THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANTGUARD OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (PART 3)

February 25, 2026 by Cup&Cross
Filed under Books, Featured, Media, Missions, News, Publication

THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANT-GARDE OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS, BEHEADING IT FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (Part 3)

[Editorial note: The following text is translated from the Bulgarian original. The documents contain memorandums, archival records, State Security (Darzhavna Sigurnost / DS) interrogation files, survivor testimonies, and secondary scholarly sources. Bracketed insertions in the original are the author’s. Handwritten portions of the source document are noted where applicable. Archival reference: pp. 155–177.]

Yanko Nikolov Ivanov

Completed his studies in Frankfurt (1925). He had earlier withdrawn from the Faculty of Law at Sofia University and redirected his path towards commerce. He successfully completed the Commercial and Industrial Chamber in Ruse. His father, Nikola Ivanov, financed his studies and sent him to study theology at the Methodist Church seminary in Frankfurt. Immediately upon returning from Frankfurt, he was appointed to Gorna Mitropolia at the 28th Annual Conference in Sofia (1925). The following year Yanko Ivanov was elected assistant secretary of the Conference and appointed to the Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) in Vidin for a period of four years. During this period he was elected secretary of the Annual Conference and treasurer of the Church Charitable Society. In 1930 he was sent to Lom for three years, where he subsequently served as pastor. During his stay in Lom the newly constructed Methodist church building was sold. From 1933 to 1940 he served in Pleven, and was then, with the approval of Alphonse Prache, transferred to the EPC Sofia as secretary of the Annual Methodist Conference. From 1944 he held the position of supreme superintendent of the EMC and deputy religious representative of the Evangelicals within the United Evangelical Churches (OETs), until the commencement of the Pastoral Trials.

From the State Security interrogation file: ‘His arrest for anti-people and espionage activities was met by him with arrogance. At the outset of the investigation he maintained an arrogant manner and with marked irony attempted to answer the questions. He relied on foreign intervention and on his high ecclesiastical rank. He denied everything without reservation… By this stance he greatly impeded the investigation. He displayed a strong will, a firm character, and steadfastness. He possesses a sound logical faculty.’

Despite being subjected to torture both ‘behind the curtain’ and in the ‘devil’s cell’ during pre-trial detention, he endeavoured to protect his colleagues from dangerous deviations in the political sphere. He attempted to warn the others that two of the accused pastors were assisting the investigation with their testimony, but his effort was thwarted. According to his testimony, at the OETs assembly of 1944, a hostile line towards the Fatherland Front was discussed, at which ‘Zyapkov reported that he had made contact with the American and British Legations in Sofia and received assurances of protection should the authorities take measures against them as a result of their conduct (according to the testimony of N. Mikhailov, Georgi Chernev, Yanko Ivanov, and others, in part)… That in 1945 Yanko Ivanov, in his capacity as deputy religious representative, met with a certain Tobias — who had entered the country under cover as a delegate of the British youth delegation and was an American intelligence operative — who came to Ivanov in strict secrecy and presented himself as an emissary of Methodist Bishop Garber, to whom Ivanov provided written information on the situation in the country and on the conditions under which the sects operated; which information he had gathered from all four sects in written form; and that he received directives for agitation and slander against the people’s authority from Tobias, which directives Ivanov subsequently transmitted at one of the sessions of the Supreme Council of the OETs (according to the testimonies of Ya. Ivanov, G. Chernev, and N. Mikhailov).’

In his own defence he stated: ‘I am proud to declare that the honourable Ministry of Foreign Affairs has never experienced any difficulties owing to violations committed by members or employees of the Methodist Church. In all circumstances, the Methodist Church as a community and I as its representative have acted straightforwardly, honestly, and loyally towards the authorities, as any good Bulgarian would. Never and under no circumstance have I sought the intervention of foreigners, not even that of our bishop Dr. Garber, in order to achieve a proper resolution of disputed matters with the authorities. In such cases I have always sought the assistance of the authorities and the laws of the country, but not the interference of any foreigners whatsoever.’

He was found guilty of participating in ‘a reconnaissance network in favour of a foreign intelligence service’ and transmitting ‘numerous items of information of a military, economic, and political character constituting state secrets’; receiving ‘remuneration from a foreign state and representatives of a foreign intelligence service’; disseminating ‘abroad false and grossly distorted accounts, substantially damaging the dignity of the Bulgarian people and state,’ as well as ‘false rumours, reports, and assertions,’ and ‘verbally within the country, offensive, defamatory, and false assertions’ with the aim of harming ‘our good relations with a friendly state or its authorities,’ diminishing ‘the prestige of such a state or its authorities,’ all of this serving ‘another state in a hostile act against the Bulgarian state.’ He was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour, a fine of one million leva in favour of the state, deprivation of pastoral rights, and confiscation of all his property. He was released after thirteen and a half years of imprisonment — only a few months before his death, which came on Christmas Day, 1962.

Note on his son: Nikolai Yankov Ivanov, residing at 86 ‘Rakovski’ Street, served as secretary of the Methodist Church youth section. He was expelled from the Shumen Aviation School on charges of fascist activity. He had made attempts to leave the country with no intention of returning. He had also escorted and arranged meetings with persons suspected of espionage for one Lord Shier, who arrived in Bulgaria in 1948.

Vasil Marinov Popov

Completed his studies in Brussels and theology in Cremona, Switzerland (1920). Detained and sent to a labour camp without sentence together with the Methodists Kiril Yotov, Marin Gluharov, and Nikola Pulev. The Pastoral Trials found him serving as pastor of the EMC in Varna. The investigation unearthed his earlier case from Lovech, where he had served as pastor (1940–1945) and had been acquitted. He maintained close ties with the American household at the boarding house in the city of Lovech, and demonstrated Germanophile tendencies, being a member of the Bulgarian-German Society in the city. He attended the OETs assembly held at the end of September and beginning of October 1945 in Burgas, at a special gathering of pastors convened at Zyapkov’s request; and also the conference of 1938 in Pleven, attended by Dr. John L. Newlson, Dr. Ralph Diffendorfer, and Alphonse Prache (according to the testimony of Yanko Ivanov and Mitko Mateyev).

Simeon Dimitrov Popov — Age 43

Completed his studies in Frankfurt; married to a Swiss national (Elza Walter Gisler). After completing secondary school in 1922, he was sent on a pastoral internship in Popovo, and the following year became assistant to Pastor Iv. Todorov in Veliko Tarnovo. At the Annual Conference in the autumn of 1924 he was sent to study theology at the seminary in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (1924–1927). After his return he served five years in Svishtov, and in 1932 was appointed senior pastor of the EMC in Lovech for a further five years. In 1937 he succeeded Vasil as pastor in the Czech village of Voyvodovo, remaining there until the moment of his arrest in 1949, when he was charged with espionage. He was sentenced to seven years and six months’ imprisonment, of which he served five years and four months in the prisons of Sofia, Varna, and Belene. He was released in 1955, and in 1958 assumed the pastorate of the EMC ‘Dr. Long’ in Sofia. His success was such that the authorities compelled him to relocate to Svoge, from where he commuted to services, until he was ultimately banned even from entering Sofia. In 1960 he assumed leadership of the EMC in Shumen, where he devoted himself to the meticulous collection and preservation of the Methodist archive.

In a letter from Zyapkov to the Methodist Church historian Samuil Vasilev, dated 25 March 1971, we read: ‘Is the bishop not interested in your work? Could Simeon Popov not help you in gathering materials? In my view he is the best worker in the Methodist Church today!’

Despite his advanced age, in Shumen Pastor Popov participated in a network for the clandestine distribution of Bibles. During one of the searches of his home, the State Security Service confiscated 4,000 Bibles, and he himself was arrested. During Johnnie Noer’s visit in 1989, Shumen was placed under blockade, and Pastor Simeon Popov — despite his advanced years — spent the day at the local militia headquarters in order to prevent the expulsion of the foreign visitors to Romania. Pastor Popov was known among the faithful of that era for his letter ministry, dispatching messages to over 1,200 believers throughout the country. Initially these were typed on a typewriter and later reproduced on a Roneograph. The Ministry of the Interior confiscated all the machines, but workers at the BCP party bookshop in Svoge secretly printed the messages at night. His book Why I Believe in God, begun in 1940, was printed in the Netherlands in 1982. In 1992 it received official approval and a recommendation from the Ministry of Education and Culture as a teaching aid for the optional study of religious instruction.

Gavril Tsvetanov Tsvetanov — Age 47

Completed his studies in Constantinople and at the episcopal seminary in Rome; residing in Sofia, 28 ‘Skobelev’ Street. His father, Pastor Tsvetan Tsvetanov, officiated at the wedding of Georgi Dimitrov and Lyuba Ivoshevich in Pleven on 20 October 1906. Gavril was born the same year in Sevlievo. He served as an associate professor at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, and as secretary of the Supreme Council of the OETs and personal English-language correspondent of Yanko Ivanov. In 1920 he was sent on a scholarship to a theological school in Manchester. In 1923 he was sent to Italy to study theology, and contributed to the fascist newspaper Popolo d’Italia. In 1925 he was transferred again to study in Manchester. He attended the Methodist conference of 1938 in Pleven, together with Dr. John L. Newlson, chief secretary of the Board in America, Dr. Ralph Diffendorfer, and Alphonse Prache.

Before 9 September 1944, he was head of the ‘Cultural Section’ of the Bulgarian Workers’ Union (BRS). From August 1943 until 9 September 1944 he was mobilised at the Army Staff ‘Reconnaissance Company’ under Captain Armyanov. He organised a clandestine radio transmitter which, at Tsvetanov’s insistence, broadcast fascist content for a year and several months. He was a contributor to the newspaper Vecher, with records indicating that he served British intelligence. Detained for his fascist activities and sent to a corrective labour camp from 20 March to 20 October 1945. After 9 September he accompanied Yanko Ivanov to the American Mission, where Captain Andrénond received them, and served as interpreter for the conversation between the two. They also visited Strong, Reiminkel, and Cyril Black. During the visits of Bishop Dr. Paul Garber, Tsvetanov served as interpreter and transmitted informational data about Bulgaria, which were subsequently published in the foreign press, thereby exposing Bulgaria to the outside world. At the end of 1947 the chairman of the World Council of Churches, Cockburn, organised a conference with the pastors at the Hotel Bulgaria, with Gavril Tsvetanov serving as interpreter. For maintaining contacts with legionaries after 9 September, Tsvetanov was detained at the beginning of 1948 but released on 29 March 1948 owing to insufficient evidence. The foregoing is attested to by the testimonies of Yanko Ivanov and Haralan Popov, as well as by the data contained in file No. 155382.

