5,000 to Fill the Church in Smolyan
Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, ministers and diplomats will lite candles at the altar of the newly-opened church
Today, enthusiasts will celebrate July Morning at the seaside, whereas
tomorrow morning the Rhodope Mountain will wake up with a new church.
Over 5,000 laymen will gather in the town of Smolyan for the
inauguration of the St. Vissarion of Smolyan Church. The ritual will
begin in the evening of July 1 with a mass given by His Eminence
Arseny, Metropolitan of Plovdiv. Orthodox Bishops, and the heads of the
Catholic, Armenian, Protestant and Jewish clergy in Bulgaria are
invited to attend the ceremony.
The church will be inaugurated on July 2, four years after its first
sod was turned with a holy water sprinkling ceremony and a solemn
procession.
Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, ministers, diplomats and public persons will attend the inauguration of the church.
Under the echo of the eleven bells of the church, Smolyan Mayor Dora
Yankova will grant honorary diplomas to Lawyer Todor Batkov and his
wife Zdravka. They will be proclaimed honorary citizens of Smolyan,
because their exclusive contribution to the building of the church and
the spiritual development of the town.
The square in front of the church, renovated by the Smolyan
Municipality, will be named after Saint Vissarion of Smolyan. A
monument of St. Vissarion - the last Bulgarian Bishop in the Rhodope
Mountain, will be installed in the square on June 26, 2007, when the
church will celebrate its official holiday.
The funds for the building of the monument will be raised from charity
postcards, blessed by Arseny, Metropolitan of Plovdiv. They will sell
from tomorrow on. Children from five orphanages and welfare
establishments in the region will be treated to boiled mutton and will
receive foods and products for five hundred levs after the official
ceremony.
Shtilyana Chakurova
Standartnews
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