ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE CHANCERY OF THE HIERARCHICAL SYNOD OF THE BULGARIAN ORTHODOX OLD CALENDAR CHURCH
October 2, 2026
Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord!
By a decision
of October 1, 2026, the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) set aside the
decision of the lower court ordering the commencement of liquidation
proceedings and the deregistration of the legal entity representing the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria, and remanded the case for a new
hearing.
The Court rejects the view that
the termination of this legal entity occurred automatically by operation of the
amendments to the Religious Denominations Act of January 2025, and holds that
this issue must be resolved in adversarial judicial proceedings.
In its reasoning, the Supreme
Court of Cassation emphasizes the importance of freedom of religion. According
to the Court, the termination of the religious institution would affect both
its rights as a legal entity and the constitutionally guaranteed individual
right to freedom of religion of each of its members, which also includes the
right freely to associate on a religious basis through the registration of a
religious community.
It should be noted that the
decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation does not dismiss the claims brought
by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Directorate of Religious Denominations, nor
does it resolve on the merits the dispute concerning the registration of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria (OCOCB). Nor does the Court rule on
whether the statutory prohibition on the use of the word “Orthodox” in the name
of the OCOCB is compatible with the freedom of religion guaranteed by the
Constitution and international law. These issues are to be examined in the new
judicial proceedings. Until those proceedings are concluded, the registration
of the legal entity representing the OCOCB remains in force.
From the Chancery of the
Hierarchical Synod
Bulgarian source: https://bulgarian-orthodox-church.org/ch-life/official/message20261002.html
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