Tsvetan Alexandrov Litov

Completed his studies in Frankfurt; currently specialising in America. He served as pastor of the ‘Dr. Long’ church in Sofia, which during his tenure numbered over 280 members. In 1934 he was one of only thirteen pastors in Bulgaria to receive a written certificate from the Ministry. As secretary of the OETs he participated in the Union of Youth Evangelical Organisations in Bulgaria. According to the confessions from the Pastoral Trials, he was among the first to whom Cyril Black’s petition was transmitted. He was then compelled to gather detailed information about the Sofia garrison and the Pernik–Voluyak railway line. The information was transmitted in 1945 in two tranches — to Black and to Melony Turner. He was the only one to escape conviction, being in the United States at the time and not returning to Bulgaria. Upon his departure he was replaced by Pastor Zdravko Bezlov.

Iliya Yakov Iliev — Age 38

Born in 1907 in Kalugerovo (near Pravets, above the Borovets fortress). He attended the ecclesiastical school of the Cherepish Monastery but could not sing. He completed secondary school in Botevgrad and established contact with the pastor of the EMC in Botevgrad, Spas Miloshev. He was appointed as a trainee pastor in 1929 under Pastor Alexander Georgiev in Pleven. The following year, at the Annual Conference of 1930, he was sent to the seminary in Frankfurt, where he studied alongside Popov, Iliev, Yotov, Litov, Kishishyan, Yanko Ivanov, and Georgi Sivriev. The rector, Dr. Mele, personally covered half of the tuition fee. He served with the Missionary Tent throughout Germany. At the 37th Annual Conference of the EMEC in Varna he was appointed by Bishop Nilsen to Hotantsa, where he worked for eleven years until the end of the Second World War.

His wife, Marta Müller — a German national — was to have been sent together with other Germans to a camp in the USSR, but the entire village interceded on her behalf, and the family relocated to the EMC in Lovech. At the end of August 1948 the American Girls’ School in Lovech was closed, and Pastor Iliev was charged and convicted at the second closed Pastoral Trial to three years’ imprisonment. He served his sentence in the Sofia Central Prison, while during the same period his son developed pulmonary complications. In August 1951 Pastor Iliev was released, but the church hall had been taken over as a warehouse by the Pharmaceutical Directorate — Lovech. From 1953 he conducted Sunday services simultaneously in the Methodist and Baptist churches in Ruse. Two years later the entire family settled in that riverside city, where he remained until his death in 1997.

Marin Dobrev Gluharov

Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Frankfurt. Born in Yablanitsa (1909). He graduated from the Theological Seminary in Sofia, and subsequently continued his studies in ‘Finance and Accounting’ at the Free University. In 1932 he received a scholarship for theological education in Germany. Upon his graduation in 1935 he assumed leadership of the Evangelical Methodist Church (EMC) in Vidin, and the following year was transferred to Sevlievo, where he served for four years. During the Second World War he fulfilled his pastoral duties in Ihtiman. During the Pastoral Trials he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, which he served in the labour camps at Belene and Bobov Dol. Because of his refusal to give testimony he could not be definitively convicted, but as a result of the inquisitions during interrogation and the brutal beatings inflicted upon him, he sustained severe physical injuries, including a fractured spine.

Stefan Bochev describes the condition of Pastor Gluharov, whom he encountered in the camp, in the following terms: ‘He could not stand upright. He dragged himself on his stomach, having fitted his palms with hand-clogs so as not to injure them. He would raise himself slightly on his hands in order to move forward. Yes, they had succeeded in reducing him to the condition of a reptile… crawling with his hand-clogs through the mud of Persin, yet with the gaze of a human being and a spirit worthy of the heights.’

Zdravko Stefanov Bezlov

At the age of twenty-eight, he graduated with distinction from Frankfurt (1943) and was awarded a scholarship for doctoral studies in the United States. Nevertheless, he returned to Bulgaria during the war and, after several months of work in Ruse, assumed leadership of the ‘Dr. Long’ church in Sofia. With the advent of the Communist regime, Pastor Bezlov was removed from the pulpit and began his path of martyrdom — passing through the cells of the State Security Service, labour camps, coal mines, and stone quarries. He was sentenced to fifteen years’ hard imprisonment, a fine of 250,000 leva, and deprivation of civil rights for fifteen years.

Despite all of this, he remained one of the few who refused to plead guilty — alongside Ivan Angelov, Hristo Neychev, Dimitar Hristov, and Zdravko Bezlov himself. He once confided: ‘I am in the camp, and do you know — when you fail to meet the quota, apart from being beaten with a cudgel, what it feels like to sleep in a pit full of mud.’ After thirteen and a half years Pastor Bezlov was released, but the authorities continued to persecute him as a former political prisoner. After 1989, already half-paralysed, he organised the restoration of the Methodist Church in Bulgaria and the ‘Dr. Long’ church. In 1992 the World Methodist Council awarded him its Peace Prize. The entire sum of the award he donated to the Organ Fund of the ‘Dr. Long’ church.

Nikola Mikhailov Naumov

Completed his studies in Hamburg, Germany. From 1922 a member of the editorial committee of the quarterly publication of the Evangelical Baptist Churches of Bulgaria (SEBC), together with Vidolov and Zashev. According to the confessions: ‘Mikhailov [i.e., the defendant Pastor Nikola M. Naumov — ed.] was also interested in the course of the war. I would communicate all information to him. Mikhailov would pass it on to the Americans… Mikhailov travelled throughout the provinces on church business.’

According to the indictment: ‘In 1938, the Baptist pastor Carl Filbrand — a long-standing major agent of American and German intelligence with several years’ experience in subversive work in the USSR, of German origin from Russia, residing in Vienna — convened a conference with Baptist pastors in Bulgaria at which he assigned them the very concrete task of propagating German influence in the country and gathering information of a political, economic, and military character. He organised an extensive agent network from all Baptist pastors, appointing as residents the pastors: Ivan Angelov, Georgi Vasov, and Nikola Mikhailov. This apparatus began to function immediately, with information being transmitted to Filbrand and Mikhailov (according to the testimony of N. Mikhailov, G. Chernev, and G. Vasov).’

Ivan Petrov Igov

Completed his studies in Hamburg, Germany. Born in Berkovitsa (1905); Baptist pastor residing in Sofia, 17 ’20 April’ Street. Sentenced and sent to Belene on account of his faith, where he spent six long years. His family was interned in Golintsi, without the right to return to Sofia. After his release, Igov served as pastor in Lom, and later in Varna and Plovdiv.

According to the indictment: ‘In 1925 he was recruited by Filbrand. He completed his studies at a theological seminary in Hamburg, Germany, a classmate of Georgi Vasov. In 1938 he participated in the re-recruitment of all Baptist pastors by Loishner, at which point he was designated as one of four individuals to establish the intelligence apparatus among pastors of the Baptist denomination. Until the war he received his support directly from America. In 1938 he returned to Sofia with Pavlov Schmidt, who was in Bulgaria at that time together with Filbrand. After 9 September, he attended all gatherings of the pastors, congresses, and so forth. He also attended the unofficial gatherings of the pastors, at which decisions were taken against the Fatherland Front authority. At the Baptist church congress of September 1947, Igov stood as a candidate for chairman of the Baptist Union. Mikhailov opposed him. Igov then rose and declared before everyone that he was leaving the Baptist Union congress and going to report Mikhailov to the authorities and reveal who Mikhailov was and what he was doing. Engineer Milan Kostov intervened and compelled them to reconcile. He received money from the illegally exchanged dollars. Igov was a collaborator of Georgi Vasov, to whom he transmitted his information. He was a travelling pastor among the Baptist churches. From 1931 to 1939 he visited Hungary, twice Germany, four times Switzerland, and Sweden (according to the testimony of Mikhailov, Zahari Raychev, Dimitar Mateyev, and G. Vasov).’

Vasil Georgiev Angelov

Completed his studies in America. Born in Stob (1909). On the recommendation of Pastor Pavel Mishkov, he completed his studies at Wheaton College in Chicago and the Theological Seminary in Dallas. He did not return to Bulgaria until 1938, where for a brief period he served as pastor in Yambol, Haskovo, and Samokov. From 1946 to 1948 he published the magazine Good News (Dobri Vesti).

According to the indictment: ‘[The pastors] gathered and transmitted to their foreign missions numerous items of information of a military, political, and economic character — such as the production of the military factories in Kazanlak and the aircraft factory and their output; the production of Koralovag; the production of the Mülhaupt factory in Ruse; the production of the Pirin mines; the mobilisation of conscripts; the movement of military units; traffic on the Danube and at Danubian ports; the mood of the popular masses; etc. (according to the testimony of N. Mikhailov, Georgi Vasov, Dimitar Mateyev, Zahari Raychev, Georgi Chernev, and Haralan Popov).’

Atanas Andonov Georgiev — Age 52

Completed his studies in Hamburg. Born in Sumitsa (1897); residing in Ruse, 35 ‘G. Dimitrov’ Street. Baptist pastor, recruited in 1925.

According to the indictment: ‘In 1937 re-recruited by Filbrand, and in 1938 recruited by Loishner. He supplied information of an economic, political, and military character to N. Mikhailov. After 9 September he continued his intelligence activities, again transmitting information to Mikhailov. According to the old and new construction of the intelligence apparatus, he was required to transmit his information to Nikola Mikhailov. From the information sent to us from Ruse regarding him, it is evident that he was hostile in his disposition towards the Fatherland Front authority. This is most clearly apparent from the sermons he delivered. He received from abroad for the year 1947 six parcels — 42 kg; for 1948 — one parcel of 8.5 kg; and for the period 1947–48 received from Mikhailov from the illegally exchanged dollars the sum of 324,000 leva.’

Mitko Mateyev Dimitrov — Age 39

Completed his studies in Germany.

According to the indictment: ‘Every Evangelical pastor who receives his support from abroad (and all of them do) was obliged to send reports to his foreign mission on his work and the conditions under which he operated — reports in which he was required to provide as extensive information as possible on the mood of the people among whom he worked, on economic life, on the political mood of the masses, etc. — reports constituting in essence intelligence despatches on the political and economic life of the country (according to the testimony of N. Mikhailov, Yanko Ivanov, Georgi Chernev, Georgi Vasov, Dimitar Mateyev, Haralan Popov, and others).’

Exiled to Varna, Persin, and Belene. After Belene he worked at Elhima. He was denounced by someone close to him for planning to emigrate. He was sentenced to a further seven years of hard imprisonment. He subsequently emigrated to Canada, where he published a book about the years spent in prison, entitled Upon Thy Word I Have Placed My Trust.

