Author: Georgi Lozanov
Your Eminence, Patriarch Daniil, has imposed on you, in your capacity as abbot of the Tsarnogorsk Monastery, a punishment of "argos" - a ban on serving for one month, due to a lack of "accounting records". Why did you not keep such records and why is your punishment canonical, and not secular, such as accounting?
Archimandrite Nikanor: As is well known to the general public in our country, only twenty years ago the Tsarnogorsk Monastery was a pile of ruins on a bare meadow high in the mountains without road access. For 10 years in the 21st century, the brotherhood lived without electricity, in Spartan living conditions. Naturally, there was no question of any accounting.
The restoration of the holy monastery fell entirely on the shoulders of the monks as an organization, and the funds came from private donors, the state budget and European subsidies. All this, of course, was accounted for and checked. Due to the practical non-participation of the Sofia Metropolis in this process on the principle of "guys, fix it yourself, there is a blessing", we have never been asked to make contributions to the diocesan budget, which would require church accounting. Therefore, there was no such thing under Patriarch Maxim, nor under Patriarch Neophyte. And we have never been asked to list the income from candles in order to give half of it to the Sofia Metropolis, etc. Moreover, candles are sold at recommended self-service prices here - i.e. a person puts as many pennies as he wants into the piggy bank. Also, accommodation and food in the monastery are free and we could not imagine that it could be otherwise. The former chief auditor and the former administrative secretary of the Sofia diocese can testify to this permission to live monastically, and not as a "spiritual fruit and vegetable".
Why I was imposed a canonical, instead of a disciplinary punishment, I cannot say. And usually, instead of an argos, the monks punish us with the obligation to serve 40 liturgies without interruption, as if "we had come to our senses". Initially, the most severe punishment is "removal from office" – something that I myself have been wanting and expecting for over 9 months, but to no avail.
Why are you leaving the Montenegro Monastery of your own free will at this moment with the intention of moving to the Ruse diocese? Isn't there a risk of assuming that you are thus looking for a way to avoid the accounting audit that has begun?
Archimandrite Nikanor: For anyone who has even the slightest idea about these things, it is clear that there is no way that by moving I can avoid an accounting audit or bearing material responsibility. I may leave the Bulgarian Orthodox Church altogether, I may move to another continent – regardless, I bear my responsibility. There is no rabbit in this bush. My conscience is clear. I saw how the management of the Sofia diocese went under the new patriarch and I decided to leave. For nine months I have been waiting for a break, without which there is no way I will be accepted for service elsewhere. I did it so that there would be peace, no temptation, and no conflicts. I voluntarily gave up everything for which I had worked day and night and fought tooth and nail. For which I gave my life. Patriarch Daniil spat in my face. May he be alive and well.
Do you think that the vacation at your invitation to the monastery of 38 Ukrainian children who experienced the horrors of war caused your punishment because of the coincidence in time, or did your relationship with the patriarch and before that "sparks flew" on the topic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and on other issues?
Archimandrite Nikanor: I do not want to believe that the specific humanity shown towards some children caused the frenzied hatred that I encountered during my meeting with the patriarch. Rather, something else prompted them to finally want to deal with me - the published information about the visiting children, which reached tens and tens of thousands of people. These angelic faces, on which smiles shine, but their eyes betray deep sadness, became irresistible ambassadors of the Ukrainian cause. This enraged the forces of darkness. Remember that even as Metropolitan of Vidin, Daniil justified Russian aggression against Ukraine. And he continues to repeat the main pillars of Russian propaganda. And the only way to stop this criminal aggression is its universal condemnation. Then they can negotiate, if they want, and in the end the UN will decide who is wrong, who is right, whose Crimea, whose Donbas. But because of those who support and justify the aggression, it has been going on for four years and every day it takes its bloody toll. Unfortunately, Daniil himself has ranked among those justifying and openly sympathizing with the Russian aggressor. Let him not be angry with anyone for the opinion that society has formed about him. I said that he is not suitable for patriarch, and he proved it.
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, immediately after the election of the patriarch, you said that the existing concerns about his dependence on the ROC "will remain until the moment when we see His Holiness Patriarch Daniil speaking and acting in a way that does not fit into the narrative of the current Russian propaganda". You also said then that "more steps are needed on his part to dispel the concerns about his dependence on the Russian secret services". Did he manage to dispel them?
Archimandrite Nikanor: Unfortunately, with his actions and his sermons, he managed to consolidate his image as a person dependent on the Kremlin. The interviews he gave about notorious figures on the anti-European ideological front in our country testify to the correctness of my assessment. Daniil's phrase that "with the election of Trump, normality returns" also became famous.
