Priest Lyubomir Bratoev in Berlin: The first liturgies in Bulgarian were served at the embassy building

published on 2/26/25 8:15 AM

Priest Lyubomir Bratoev

Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg

Priest Lyubomir Bratoev is a direct participant in the events of the founding of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church community in Berlin. He came to the capital of East Germany in the late 1980s as a doctoral student. And, like a typical Orthodox Christian abroad, he looked for a place to go to church. He visited the Orthodox parishes of the Serbian, Greek and Russian churches. He was accepted everywhere as one of their own parishioners.

"It so happened that in 1988-1989 I went to Germany - then I graduated from the Technical University in Sofia and began doctoral studies at the University of Berlin. As a church-going and believing person, the first thing I did there was to find where I could go to a service. At that time, Berlin was still divided by a real border, because the changes did not occur until the end of 1989, when the wall fell. Every Saturday or Sunday I went to a service at the Russian Orthodox Church in Karlshorst - one of the districts of Berlin, known for the fact that the Soviet army was stationed there. I got to know the clergy and personally the bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church for Germany!"

The Russian Orthodox church of Sergey of Radonezh in Berlin

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lyubomir Bratoev began to attend services at other Orthodox Christian communities. In 1992, on the occasion of a holiday, Bishop Simeon, later appointed Bulgarian Metropolitan for Western and Central Europe, came to Berlin. Bratoev began to show the bishop around the various church communities that he already knew personally and had joined. Over time, the idea of creating a Bulgarian church community in Berlin arose.

The first services in Bulgarian began in the embassy hall around 1994-1995, recalls Lyubomir Bratoev. Usually, the Easter service at the embassy was held on Sunday morning, due to the special security regime. But since all Orthodox churches celebrate the Resurrection of Christ on the same date, Bulgarians usually attended night services in one of the other Orthodox churches. ‎

‎"For example, I took part in the service at the Russian church and the next day I served the liturgy at our church, in the embassy. For the Nativity of Christ, we usually went to either the Serbian or the Russian Orthodox Church, since they use the old-style calendar and the dates of our holidays are different. But they opened specifically for "our" Christmas, so that we could celebrate it." ‎

With the start of services in Berlin, the Bulgarian church community was born. A constituent assembly was organized, the community was registered with the court according to the procedure in the Federal Republic of Germany. After the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Community "Saint Tsar Boris the Baptist" became an official legal entity, Metropolitan Simeon established contacts with the administration of the Catholic Church in Germany, as well as the Protestant one, and began high-level talks about the possibility of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Community using one of their churches for its liturgical needs. The idea of the Bulgarians in Berlin having their own church also arose.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church of Saint Tsar Boris the Baptist in Berlin

"We were offered different churches several times, because at that time, and until now, there has been an outflow of church life in Germany.

Several proposals for churches were made to the Bulgarian church community. But one was very far away in a remote neighborhood, another was a huge church that they could not maintain. Finally, Grandpa Simeon settled on the current church, and it has become the spiritual home for the Orthodox Bulgarians in Berlin and the region.

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Photos: private archive of priest Lyubomir Bratoev, bg-patriarshia.bg, sergiuskirche.de, BTA

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