19th Century History of Protestantism in Bulgaria

Translated from the list with pastors from the document above:

LIST OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICAL PASTORS WHO COMPLETED THEIR EDUCATION ABROAD

State Security Service Memorandum, 1948

Archival Reference: 155/3/177

Editorial note: The following is a complete transcription and translation of the archival document photographed at pastir.org. Text underlined in the original manuscript is rendered with underline formatting below. A handwritten annotation reading ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) appears at the foot of the original page, indicating the end of the handwritten portion of the document. Checkmarks (✓) visible in the original against certain entries are noted in brackets. The preamble and closing summary are translated verbatim from the Bulgarian.

Preamble (verbatim translation): ‘In order not to speak in generalities and to substantiate the foregoing, I find it necessary to append a list of the names of the pastors who completed their education in America or in some other foreign country, who, in addition to their religious fanaticism, have unquestionably acquired the character and mentality of the “secular” Western democracies. For example:’

THE LIST

Vasil Georgiev Zyapkov — age 47. Completed advanced theological studies in Manchester and New York.
Lambri Marinov Mishkov — age 40. Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Princeton, USA.
Simeon Petrov Iliev — age 37. Completed his studies at a theological seminary in Switzerland.
Konstantin Stoyanov Marvakov — age 55. Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria.
Kiril Yotov Vladov — age 43. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Kostadin Spasov Bozovayski — age 35. Completed his studies in London — Seminary.
Krum Georgiev Bumbakov — age 43. Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria.
Sarkis Bedros Manukyan. Completed his studies in Kingston, Canada.
Pavel Hristov Nikolov — age 49. Completed advanced theological education in Oxford, England.
Nikola Borisov Dimitrov — age 42. Completed his studies at a seminary in Bangor, USA.
Yosif Isakov Danailov — age 49. Completed his studies in Austria and England.
Atanas Angelov Kremenliev — age 37. Completed his studies at a seminary in the USA.
Georgi Nikolov Chernev — age 45. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Emanuil Stoyanov Manolov — age 49. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Boris Ivanov Kuzmanov. Completed his studies in Krichona — Switzerland.
Yoncho Nikolov Dryanov — age 42. Completed his studies in Danzig — Germany.
Haralan Ivanov Popov — age 47. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Gruy Iliev Kuzmanov — age 54. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ivan Zerev Angelinov — age 37. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Diko Dimitrov Mavrudaev — age 42. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Yosif Georgiev Kokonchev — age 38. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Enyu Iliev Tsonev — age 39. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Nikola Stefanov Stoyanov — age 40. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Eduard Agop Kuriyan — age 34. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Todor Stoykov Godjorov — age 41. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ivan Stoychev Ivanov — age 40. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ladin Ivanov Popov — age 34. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Ivan Mitev Yalamov — age 36. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Stoicho Dimitrov Kupenov — age 38. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Nikola Harlamiev Tsenkov — age 41. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Yanko Nikolov Ivanov — age 47. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Vasil Marinov Popov — age 45. Completed his studies in Krichona, Switzerland.
Simeon Dimitrov Popov — age 43. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Gavril Tsvetanov Tsvetanov — age 41. Completed his studies in Manchester and at the episcopal academy in Rome.
Tsvetan Alexandrov Litov. Completed his studies in Frankfurt; currently specialising in America.
Iliya Yakov Iliev — age 38. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Marin Dobrev Gluharov. Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Frankfurt am Main.
Zdravko Stefanov Bezlov — age 28. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Nikola Mikhailov Naumov — age 49. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Ivan Petrov Igov — age 48. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Vasil Georgiev Angelov — age 39. Completed his studies in northern America.
Atanas Andonov Georgiev — age 52. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Mitko Mateyev Dimitrov — age 39. Completed his studies in Wilenest — Germany.

Closing Summary (verbatim translation):

‘In addition to the above-mentioned, a further 7 individuals completed their studies in various countries. Thus, of a total of 115 pastors throughout the entire country, half completed their education abroad — who are accordingly first-class and qualified foreign agents.’

Handwritten annotation at foot of document: ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) — indicating the end of the handwritten portion of the memorandum.

Translator’s Notes

Entries marked with ✓ in the original document are reproduced here with that symbol. The significance of the checkmarks is not explained in the source; they may denote individuals already arrested, already under surveillance, or prioritised for prosecution at the time of the document’s compilation.
Underlined text in the original (indicating institutions and cities) is preserved with underline formatting.
‘Danzig’ refers to the Free Theological Academy (Freie Theologische Akademie) in the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland), which served as the principal training institution for Bulgarian Pentecostal pastors throughout the 1930s.
‘Krichona’ refers to the St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission (Pilgermission St. Chrischona) near Basel, a pietist missionary training institution.
‘Wilenest — Germany’ in entry 43 is likely a transcription error or phonetic rendering in the original Bulgarian; the precise institution has not been identified.
The document bears the archival reference 155/3/177 and is reproduced at pastir.org. The preamble and closing summary are in typewritten Bulgarian; the annotation ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) is handwritten.
The assertion that foreign-educated pastors are ‘first-class and qualified foreign agents’ represents the operative ideological premise of the 1948–1949 Pastoral Trials — that Western theological education was itself evidence of intelligence recruitment.

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THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANTGUARD OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (PART 2)

February 20, 2026 by Cup&Cross
Filed under Events, Featured, Missions, News

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THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANT-GARDE OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS, BEHEADING IT FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (Part 2)

Georgi Nikolov Chernev — Age 45

Completed his studies in Danzig and at Carter Seminary in London. Member of the Supreme Council of the United Evangelical Churches (OETs) and Chairman of the Union of Evangelical Pentecostal Churches (SEPTS). Arrested while on his way to the church in Elhovo. Like all other detainees, he completed Declaration Form No. 10G, in which he stated: born in the early twentieth century in Yambol; occupation: ‘pastor of the SEPTS’; under additional professions: ‘journalist.’ Member of the Society of the Periodical Press; non-partisan; without affiliation to the Fatherland Front.

For his contribution to the anti-fascist resistance before 1944, he possessed a document ‘issued by the Fighters against Fascism,’ which was disregarded. In a handwritten analysis, Chernev observed: ‘Everything was done and carried out according to a pre-established plan, on the orders and insistence of Moscow. From a reliable source it later became known that the Communists had decided that approximately 600 Evangelical Christians were to be detained by the militia and tried — some sentenced to death, others to prison, others to labour camps, and some to internal exile. And so it came to pass!’

His wife was interned in Svishtov, and their twenty-four-year-old son Veniamin was also arrested. In his unpublished memoirs, he recounts in an indescribable manner the tortures and sufferings of the pastors ‘behind the curtain.’ In his work A Broken Destiny, Kiril Tonev writes: ‘In the Pleven prison were father and son Chernev. The father, a pastor, was there from the Pastoral Trial; the son, a Cambridge graduate, had been sentenced to death. It was expected that the sentence would be overturned or confirmed. There was a legal time limit for this, but it passed. During this period the father — Pastor Chernev — was arrested, and in order to break him and cause him to incriminate other co-defendants, they told him: If you do not tell the truth, we will carry out your son’s sentence immediately.’

After his release from prison in 1967, Pastor Chernev addressed Todor Zhivkov personally with a request for rehabilitation. Nevertheless, the Secretariat of the Committee for State Security sent a telegram to the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party which read: ‘The petition of Pastor Georgi Nikolov Chernev — to be rehabilitated as unjustly convicted at the trial against the Evangelical pastors — is not to be granted.’

Emanuil Stoyanov Manolov — Age 49

Completed his studies in Danzig and London. The only one of the three pastors who refused to make confessions to the very end. Pastor of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church (EPC) in Stara Zagora; member of the editorial board of the SEPTS under Protocol No. 8 (11 February 1930); chief editor of Pentecostal News. Fluent in foreign languages and maintaining connections with Western missions, he was classified by the State Security Service as ‘politically unreliable.’

As opposition-minded Pentecostal pastors — including Pastor Emanuil Manolov and Georgi Todorov — were subjected to serious repression on account of their ‘insubordination.’ The denunciations against Manolov accused him of oppositional views, including criticism of the authorities, whom he described as ‘antichrist.’ At a meeting of the Pentecostal leadership, he stated that the ‘Circular Letters’ were being widely criticised even in churches that formally supported government policy. In response, the leadership loyal to the authorities resolved to remove Pastor Manolov from leadership positions within the Union. He was also charged with participating in worship services outside the SEPTS. He was the sole pastor to support Dryanov in his opposition to the black-market currency exchanges within the SEPTS.

Boris Ivanov Kuzmanov

Completed a Bachelor of Theology degree at ‘St. Chrischona’ in Austria (not Switzerland, as State Security documents erroneously assert). He took his first steps in ministry in Sliven. From 1937 to 1939 he served as pastor of the EPC in Yambol. At the twelfth regular annual assembly (1946) in Krumovo Gradishte, Kuzmanov served on the SEPTS committee. Following the trials, he led the church in Plovdiv (1955–1962).

Taking considerable risk upon himself and his family, during the 1950s and 1960s he translated and compiled Christian hymns. Under conditions of severe censorship and open persecution, these filled the hunger for hymnal literature and were printed by hand on heliographic paper — a practice that was prohibited. Kuzmanov, an accomplished linguist and musician, performed translations and arrangements drawing on a variety of sources. In addition to traditional Bulgarian collections, he drew upon foreign ones, including the German Dielgerlieder (1922), the American Tabernacle Hymns (1926) and Melodies of Praise (1957), as well as two Russian publications: Songs of the Wanderer (1927) and Song of Songs (1936).

Yoncho Nikolov Dryanov

Embraced the Pentecostal faith during the sojourn of [Ivan] Voronayev in Varna in 1921. After completing secondary school, he went on to graduate from the Higher Commercial Institute in the city of Varna. He studied theology in Samokov and abroad — in Danzig (1936) and Bern (1938). He spoke French, German, and English. In his memoirs he wrote: ‘We must acknowledge that our finances before the trial were not well organised.’ Despite his opposition to the black-market currency exchanges proposed by Chernev, L. Popov, and Kinareva, he was convicted.

From 1950 he was imprisoned in the Varna prison together with Mitko Mateyev, and later both were transferred to Persin Island. There, the prison guards locked them together with Haralan Popov in a cattle shed for an entire week, in order to ‘make at least one cow or ox accept Christianity.’ Blind in one eye, Dryanov firmly withstood the interrogations ‘behind the curtain’ and in the ‘devil’s cell’ of the prison.