Everything indicates that he is following instructions from outside. For a year and a half, he was not allowed to make the due peaceful visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and at the moment when the "center" decided that he himself needed it, due to a deficit of legitimacy, this was arranged and we will see him in Istanbul at Christmas. The curtsy he makes to Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church - key allies of the Kremlin in the Balkans - cannot be ignored. I am referring to the organized procession with the relics of King Stefan Milutin in an attempt to instill a cult of this Serbian saint as the patron saint of the Bulgarian capital. In the time of Patriarch Maxim, who was a Bulgarian patriot, this was absolutely unthinkable!
This year, since Patriarch Daniil has held this highest rank, where does the Bulgarian Orthodox Church stand in the confrontation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate and how far has the confrontation itself reached?
Archimandrite Nikanor: The Bulgarian Church continues to be a follower of the Russian. For the fourth year now, the Holy Synod has not issued an official statement on the Russian aggression in Ukraine, which has taken and is taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians. Also, during the upcoming peaceful visit of Patriarch Daniil to Istanbul, conditions are set that Ukrainian hierarchs will not be present, although according to protocol this is impossible anyway, as well as in the church "St. Stephen" only the Bulgarian patriarch will serve, so that the name of the Kiev Metropolitan Epiphanius will not be mentioned during the reading of the diptych. Moreover, Daniil openly allows himself to "remove trust" from members of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church who do not share the Russian narratives, and he sends spies to some of them during their private meetings with the Ecumenical Patriarch – again due to a lack of trust. The next thing I expect is to see him send his canonical advisor to Plovdiv to hand the metropolitan there the notification that he has been relieved of his position. I am not kidding at all.
Do you detect a rapprochement of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with the state on the Russian model and how it can overcome the difference in orientation – the quiet pro-Russian of the patriarch and the declarative pro-European of the government?
Archimandrite Nikanor: This is the most delicate question. Just a few days ago, the leader of the party-mandate holder stated that the world is currently divided, but he has firmly chosen his place – with his colleagues from Western Europe and the USA supports Ukraine. At the same time, the government and the authorities in our country in general show a pronounced patronizing attitude towards the most authoritative mouthpiece of Russian soft propaganda after the president - namely Patriarch Daniil. All his demands are fulfilled without question, as if we do not live in a secular European state, but in some Orthodox Iran of the absurd. This political schizophrenia has been characteristic of the authorities in Bulgaria for a long time. But there are moments when the masks fall. The current one is exactly like that and watch what the attitude of the Euro-Atlantic political forces declaring themselves to be pro-Russian and pro-European Bulgaria will be towards the escalating conflict between two of the faces of pro-Russian and pro-European Bulgaria, respectively - Daniil and Nikanor. I am generally shocked by the thought that in a member state of the EU and NATO, I have to suffer persecution from Kremlin servants.
Is the global geopolitical conflict being projected today - between autocracy and democracy, in the ecclesiastical sense as a conflict between Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism in the West?
Archimandrite Nikanor: This conflict is projected within the framework of Eastern Orthodoxy, with two blocks and a kind of intermediate gray area clearly outlined. On the one hand, these are the Churches of Constantinople and Alexandria - two of the ancient patriarchates, occupying the first and second places of honor in the diptych, respectively, supported by the Cypriot and Hellenic Churches. Opposite them are the fifth and sixth - the Russian and Serbian Churches, supported by the Polish and Czecho-Slovak Churches. The rest position themselves closer or further from these two groups. The Ecumenical Patriarch is the world religious leader who has expressed the firmest and most consistent support for the attacked Ukraine. In addition, he is looking for the place of Orthodoxy in modern times, or more precisely - a way to the hearts of modern people, without condemning and categorizing them. His sermon is entirely evangelical. In complete contrast is the behavior of the Russian Patriarch Kirill, who demonizes the present and instills fear of the future, and mythologizes the past and preaches outright heresies such as "Orthodox" Shahidism, Manichaeism, etc. His messages have an occult tinge and carry an openly demonic spirit, incompatible with the Gospel. This is the state of Eastern Orthodoxy today.
Do you see a danger of remaining alone in your differences of values with the patriarch and of them being reduced to a personal conflict in which you "conditionally" end up being the losing party?
Archimandrite Nicanor: I am a "losing" party in this conflict from the beginning - just as Christ was a priori the loser in his conflict with the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. But as He walked His way to Golgotha, so must I. I have no preconceived position on the painful problems of our daily lives - the war in Ukraine, the ruthless corruption and the coming authoritarianism. I bear witness to the Gospel and this is the basis of the things I speak publicly. And for which I am hated by some. To stop preaching, or to change the truth to make myself more comfortable, is to betray Christ. May it not be!