections, the Holy Synod appointed a revision of the Pomorie Monastery, which laymen defined as tendentious and arbitrary, it is also done in the temples where there is support for Hieroteus, such as Nessebar and Elhovo.

Today, irregularities in the revision itself were pointed out to the media.

The financial consultant to the Pomorie monastery, Emil Kundev, was also present at the event, who pointed out the irregularities in the audit:

“The order for the audit does not comply with any rules – two names are indicated – of the chief accountant /Silvia Malcheva/ and of an external auditing firm, which simultaneously perform external and internal audit, this is unthinkable. The chief accountant should be responsible for the situation in the metropolis, respectively in all the monasteries. Total violation! In the order, there is no deadline for the end of the audit, the time by which the report must be submitted, what the scope of the audit includes, who are the persons involved, because there were seven people who were inspecting. Who will hold these seven people accountable if any of them have committed a wrongdoing? They are not in the order, but they acted! We call for the audit report to be declared irrelevant! We have not been presented with the audit report, we know nothing!”

He added that the accountant is in a conflict of interest and should not participate, but bear her responsibility:

“There is no methodology. There haven’t been any inventory books for I don’t know how long because it wasn’t made a requirement!”