Haralan Ivanov Popov — Age 47

Completed his studies in Danzig and London. Arrested at 4 a.m. on 24 June 1948 and spent 35 days in complete darkness in solitary confinement. He began to hallucinate and ‘confessed’ by signing the fabricated ‘self-confessions.’ ‘The Nazis were cruel, but the Communists were both cruel and satanically cunning,’ Popov later said. He spent 13 years as an ‘enemy of the people’ — in the prisons of Sliven and Shumen, and at Belene. He never forgot the quotation from Dante written above the door of the ‘devil’s cell’: ‘O ye who enter here, abandon all hope!’

After the Hungarian Revolution he was transferred to the prison in Stara Zagora. Following his release, he led an underground church in Sofia. On 31 December 1962 he was permitted to join his family in Sweden, and in 1970 moved to the United States. He recorded the following observation from his time under the Regime — one which proves prophetic for our own day: ‘Gradually the pastors of the churches were removed and in their place came people ready to become instruments in the hands of the Communists, who concentrated their efforts on placing their own puppets in the pulpit. Having installed puppets in many churches, they then identified the next target: the senior Bulgarian church leaders of the Evangelical denominations!’

Gruy Iliev Kuzmanov — Age 54

Completed his studies in Danzig. Yet another example of how the Communist regime persecuted pastors who had opposed the fascist dictatorship in Bulgaria. The authorities banned Pastor Kuzmanov from conducting preaching and pastoral activities in Pleven. Kuzmanov appealed to inspector Chucholayn, but was nonetheless transferred by the Union leadership to Plovdiv. The church he had built in the village of Aprilts was closed. By telegram to the Ministry of the Interior on 23 February 1943, Pastor Gradinakov of Pazardzhik reported that despite the prohibition, Kuzmanov continued to pastor and to conduct wedding ceremonies. This was followed by removal from ministry and a punitive act. He was rehabilitated by the Supreme Council and Angel Dinov only in 1956, together with Iv. Zarev.

Ivan Zerev Angelinov — Age 37

Born in 1909 in Gorna Sekirna. Completed his education in Danzig (1935–1938). For two years he served as pastor in Pernik, after which he assumed leadership of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church (EPC) in Sofia, which he headed until 1948. The Pastoral Trials interrupted his studies at the Faculty of Theology of Sofia University. In his single-volume history of the Union of Evangelical Pentecostal Churches (SEPTS), he described the ‘Pastoral Trials’ in the following words: ‘One hundred days in an ice-cold cell, with a bucket and a jug as my only faithful companions. My hair stands on end when I recall that horror… whenever I pass by that accursed building near the Lion Bridge.’

After the conclusion of the trials, in the official reports on the activities of the Committee and the state of the Protestant churches in Sofia, he is listed as a co-minister of the EPC Sofia, together with Angel Dinov and Dinko Zhelev. He taught dogmatics and homiletics at the biblical courses for pastors within the SEPTS. In connection with the State Security campaign and the trials of 1979, directed against the Pentecostal movement in the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and its foreign ties, State Security officer Lieutenant Colonel Angel Zhelev stated: ‘A blow has been dealt to the Pentecostal sect in the PRB and the foreign religious headquarters.’ In an interview for Anteni, Zarev concurred with the accusation: ‘The six defendants violated the laws of the country.’

Diko Dimitrov Mavrudaev — Age 42

Completed his studies in Danzig. Pastor of the EPC in Troyan, Dimitrovgrad, Pazardzhik, and Plovdiv (1937–1947), after which he was succeeded by Zh. Vrachev. Krali Kralev, who was announced as an evangelist to the towns and villages south of Burgas, where the ‘Pastoral Trials’ found him. Following the completion of his sentence, he faced restrictions imposed by the authorities. He kept a warehouse-type shop at the Plovdiv railway station, which was frequently used as a meeting point by his former colleagues.

Yosif Georgiev Kokonchev — Age 38

Completed his studies in Danzig (1936–1938), immediately after which he served as pastor of the EPC in Sliven (1938–1947). His family is among the well-known Enidzhevardartsi [settlers from Yenidje Vardar], from whom he acquired a command of Greek. The Pastoral Trials found him at the EPC in Stara Zagora. He was subsequently appointed to the EPC in Varna (1950), succeeding Dryanov. He is mentioned in the Yearbook of the Theological Academy (1958–1971). Elected to the financial committee of the SEPTS together with Zarev and Vrachev, and as deputy chairman to Angel Dinov. Of him, St. Bankov wrote: ‘Kokonchev stoically upheld the position to which, as we have already ascertained, he had been assigned…’

Enyo (Enyu) Iliev Tsonev — Age 40

Among the first cohort of graduates from Danzig. He embraced the faith at the age of seventeen during one of Kostadin Tomov’s visits to Yambol. The first worship services in Yambol were held in the home of his mother Shtilyana, a fervent believer baptised in the Holy Spirit. He is recorded as deacon and treasurer in Protocol No. 1 at the founding of the EPC in Yambol. A magnificent biblical teacher and evangelist in places where no one else wished to go. Until the very end he preached from Dispensational Truth and from Larkin’s Revelation. Shortly before the Pastoral Trials, in 1944–45, his nephew and future pastor of the EPC Yambol, Georgi Arnaudov, began preaching with him in the villages.

Nikola Stefanov Stoyanov — Age 40

Studied in Danzig for approximately six months. Worked with Pastor Ivan Stoychev. Served as pastor at the EPC in Ruse, succeeding Haralan Popov, and also in Shumen. Pastor in Yambol (1955–1961), where in 1958 he carried out renovations to the building at 10 ‘Slavyanska’ Street, behind the ‘Soglasie’ community centre, where the church had been housed since 1947. In 1960 the SEPTS cautioned him by Circular No. 51 to observe Article 20 and not to work with minors. Shortly thereafter he was removed from his position on the pretext that he was disseminating the book of William Branham.

Edward Agop Kuriyan — Age 34

Completed his studies in Samokov, Danzig, and London. Born in 1913 in Sliven, Bulgaria, into the family of Agop Kuriyan, founder of the EPC in Sliven. He served as pastor in Pomorie, Pazardzhik, Chirpan, and Kyustendil. In Burgas he served for the first time in 1941 as assistant to Pastor Haralan Popov, and during the Pastoral Trials was permanently transferred to Burgas in 1948, remaining there until 1960. He was interned together with his entire family in Popovo. Rehabilitated in 1963, he served as pastor in Nesebar, and in 1970 assumed leadership of the EPC in Aheloy.

Todor Stoykov Godjorov — Age 41

Completed his studies in Danzig. A deeply devoted minister and fruit of the EPC in Burgas, founded in 1926. He served as pastor in Ruse, Troyan, Dimitrovgrad, and Pazardzhik, where he also died. Until the very end he remained a firm defender of the proper exercise of the spiritual gifts.

Ivan Stoychev Ivanov — Age 40

Completed his studies in Danzig (1931). He came to faith in 1927. In 1932 he began his ministry in the Burgas district, and was subsequently sent to Sliven. One of the first to preach in Mokren, Zimnitsa, Straldzha, Galabintsi, and Boyadzhik. Ordained as pastor in Plovdiv (1933), he assumed leadership of the EPC in Yambol in 1935. He formed the first church choir, which for the first time greeted the faithful in their homes at Christmas. Following his ministry in Yambol he was transferred as pastor to Stara Zagora, and from 1947 served again in Sliven, where he founded the MHL-Karandila youth camp, with the first campers ascending the summit on donkeys. Persecuted by the authorities, he was compelled to leave Sliven and relocated to Asenovgrad, where the congregation received a refusal for his pastoral appointment, whereupon he returned to Burgas.

Ladin Ivanov Popov — Age 34

Completed his studies in Danzig and London. Comes from a prosperous rural family. Completed secondary school in Svishtov. Brother of Haralan Popov; served as pastor of the EPC in Ruse in 1939 and in Troyan. In the eight-volume archive of the Chief Directorate of Operational Records (GDOR), entitled ‘Slanderers,’ there are two separate folders of denunciations and surveillance reports concerning him. He assumed leadership of the EPC in Burgas in 1948, where the Pastoral Trials found him. Sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. The indictment read: ‘That among the Evangelical pastors there are also individuals who served Hitler, recruited workers for Germany… [and] homosexuals — such as Ladin Popov (according to the testimonies of G. Vasov, Dimitar Mateyev, and Ladin Popov himself).’

He was the only one among the defendants who refused to accept the charges of ‘espionage’ levelled against them. As a gesture of protest against the judicial farce, he appeared in court without a necktie, despite this being an official requirement. He served his sentence in the Burgas prison, from which he was released in 1952.

Ivan Mitev Yalamov — Age 36

Completed his studies in Danzig (1936–1938), immediately after which he began to pastor in Mokren. He served in Yambol and Elhovo, and was subsequently appointed in Nova Zagora, from where he was transferred to Ruse, Aytos, and Stara Zagora. He served as the longest-tenured secretary of the SEPTS. ‘The defendant Pastor Ivan M. Yalamov confirms that the defendant Georgi Chernev had requested from him detailed information regarding the number, type, and armament of Soviet troops in the Nova Zagora district.’

Stoicho Dimitrov Kupenov — Age 38

Completed his studies in Danzig (1936–1938). Began as pastor of the EPC in Aheloy (1939). Served in Chirpan, Aytos, Ruse, and Pazardzhik. He strengthened the EPC in Ruse, which had been severely shaken following the imprisonment of Pastor Haralan Popov and the disruption of ties with the Slavic Religious Mission. He was one of the few who strongly opposed the restrictions imposed by the new policy of the SEPTS following the Pastoral Trials.

Nikola Harlamiev Tsenkov — Age 41

Completed his studies in Danzig. Delegate at the Founding Assembly of the SEPTS in Burgas (1928). Served as pastor of the EPC in Kostenets, Haskovo, and Pernik. Under Protocol No. 27 (7 July 1932), ‘he was sent to the EPC in Stara Zagora with the aim of consolidating and pacifying the church there,’ which was experiencing spiritual difficulties following its recent admission to the Union. Secretary-Treasurer of the SEPTS (1944).

