The Day of the National Awakeners this year is a double holiday for the Bulgarian community in Istanbul. At the peak of the holiday, in the morning, a solemn liturgy will be celebrated in the church "St. Ivan Rilski" at the Bulgarian Exarchate in Istanbul to consecrate the completely renovated and renovated temple, BTA specifies.
His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew the First will preside over the solemn liturgy and bless the Orthodox Christians, the Bulgarian Church Board of Trustees of the Bulgarian Community in Istanbul announced to BTA.
The liturgy will be celebrated by the priest of the Bulgarian churches in Istanbul, Archimandrite Haralampi Nichev.
The event will Representatives of the Orthodox Bulgarian community, as well as other citizens living in the Turkish metropolis, are expected to attend, as well as the Consul General of Bulgaria in Istanbul Vasil Valchev, the Consul General of Bulgaria in the city of Edirne Radoslava Kafedjiyska, representatives of the Bulgarian diplomatic mission in Istanbul and guests from Bulgaria.
The church, dedicated to the heavenly intercessor and patron saint of all Bulgarians, St. John of Rila, in which Christian services are held, is maintained by the Foundation of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Church Board of Trustees of the Orthodox Bulgarians in Istanbul. It is also visited en masse by non-Bulgarian Christian communities.
Last summer, the temple was completely renovated and renovated.
The icons and other church relics were restored, some of which are over a century and a half old. New seats for the laity were also installed. A new church was also purchased utvar.
After the liturgy in the afternoon, a conference will be held on the occasion of 155 years of the Bulgarian Exarchate and 80 years of autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
The conference is organized by the University of Library Science and Information Technologies in Sofia (UniBIT).
The conference will be attended by Prof. Stoyan Denchev, long-time rector of UniBIT, Assoc. Prof. Boryana Bujashka and other representatives of the academic community from Bulgaria. The conference will also be attended by Toshko Yordanov, Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Media in the National Assembly.
The Day of the People's Awakeners will be celebrated with special programs by students from the Bulgarian Sunday School “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” in Istanbul, as well as at the Bulgarian Sunday School “Father Alexander Chakaruk” in Edirne. Parents are expected to attend of the students and many guests.