According to Cerkvarium, the Bulgarian portal of petitions launched
an appeal to the Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with the
requirement to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The text says that Putin's Kremlin regime has annexed the Crimea and
launched a war against Ukraine in Donbas. Young people stood up to
defend their homeland and gave away their lives, while the Russian
Orthodox Church said that it should spiritually protect Ukrainians.
Thereafter, there were massive appeals from believers asking for
autocephaly. The Ecumenical Patriarchate supported this idea and
abolished the Act of 1686 granting Moscow the right to ordain the
Metropolitan of Kyiv.
“Like other Orthodox peoples, Orthodox Ukrainians deserve their own autocephalous church,” the petition says.
The Bulgarians understand that their hierarchs experience great
pressure from external forces, but they are sure that “your conscience
and your canonical consciousness will make you stand for justice and
canons.”
“We want to assure you that we, the citizens who signed this
petition, stand firmly behind you and we are sure that the Bulgarian
government agencies will also support you,” the authors of the document
continue.
On January 25, a meeting of the Holy Synod of the BOC was held to
discuss the Ukrainian issue. The majority together with Patriarch Neofit
support the Ukrainian autocephaly. However, in order to make a final
decision, it was agreed to transfer this issue to study at the Canonical
Commission under the Synod of the Bulgarian Church.