19th Century History of Protestantism in Bulgaria

Translated from the list with pastors from the document above:

LIST OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICAL PASTORS WHO COMPLETED THEIR EDUCATION ABROAD

State Security Service Memorandum, 1948

Archival Reference: 155/3/177

THE LIST

Vasil Georgiev Zyapkov — age 47. Completed advanced theological studies in Manchester and New York.
Lambri Marinov Mishkov — age 40. Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Princeton, USA.
Simeon Petrov Iliev — age 37. Completed his studies at a theological seminary in Switzerland.
Konstantin Stoyanov Marvakov — age 55. Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria.
Kiril Yotov Vladov — age 43. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Kostadin Spasov Bozovayski — age 35. Completed his studies in London — Seminary.
Krum Georgiev Bumbakov — age 43. Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria.
Sarkis Bedros Manukyan. Completed his studies in Kingston, Canada.
Pavel Hristov Nikolov — age 49. Completed advanced theological education in Oxford, England.
Nikola Borisov Dimitrov — age 42. Completed his studies at a seminary in Bangor, USA.
Yosif Isakov Danailov — age 49. Completed his studies in Austria and England.
Atanas Angelov Kremenliev — age 37. Completed his studies at a seminary in the USA.
Georgi Nikolov Chernev — age 45. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Emanuil Stoyanov Manolov — age 49. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Boris Ivanov Kuzmanov. Completed his studies in Krichona — Switzerland.
Yoncho Nikolov Dryanov — age 42. Completed his studies in Danzig — Germany.
Haralan Ivanov Popov — age 47. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Gruy Iliev Kuzmanov — age 54. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ivan Zerev Angelinov — age 37. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Diko Dimitrov Mavrudaev — age 42. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Yosif Georgiev Kokonchev — age 38. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Enyu Iliev Tsonev — age 39. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Nikola Stefanov Stoyanov — age 40. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Eduard Agop Kuriyan — age 34. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Todor Stoykov Godjorov — age 41. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ivan Stoychev Ivanov — age 40. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ladin Ivanov Popov — age 34. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Ivan Mitev Yalamov — age 36. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Stoicho Dimitrov Kupenov — age 38. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Nikola Harlamiev Tsenkov — age 41. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Yanko Nikolov Ivanov — age 47. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Vasil Marinov Popov — age 45. Completed his studies in Krichona, Switzerland.
Simeon Dimitrov Popov — age 43. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Gavril Tsvetanov Tsvetanov — age 41. Completed his studies in Manchester and at the episcopal academy in Rome.
Tsvetan Alexandrov Litov. Completed his studies in Frankfurt; currently specialising in America.
Iliya Yakov Iliev — age 38. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Marin Dobrev Gluharov. Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Frankfurt am Main.
Zdravko Stefanov Bezlov — age 28. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Nikola Mikhailov Naumov — age 49. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Ivan Petrov Igov — age 48. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Vasil Georgiev Angelov — age 39. Completed his studies in northern America.
Atanas Andonov Georgiev — age 52. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Mitko Mateyev Dimitrov — age 39. Completed his studies in Wilenest — Germany.

Closing Summary (verbatim translation):

Handwritten annotation at foot of document: ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) — indicating the end of the handwritten portion of the memorandum.

Translator’s Notes

Entries marked with ✓ in the original document are reproduced here with that symbol. The significance of the checkmarks is not explained in the source; they may denote individuals already arrested, already under surveillance, or prioritised for prosecution at the time of the document’s compilation.
Underlined text in the original (indicating institutions and cities) is preserved with underline formatting.
‘Danzig’ refers to the Free Theological Academy (Freie Theologische Akademie) in the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland), which served as the principal training institution for Bulgarian Pentecostal pastors throughout the 1930s.
‘Krichona’ refers to the St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission (Pilgermission St. Chrischona) near Basel, a pietist missionary training institution.
‘Wilenest — Germany’ in entry 43 is likely a transcription error or phonetic rendering in the original Bulgarian; the precise institution has not been identified.
The document bears the archival reference 155/3/177 and is reproduced at pastir.org. The preamble and closing summary are in typewritten Bulgarian; the annotation ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) is handwritten.
The assertion that foreign-educated pastors are ‘first-class and qualified foreign agents’ represents the operative ideological premise of the 1948–1949 Pastoral Trials — that Western theological education was itself evidence of intelligence recruitment.

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THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANTGUARD OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (PART 1)

February 15, 2026 by Cup&Cross
Filed under Events, Featured, Missions, News, Publication, Research

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THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANT-GARDE OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS, BEHEADING IT FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (Part 1)

Archival Preamble

To Comrade [name illegible in manuscript]. Here! … (p. 1), 155–3pp–177

Comrade Director — in order not to speak in generalities [regarding the arrest warrants and the public punitive proceedings against them as enemies of the Party and the people] and to substantiate my claim, I shall append a list of the names of pastors who completed their education in America or in another foreign country. In addition to their religious fanaticism, they have unquestionably acquired the character and mentality of the ‘secular’ Western democracies. For example…

Vasil Georgiev Zyapkov — Age 47

Completed advanced theological studies in Manchester and New York. Interrogated by the State Security Service and driven nearly to madness before he ‘confessed’ to the creation of a spy network that had sabotaged the ‘people’s authority’ and harmed ‘fraternal relations with the Soviet Union,’ thereby becoming a ‘servant and assistant of the interests of England and the United States.’ According to the scenario written in Sofia and Moscow along the model of [Andrei] Vyshinsky, it was Zyapkov who was cast as the ‘sinister mastermind’ of the entire conspiracy (the so-called ‘espionage centre’). He was initially isolated and subjected to pressure to renounce his beliefs, subsequently blackmailed, and finally arrested in early November 1948. For nearly three months he was interrogated in the cells of the State Security Service together with the other pastors, all of whom were compelled to confess to everything imputed to them.

Zyapkov completed his studies in literature (not theology, as was erroneously believed) in Manchester. He maintained an extensive network of friends in England and America, including family ties, which the State Security Service deemed dangerous and potentially harmful to Bulgaria. At the insistence of Dimitar Furnadzhiev (1867–1944), he succeeded the latter as religious representative of the United Evangelical Churches (OETs). Zyapkov served as pastor of the central Methodist church ‘Dr. Long.’ He was sent by the Congregationalists to their Union Theological Seminary, where he most likely completed his master’s degree in 1932. His participation in the Bulgarian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in the summer of 1946 was subsequently used as an argument at trial that he had established espionage contacts.

Zyapkov’s testimony (under the code name “ЧЕРВЕЙ” / “WORM”) reveals the interrogation techniques employed. Reading the document — written in 1951 and entitled My Confession Regarding the Trial, ostensibly submitted as a letter to the Prime Minister requesting a review of the case — one discovers numerous parallels with the memoirs of Haralan Popov (another of the convicted clergymen). The account of the tortures (more psychological than physical in nature) and the manner in which false confessions were ultimately extracted is replicated in both cases.

Zyapkov wrote that he was rarely beaten (‘only once was my head smashed against the concrete wall’), but that the most tormenting aspects were the ceaseless threats of a death sentence and the blackmailing carried out through his family (e.g., ‘your daughter will become a prostitute’). For weeks he was compelled to write confessions until 11:00 p.m., and was then woken shortly after midnight for lengthy nocturnal interrogations. He was threatened that the sentence would be carried out by execution in the cell. Towards the end of these exhausting interrogations, the prisoners began to experience hallucinations. A new narrative was fabricated in which Floyd Black, the director of the American College in Sofia, and his son Cyril Black were presented as the chief conspirators. The strategic intelligence that Zyapkov had allegedly gathered and transmitted to his purported handlers consisted of the numbers and names of Soviet ships docked in the port of Varna — information he had memorised in order not to compromise his confessions during the trial.

Note: Spas Ivanov Asenov, from the village of Malko Belovo, was sentenced to death in the trial of the ‘Free Warriors’ (anarchists). He shared a cell with Pastor Vasil Zyapkov and stated that he was a non-believer. However, when they led him out to be executed, he said: ‘Farewell! We shall meet above, before God’s gates!’

Together with Zyapkov, all of the more influential spiritual leaders were arrested. The agonising investigation was conducted by interrogators who had honed their inquisitorial cruelty through the interrogations of opposition figures. After months of physical and psychological torment, entirely innocent church workers were reduced to clay figures who, in the satanic tradition of the State Security Service, made their ‘confessions’ to having committed ‘espionage, slander against the people’s authority, and preparations for subversive activities.’ For a full three years after his sentencing, Zyapkov barely managed to return to normal behaviour.

Lambri Marinov Mishkov — Age 40

Completed his studies at the Princeton Theological Seminary. According to K. Grozev, he also studied chemistry at the University of Chicago and subsequently theology at Harvard, and worked towards a doctorate at Cambridge during the 1930s, at which point he was obliged to return to Bulgaria to be at his mother’s bedside in her final days. It is improbable, though not impossible, that the young Mishkov managed to complete so many disparate and numerous programmes of study within the span of approximately twenty years. It is equally possible that his name has been confused with that of his namesake Pavel Mishkov, who did indeed graduate from Chicago. The investigative file records only that he received his theological education at Princeton.

Despite being a clergyman, in 1946 he was invited to serve as an adjunct associate professor of philosophy at the newly founded University of Plovdiv. It was at this time that he published his book

Philosophy of Faith — one of the finest philosophical studies of the philosophy of religion ever written in the Bulgarian language.

Grozev describes him as an ‘old uncle’ — a close friend of his grandfather. He spoke excellent English, would recount stories of Lincoln, and explained the meaning of the expression ‘monkey business,’ as well as one of the proposed etymologies of the well-known acronym ‘OK.’ Mishkov underwent the same interrogations and tortures as the others, but never confessed to having contacted the American Embassy or received money — an accusation that was ultimately dropped, resulting in a reduced sentence. Under duress, he ‘confessed’ to having transmitted information about the quantity of nails produced (in kilograms) at a factory in Plovdiv, as well as the road map from Plovdiv to Peshtera — a map that could in fact have been purchased at any bookshop. It was precisely this map, the subject of interrogations, that had allegedly been passed by Zyapkov to Cyrus Black, who was also considered part of the supposed spy network.

As with all those convicted, his children were barred from universities, forced to take low-paid manual work, and were permitted to visit their father only once every six months or even less frequently. The elder Grozev repeatedly took Mishkov’s children to prison visits when their mother was ill and the next permitted meeting was still months away.

Simeon Petrov Iliev — Age 37

Completed his studies at the American Scientific Theological School as well as a theological seminary in Switzerland. Following the departure of Kr. Stoyanov, at the initiative of the youth fellowship of the church, he was invited to assume the pastoral ministry in Asenovgrad (then known as Stanimaka). During his pastoral tenure, the church experienced a period of growth. He succeeded in uniting several other Evangelical fellowships, which led to a significant expansion of the church community. Despite the hardships of the post-war years, the new (modern) church building was constructed during this period. Furthermore, the headquarters of the Women’s Missionary Union of the Southern Evangelical Churches was established in Asenovgrad, further strengthening the organisational structure of the Protestant community in the region. Simeon Iliev served as pastor until 1949, when he was arrested and tried on charges of espionage.

