"The important thing is that we have already elected a new patriarch - Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin, a worthy man, a man of spirituality, a man who is expected to put the life and activity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on a more practical basis and aimed at ordinary believers and at spreading Christian education among the Bulgarian people, as Prof. Ivan Zhelev said for BNR after the election of the new Patriarch.
"We expect the church to deal with its affairs first of all, not to deal with anything else that is not its own, because everything else passes away, but what remains is our faith, our hope and the love that should unite us all .
Metropolitan Daniil of Vidin is the youngest of the candidates, but he enters according to the Statute of the BOC for 50 years, let us rejoice that God gives him the strength to lead the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for decades.
It will not be easy for him at all, because in recent years we have observed this division that exists in church circles, the striving for supremacy of some of the metropolitans, the cuts, the abuse of the will of the people. We saw it at the election of the Metropolitan of Sliven.
In the words of Prof. Zhelev, the biggest challenges now facing the new Bulgarian patriarch are:
"All clerics, metropolitans should first of all just do their job, nothing more. To do what they are called to do by God - keeping and fulfilling God's commandments with love for God and love for every single person of God.
The new patriarch should be, first of all, a spiritual leader, and not so much deal with the administrative activities of the church.
We expect him to be our leader in word and deed.
Regarding relations with other Orthodox churches, we expect the new patriarch to be more active, to maintain good relations with Orthodoxy, regardless of the regime in the respective country where a church lives and operates. We are servants of God.
We must have good relations with the Russian Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as well as with other countries, in order to benefit from them and be supported, pointed out Prof. Ivan Zhelev.
There should be no division, emphasized Prof. Zhelev.