Konstantin Stoyanov Marvakov — Age 55

Completed his studies at a theological seminary in Austria. Served as pastor of the church in Yakoruda. He was subjected to repression during the Communist campaign against religious communities in Bulgaria. Accused of espionage, the specific charges including the transmission of information concerning the annual harvest in the Chirpan region, as well as the production capacity of the oil-press in the village of Marichleri. These charges were formulated within the same framework as the case against Lambri Mishkov, with all alleged evidence reduced to a single page in the investigative file. This underscores the characteristic method of fabricating accusations in this period, whereby insignificant or publicly available information was interpreted as a threat to state security, in order to justify politically motivated repression.

Kiril Yotov Vladov — Age 43

Completed his studies in Frankfurt. Attended the men’s gymnasium in Pleven, and was subsequently recruited as an assistant pastor at the Sofia Methodist church ‘Dr. Long,’ where he worked and developed under the guidance of Pastor Vasil Zyapkov. He completed his theological education alongside future pastors Litov and Sivriev at the Methodist Seminary in Frankfurt, where he met his future wife, Maria Schmeissner, whom he married in 1931. In 1939 he was transferred to the Pleven Methodist church, replacing Pastor Yanko Ivanov.

As early as 10 September 1944, Soviet soldiers were quartered in the pastor’s residence. Two days later, a group of armed civilians burst into the house and conducted a search, their leader declaring: ‘You are under arrest! Take only the barest essentials — a little food and clothing — for we are taking you to Pleven prison.’ Pastor Yotov asked: ‘May we pray before you take us to prison?’ After the brief prayer, it was as though everything had changed. The leader of the arresting party began to calm those under arrest. The children were taken in by Miss Mara Gaytandzhieva and later sent to the village of Burkach to their grandmother. Before long, Maria returned, but completely changed — the time spent in prison remained with her for the rest of her life. Kiril Yotov spent eight months behind bars, enduring brutal torture and beatings.

In 1948 Kiril Yotov was arrested again in connection with the already-commenced Pastoral Trials. As a local prisoner, he was transferred from the Ministry of the Interior in Pazardzhik to Plovdiv, and ultimately to the investigative detention facility in Sofia. He was accused of supplying information concerning the annual harvest in Aprilsko and Tserov, the annual yield of winter crops, and the grape harvest. Beaten with leather belts and whips that tore entire strips of flesh from his back, in order to compel a confession — yet he did not lose his faith or his optimism. The Communists failed to break him and did not include him in the trial, as he was unpredictable and liable to disrupt their pre-arranged scenario. He was ultimately transferred to the ‘Bobov Dol’ labour camp and subsequently sent to Belene. His home was confiscated by the local authorities and his family was forced to relocate to Sofia. His wife Maria Yotova made extraordinary efforts to support the family, but the children were deemed politically unreliable and expelled from all youth organisations.

As no one could send him money from the outside, he acquired a razor, soap, and a rusty blade with which he shaved and cut the hair of his fellow camp inmates at Belene. In the summer of 1953, after five years in camps and prisons, Pastor Kiril Yotov was released. His family scarcely recognised him. At the time of his arrest he had been a healthy man weighing 85 kilograms; after five years he emerged emaciated, barely 48 kilograms — a frail body, but an unbroken spirit and a smile on his face. He recalled with pain the countless worthy individuals who had been oppressed, tortured, and humiliated.

Kostadin Spasov Bozovayski — Age 35

Theologian. Completed his seminary studies in Kassel and London, England. Born on 11 February 1912 in the village of Stob, Dupnitsa region. He served as pastor in Haskovo, following Vatralski, Furnadzhiev, and Gradinakov, and from 1956 served for three years as pastor in Asenovgrad. Until 1959 he was one of the few pastors not yet affected by the regime’s repression. When the Pastoral Trials commenced, Bozovayski was serving as treasurer at the ‘Pirin’ factories in Kardzhali whilst simultaneously serving as pastor of the Congregational church in the city. Upon his arrest, the charge was raised that he was a committed Germanophile, associating exclusively with reactionaries and the German specialists working in Kardzhali. He received various sums from different parts of Bulgaria, as well as numerous parcels from America, where his two brothers resided, with whom he maintained uninterrupted contact. In 1945 he attended the pastoral gathering of the United Evangelical Churches (OETs) in Burgas. He allegedly supplied ‘information regarding the annual production of the Pirin mine, the warehouses in Kardzhali, and tobacco production.’ The information was said to have been written on a typewriter.

Following the trials, already retired, Bozovayski served as chairman of the Congregational Church in Bulgaria and pastor of the mother church at 49 ‘V. Kolarov’ Street. He was repeatedly summoned before the [State] Committee, where Virchev, Totev, and Timotei Mikhailov were proposed to him as deputies. He refused, as they did not belong to the congregational churches, and Mikhailov was not even an ordained pastor. ‘You will ordain him,’ the director Tsvetkov ordered.

The authorities sought a financial audit with the aim of removing the Kulichev brothers on charges of hooliganism, including breaking down the church door with an axe. The Committee attempted to replace Pastor Bozovayski, but the congregation rejected the new appointment. ‘This question will be resolved definitively this year,’ the Party functionaries warned. ‘The leadership and ordinary membership is considerably aged… the church’s capacity for religious influence is rather weak,’ the Committee’s report noted.

Krum Georgiev Bumbanov — Age 43

Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria. Born in the village of Ognyanov (also known as Banya), he served as pastor of the church in Haskovo, following Vatralski, Furnadzhiev, Gradinakov, and Bozovayski. While serving in Yakoruda, he preached together with Angel Kremenliev in Bansko, Eleshnitsa, and Razlog. Brought as a defendant on the charge that he supplied information regarding the annual production of the dairies and the harvest in the Razlog region, as well as the summer crops in the area. His son, Danail Bumbanov, was arrested together with him in the course of the Pastoral Trials.

Sarkis Bedros Manukyan

Completed his studies in Kingston, Canada. His name appeared on the masthead of every issue of the Evangelical newspaper Zornitsa [Dawn].

Pavel Hristov Nikolov — Age 49

Completed advanced theological education at Oxford. Served as pastor of the church in Plovdiv before Zyapkov.

Nikola Borisov Dimitrov — Age 42

Completed his studies at a theological seminary in Bangor (USA — not the University of Bangor in England).

Yosif Isakov Danailov — Age 49

Completed his studies in Austria and England. A widely published Bulgarian man of letters. In 1952 he was the subject of a notice from the Presidium of the National Assembly: ‘Yosif Isakov Danailov, former resident of the city of Sofia, now of unknown address. I hereby notify you that under Enforcement Order No. 2132/1951, issued by the Sofia District Court, you have been sentenced to pay…’

Atanas Angelov Kremenliev — Age 37

Completed his studies at a seminary in the USA. Maintained close ties with Zyapkov and Pastor Isakov. He is mentioned in an explicit directive of the State Security Service: ‘Demonstrate that the defendants will be held accountable solely for their espionage [activities].’ Immediately following the exile of Pastor Trifon Ivanov, sentenced to eight years, Pastor Kremenliev was sent to the camp near Yakoruda with a rather unusual annotation regarding the conversion of Jews to Christianity.

19th Century History of Protestantism in Bulgaria

Translated from the list with pastors from the document above:

LIST OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICAL PASTORS WHO COMPLETED THEIR EDUCATION ABROAD

State Security Service Memorandum, 1948

Archival Reference: 155/3/177

THE LIST

Vasil Georgiev Zyapkov — age 47. Completed advanced theological studies in Manchester and New York.
Lambri Marinov Mishkov — age 40. Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Princeton, USA.
Simeon Petrov Iliev — age 37. Completed his studies at a theological seminary in Switzerland.
Konstantin Stoyanov Marvakov — age 55. Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria.
Kiril Yotov Vladov — age 43. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Kostadin Spasov Bozovayski — age 35. Completed his studies in London — Seminary.
Krum Georgiev Bumbakov — age 43. Completed his studies at a seminary in Austria.
Sarkis Bedros Manukyan. Completed his studies in Kingston, Canada.
Pavel Hristov Nikolov — age 49. Completed advanced theological education in Oxford, England.
Nikola Borisov Dimitrov — age 42. Completed his studies at a seminary in Bangor, USA.
Yosif Isakov Danailov — age 49. Completed his studies in Austria and England.
Atanas Angelov Kremenliev — age 37. Completed his studies at a seminary in the USA.
Georgi Nikolov Chernev — age 45. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Emanuil Stoyanov Manolov — age 49. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Boris Ivanov Kuzmanov. Completed his studies in Krichona — Switzerland.
Yoncho Nikolov Dryanov — age 42. Completed his studies in Danzig — Germany.
Haralan Ivanov Popov — age 47. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Gruy Iliev Kuzmanov — age 54. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ivan Zerev Angelinov — age 37. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Diko Dimitrov Mavrudaev — age 42. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Yosif Georgiev Kokonchev — age 38. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Enyu Iliev Tsonev — age 39. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Nikola Stefanov Stoyanov — age 40. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Eduard Agop Kuriyan — age 34. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Todor Stoykov Godjorov — age 41. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ivan Stoychev Ivanov — age 40. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Ladin Ivanov Popov — age 34. Completed his studies in Danzig and London.
Ivan Mitev Yalamov — age 36. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Stoicho Dimitrov Kupenov — age 38. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Nikola Harlamiev Tsenkov — age 41. Completed his studies in Danzig.
Yanko Nikolov Ivanov — age 47. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Vasil Marinov Popov — age 45. Completed his studies in Krichona, Switzerland.
Simeon Dimitrov Popov — age 43. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Gavril Tsvetanov Tsvetanov — age 41. Completed his studies in Manchester and at the episcopal academy in Rome.
Tsvetan Alexandrov Litov. Completed his studies in Frankfurt; currently specialising in America.
Iliya Yakov Iliev — age 38. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Marin Dobrev Gluharov. Completed his studies at the theological seminary in Frankfurt am Main.
Zdravko Stefanov Bezlov — age 28. Completed his studies in Frankfurt am Main.
Nikola Mikhailov Naumov — age 49. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Ivan Petrov Igov — age 48. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Vasil Georgiev Angelov — age 39. Completed his studies in northern America.
Atanas Andonov Georgiev — age 52. Completed his studies in Hamburg — Germany.
Mitko Mateyev Dimitrov — age 39. Completed his studies in Wilenest — Germany.

Closing Summary (verbatim translation):

Handwritten annotation at foot of document: ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) — indicating the end of the handwritten portion of the memorandum.

Translator’s Notes

Entries marked with ✓ in the original document are reproduced here with that symbol. The significance of the checkmarks is not explained in the source; they may denote individuals already arrested, already under surveillance, or prioritised for prosecution at the time of the document’s compilation.
Underlined text in the original (indicating institutions and cities) is preserved with underline formatting.
‘Danzig’ refers to the Free Theological Academy (Freie Theologische Akademie) in the Free City of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk, Poland), which served as the principal training institution for Bulgarian Pentecostal pastors throughout the 1930s.
‘Krichona’ refers to the St. Chrischona Pilgrim Mission (Pilgermission St. Chrischona) near Basel, a pietist missionary training institution.
‘Wilenest — Germany’ in entry 43 is likely a transcription error or phonetic rendering in the original Bulgarian; the precise institution has not been identified.
The document bears the archival reference 155/3/177 and is reproduced at pastir.org. The preamble and closing summary are in typewritten Bulgarian; the annotation ‘до тук’ (‘to here’) is handwritten.
The assertion that foreign-educated pastors are ‘first-class and qualified foreign agents’ represents the operative ideological premise of the 1948–1949 Pastoral Trials — that Western theological education was itself evidence of intelligence recruitment.

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Bulgaria holds consultations for new government

December 15, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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The president, Rumen Radev, is holding consultations with parties, but if they refuse or fail to form the government, he will appoint an interim government and call a snap election.

Bulgaria, a NATO member state, has held seven national elections in the past four years as consecutive governments failed to keep control of a fractured parliament.

Kalina Yurukova, 21-year-old student, said: “If you steal constantly, you must think you are above everyone else. And for people who are arrogant and have not a shred of shame, I cannot have respect or associate myself with them.”

Earlier this month, the government withdrew its 2026 budget plan, the first drafted in euros, due to the mass protests. Opposition parties and other organisations said they were protesting against plans to hike social security contributions and taxes on dividends to finance higher state spending.

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A Call for Righteousness over Orthodoxy

October 1, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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Russia’s imperial dream for access to Israel/Mediterranean

August 25, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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While doing research couple of years ago for an article on Ezek. 37-38 and Russia’s imperial dream to gain access to Israel and the Mediterranean, AI informed me that there is absolutely no official political news or analytics source that confirms such hypotheses.

Back then, I insisted on proceeding with the article regardless of this informed artificial and intelligent opinion and proceeded with completing the article called: Using Crimea and Splitting Turkey in Russia’s Strategy Against Israel.

PROPHETIC INSIGHT: The first picture with Putin is Ezekiel’s prophecy projecting Gog and Magog crossing into Israel. The other one is from Trump/Zelenskyy’s meeting last week, after no deal was reached with Putin in Alaska.

10 Guidelines for Effective Church Group Chat Communication

July 25, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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by Kathryn Donev, LPC-MHSP, NCC

Interacting in church chat groups can be a bit complex at times and a touchy topic to discuss. Navigating in this realm requires respect and kindness to foster a healthy environment. The following are some key guidelines for virtual etiquette tailored to a church community setting.

Be Christ like. Use language that is kind and humble. Avoid offensive comments or being judgmental. This requires being sensitive and thinking before you shoot out a text. Debating over a chat is probably not going to be productive so it’s best just to avoid it altogether. Being misinterpreted can happen faster in a distant space where you cannot base comments on interpersonal dynamics like facial expressions, voice tone, or eye contact.
Stay on topic to relative events like prayer requests, encouragement or updates on church happenings. Perhaps shy away from politics and don’t disguise prayer requests as a way to share gossip or to promote your social status by being the first to share the news. Microaggression has no place in church chat groups. Examples include, “Who let you in the group?”, “What were you thinking?”, “I can’t believe you said that?”
Understand that written language can be quickly misunderstood. It is a good practice to avoid all cap text which can be viewed as shouting or being demanding. Avoid phrases that are pushy like “do this now” or “you have to”. And excessive emojis use may distract from the message and can also cause confusion. It is very important to remember that humor is relative, especially in text form. Also, avoid mentioning individuals in a way that might make them uncomfortable. This may include singling a person out or calling them an unkind name. Something that you may think is funny or no big deal may come off as rude. Like calling one who likes to shop economically a “Thrifting Queen” or labels like “Moncho Man” may separate a person apart from group.
Always respect privacy and confidentiality. Do not share personal prayer requests or sensitive information outside the group without permission. And if someone shares with you personally a concern, don’t go blast it in the group. If that person wants to share, they can do it on their own. Boundaries are easily blurred in a chat setting, but they still must exist to avoid group tension. If unsure, privately ask before sharing other’s requests publicly in the chat.
Acknowledge and encourage those who are sharing. Respond to prayer requests or shared testimonies with supportive replies, such as “Praying” or “Thanks for sharing!” Ignoring messages can be viewed as abandonment or unconcern. And be sure to not play favorites in the group by over acknowledging one person’s comments over another. If you typically just give a thumbs up emoji, then do so across the board. A simple acknowledgment can also squash out paranoia that a concern has not been seen or understood.
Be sensitive to the time of the day when you post. Avoid posting late at night or during inappropriate hours unless it’s truly an urgent prayer request.
Think before you send messages. Double check what you write for clarity and typos before sending to avoid mix-ups. Also, think twice whether sharing information is a good idea or not. Some things might need to be shared at a latter time after confirming details or perhaps they need to be shared at an intimate family level before with a group.
Try not to overload the chat. Refrain from sending multiple back-to-back messages thinking that they are not being seen. It is also a good practice to limit sharing lengthy posts that may overwhelm the group. People’s time is valuable so to overwhelm with pointless texts is disrespectful and could cause some to leave the group. It’s also good practice not to use a church chat group just because you are bored.
Resolve conflicts privately. If disagreements arise, address them respectfully outside of the group preferably in person. If needed seek guidance from a group leader or pastor to maintain peace.
Perhaps the most important aspect of using church chats is to always be mindful of the dynamics associated with non-face-to-face interactions in a virtual realm. And just because you put a smiley emoji or LOL at the end of something doesn’t make an inappropriate comment acceptable. Again, humor is relative and quickly misinterpreted.

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Pentecostal Theology of Freedom for the Postcommunist Era

July 5, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free” for “if the Son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”

This paper is intended as a part of larger research entitled Theology of the Persecuted Church. It focuses on they way freedom is understood by the underground church and its successor, the postcommunist church after the fall of the Communist regime. In this sense, the research presents the theological view of freedom from the time of postmodern transition in Eastern Europe in retrospect with the times of underground worship and in dialogue with the major modern theologians. The main purpose is to construct an authentic view of freedom in the major areas of the life and ministry of the postcommunist Pentecostal church.

Postcommunist Europe

On his first official visit to West Germany in May 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev informed Chancellor Kohl that the Brezhnev doctrine had been abandoned and Moscow was no longer willing to use force to prevent democratic transformation of its satellite states. At 6:53 p.m. on November 9, 1989, a member of the new East German government gave a press conference to inform that the new East German travel law would be implemented immediately. At the East Berlin Bornholmer Strasse, the people demanded to open the border. At 10:30 p.m. the border was opened.[1] That meant the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

The unification of one Germany brought the clash of two political extremes within one nation. It brought together two Europes kept apart for half-a-century, a dynamic which introduced the continent to a new set of opportunities among which was the vision for a unified Europe and its realization.

A new set of dilemmas was introduced as well. Among all economical, political, social, cultural and simply human points of diversity, religion remained central for the process through which the European Union was emerging. The official “United in Diversity” (reminding of the American E Pluribus Unum) claimed unification, without mentioning God. The new European constitution announced that Europe draws “inspiration from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe.”[2]

For us who lived in the last days of Communist Bulgarian, the fall of the wall was a miracle which the world witnessed. Coming out from the severe Communist persecution and surrounded by the Balkan religious wars, suddenly the country of Bulgaria experienced a time of liberation which gave the start of spiritual revival mobilizing Bulgarian Protestants. In the midst of extreme poverty, due to prolonged economical crisis, this revival became an answer for many. It also provided a sense of liberation, but not in the Western political understanding of democracy and freedom, but rather liberation toward the realization of the Kingdom, a world much higher, much better and in way more realistic than any human ideality. The liberation from sin then turns not only into a social movement, but as a theological conception it provides an alternative to the existing culture thus becoming a reaction against the surrounding context and proposing a new theological model and a new paradigm for life itself based on substantive faith and belief.

Freedom of Will

Even when approached theologically, in the Eastern European postcommunist context today, the term freedom of will carries a strong political nuance. For many Eastern European Protestants, freedom characterizes the struggle against the communism regime and the divine motivation to endure it as a calling of faith for the individual and the community.

The years before communist era were characterized with opposition against the historical monopoly of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In this context, the protestant movement in Bulgaria also struggled against spiritual dominion defending the cause of religious freedom and the right of each individual and community to believe and express beliefs.

The hundred years of Bulgarian Protestantism have been accompanied with constant struggle against oppression of conscience and will thus creating a general acceptance of free human will. This has coincided with the theology of the largest and fastest growing Evangelical movements in Bulgaria. In this context, even evangelical churches, like the Baptists, have grown to accept and practice the doctrine of free will.

Based on the political, socioeconomic and purely ecclesial factors, in postcommunist Eastern Europe, the Calvinistic paradigm of predestination and election as practiced in a Western sense are not successful. This is based partially on their new doctrinal presence within the Bulgarian reality and their untested effectiveness through under persecution. It is also natural that they are often qualified in parallel with political and religious oppression, and therefore rejected as divine attributes or actions. If human regimes are oppressive through limiting freedom and consciences, how is God to identify with such regimes and practice the same type of “horrible decree?” On the contrary, in Eastern European Protestant theology, God is seen as a Liberator of human consciences and a desire for freedom.

By no means, is this tension to be confused with a denial of the total authority of God. God remains the electing God in Jesus Christ, but how?[3] Is it through a “horrible decree” or through a personal life-changing experience defined by the Bible? Is it through an oppressive act of lawful but unconditional predetermination which God by His nature is omnipotent to implement, or through an act of supernatural transformation of humanity through divine self-sacrifice? And does this election barricade every possible human choice? No, as it is obvious in the denial of Peter; but also as seen in his restoration, that every choice of human will is answered by God through unconditional divine love.

Therefore, we experience “the secret of predestination to blessedness,” not in a cause and effect paradigm as Augustine and the Reformers, but rather through preserving its significance by experiencing the love of God.[4] Thus, the human will is freed by the love of God to receive salvation for eternity. The human freedom then is not ignored or oppressed, but on the contrary it is “placed in the context of cosmic drama” where the real bondage is not the one by God, but the one by sin which oppresses the human will and distances it to death. The Gospel, however, proclaims the victory of Christ over these oppressors thus liberating human will to its initial creation state as a gift from God.[5] This theology comes from a concrete experience of God in real life, and the quest to serve and follow God. As theology shows that the truth about God and the truth about ourselves always go together, the experience of God is a constant tension and a dynamic process, rather than blind servanthood to rigid principles that can never fully encompass the divine will. And through this experience of liberation of the human will in order that one may be free to choose salvation through Christ, God establishes His “testament of freedom.”[6]

Freedom from Oppression

As God liberates humanity from sin, He liberates it from sin’s moral and social consequences. Thus, forgiveness of sin presupposes not only the quest for sanctification and perfection after the image of God, but also the struggle against oppression and establishment of social balance. As the above shows, the postcommunist revival in Eastern Europe cannot be explored apart from the contextual political and socioeconomic dynamics. The reason for this is that the Spirit with value before God is a social spirit that makes the expression of the divine liberation the very purpose of the existence of the church.[7] The practice of this expression challenges the relationship between theology and practice as it questions theology’s epistemological and praxis relationship to the oppressed with whom Christ is crucified.[8]

As in such context, theology is challenged to identify with action, the church must choose between contextualizing and enforcing theology. To choose contextualization is to attempt to relate it to the existing culture thus creating a state of relativism. Such approach is observed in some Asian and Black theology. The danger is to go beyond the boundary pass which theology ceases being theology in action and becomes simply a nominal religious culture. In Eastern Europe, such approach has been long-practiced by the Eastern Orthodox and has unquestionably resulted in nominal religion. The nominality of its expression has been a factor preventing the experience of God, thus denouncing the very reason for the church’s existence. Attempts to restore the Eastern Orthodox “symphony” between church and state have altered the existence of the independent synods which claim the succession of the same historical religious institution.

The second direction, to move toward enforcement of theology after the paradigm proposed by Liberation theology, is quiet a dangerous approach often resulting in armed conflicts. Keeping in mind the historical tension on the Balkans and Bulgaria’s success in undergoing the postcommunist transition without an armed civil conflict, this approach is virtually inapplicable. Therefore, an alternative must be proposed before history itself become oppression.

In this context, a move toward a theology of freedom seems most reasonable. It must purpose to prevent political and socioeconomic oppressions which are already present in various legal and illegal forms in Bulgaria. Such paradigm must also be concerned with intrachurch oppressive tensions which are present both among and within religious denominations, striving especially against such oppressive modes that come from the desire of an oppressed mentality to oppress others.

Such working model of social transformation is presented in Paul’s Epistle to Philemon. An older interpretation of the book explains that Onesimus, a runaway slave, meets Paul in prison, becomes a Christian and is sent by Paul back to his master. A more cotemporary interpretation claims that Onesimus is a slave sent by Philemon to help care for Paul in prison where he converts to Christianity and desires to stay with Paul as a missionary associate.

Regardless of the interpretation of the story plot, the epistle carefully presents a more in-depth set of problems that deal with persecution, imperialism, slavery, mastership, classes, ownership, imprisonment and above all justice. It further makes a more aggressive mood and places the church, represented in the text not merely by masses, but by the very divine appointment of apostolic authority.

The theme of imprisonment as a direct result of persecution is clearly present through the epistle’s plot and more specifically verses 1, 9, 13 where Paul uses the expression “prisoner of Christ” to describe his present status. The expression “prisoner of Christ” carries a sense of belongingness making the phrase different than the sometimes rendered “prisoner for Christ.” While the latter wrong rendering moves the focus toward the purpose of Paul’s imprisonment, the Greek genitive in the phrase “prisoner of Christ” denotes ownership. Although imprisoned in a Roman prison and kept by a Roman guard, Paul denies the Roman Empire ownership of himself, thus claming that he is owned by Christ alone. This is also a denial of the Roman citizenship that has led to this oppressive state of persecution and the recognition of a citizenship in the divine reality of liberation.

Paul’s negation goes a step further, proposing that while the Roman Empire may be authoritative in the temporal context, by no means it is authoritative in the spiritual eternal reality. Having established the temporality of Rome and the eternity of God, Paul denies to the Roman Empire the right to pronounce judgment over social injustice and to establish social status or world order, proposing that no one but the Christian church is the agent divinely designed and supernaturally equipped for these functions. The social injustice of persecution and wrongful imprisonment, the social tensions between classes, the problems within the church and every dilemma presented in the epistle are to be judged by no one but God through his elect. The reality of the situation is that the church is experiencing severe persecuting because the Roman Empire is denying the church social space. Paul, however, denies the reality of such oppressive human system and claims that the church is the one that must deny social space for oppressive structures as the Roman Empire.

The text calls for revolution; not merely, a revolution in the physical violent sense, but a revolution of the mind where human existence and mentality are liberated through Biblical paradigm combined with divine supernatural power to participate in a new spiritual social reality where justice is set by the standard of God. Such a move calls for a new paradigm and for a theology of freedom which creates an anti-culture and an alternative culture to the existing oppressive system. Such idea challenges the church with the claim that Christianity is and should be a scandal and an offence to the world, and not merely a religion but the belief that “Jesus is the most hazardous of all hazards.”[9]

Feast of Freedom or the Bulgarian Easter

Amidst political and socioeconomic crises since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bulgaria has experienced a rebirth of Bulgarian spirituality. Many observers have referred to this restoration process as the rebirth of the Bulgarian Easter, and even which historically has been connected with the unity and power of the Bulgarian nation.

Bulgaria accepted a Christian country in 864 AD under the reign of Kniaz Boris I. A millennium later, in the middle of the 19th century, Bulgaria found itself occupied by the Ottoman Empire and religiously restricted by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchy which dictated the religious expression of the Bulgarian church.

On April 3, 1860, during Easter Sunday service in Constantinople, the Bulgarian bishop Illarion of Makriopol expressed the will of the Bulgarian people by solemnly proclaiming the separation of the Bulgarian church from the patriarchal in Constantinople. The day commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ coincided with the resuscitation of the Bulgarian people. Although, the struggle continued for another decade, under the influence of Russia, Turkey was forced to legally recognize the independence of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. In 1870 a firman of the sultan decreed the establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian church institution.

The connection between the historical Bulgarian Easter and the contemporary rebirth of Bulgarian spirituality has been used in many aspects of the Bulgarian politics and culture at the beginning of the 21^st century. As part of the Eastern Church, Bulgarian orthodox theology pays much more attention to the resurrection rather than to the birth of Christ thus placing its eschatological hope in a future experience rather then a past one. Such dynamic is natural, as the acceptance of Christianity in Bulgaria purposes to bring hope in national politics and communal life. Thus, in an almost historical tradition, the Bulgarian Easter represents the Bulgarian eschatological hope for a supernatural national revival. It also communicates with the sense of liberation from political, economical and religious oppression and a longing for the freedom to live life.

The Bulgarian Easter then provides an alternative to the present moment of tension and straggle in the crucifixion. Similar to Moltmann’s view of the resurrection of Christ, the Bulgarian hope foresees the resurrection of the Bulgarian nation as a divine act of protest against oppression and injustice and as recognition of God’s passion for life.[10] Thus, the resurrection is an alternative not only to the present world, but also to the reality of eternal death.

Death is therefore seen not only as an agent of eternity, but also as an agent of fear, suffering and oppression in the present reality which affects life in all its economical, political, social and even religious aspects. As death diminishes the value of life, the liberating power from Easter often remains ignored. But in order for the church to continue being a church, it must speak as a witness of the resurrection which is impossible without participating in God’s divine liberation which recreates the word to its original state of creation. Thus, the hope of Easter means rebirth of the living hope.

The resurrection hope is an influential factor which directs the life dynamics of the church beyond its walls. Being liberated from sin, the believer desires the liberation of others and claims the right to serve. But true Biblical servanthood cannot exist and therefore does not tolerate oppression, thus becoming a social transformation factor in the midst of oppressive cultures. The resurrected church rebels against the destruction of life and the denial of the right of very human to live. But different than other human systems, the church does not feed off its resistance against oppression. Its source of power is the eschatological hope for the full restoration of life and its eternal continuation in eternity.

A final question must be raised about the pessimistic character of such hope, as traditional evangelical eschatology in Bulgaria has been premillennial and due to its Pentecostal majority clearly pretribulation. Such eschatological views, at large, have been considered to be pessimistic and escapist in nature due to their strong focus on the future. Yet, such determinative presupposition seems inaccurate and much limited in its observation when applied within the postcommunist context where Protestant churches have been greatly involved in the struggle against oppressive regimes and constraining politics even to the point of martyrdom.

It is then natural, that in the underground context of persecution it is unthinkable for the church to identify with the regime in anyway. Actually, such identification is vied by the believers as spiritual treason and cooperation with authority is viewed as backsliding. By no means, however, is such a premillennial eschatological view in this context pessimistic for the church. Neither does the church remain unconcerned with the present reality. On the contrary, through its very act of negation of the right of an oppressive system to dictate reality, the church establishes an alternative culture which is the Kingdom of God. Thus in the midst of persecution and oppression, the church remains in its Biblical boundaries as an agent of the Kingdom of God by providing eschatological hope.

Yes, this eschatological view is escapist, as it promotes eternal separation from the oppressive reality. What other alternative can a persecuted and underground church find to survive and relate to the Biblical image of the ecclesia and at the same time it is clearly concerned with the transformation of the present world as shown above? For while its pessimism concerns the oppressive system of the world, its optimism declares the church as an already-reality in which freedom of sin, death and oppression and eternity with God is celebrated. Therefore, the church itself remains an optimistic reality and optimistic eschatological hope. For, without this hope the tension of life toward future and even life it self will vanish.[11] Without hope for the beyond, we remain in the now for eternity.

Epilogue

Due to its relational and reactional role to historical process, Eastern European postcommunist theology is a new historical and theological event. Yet, as theology of freedom, it relates to other theological approaches internationally. This similarity is enforced by the approaching postmodern era which the Bulgarian nation seems unprepared to understand. In such context, the church and its theology become the agents providing answers to social tensions.

Postcommunist theology provides a point of departure from the oppressive system of the communist regime toward a new social and ecclesial alternative. Such dynamic is by no means new to the Protestant movement in Bulgaria, which has dealt successfully with these same issues even in more severe context of underground existence and persecution. Therefore, the church has proved its commitment to identify with the oppressed through addressing and engaging its experience through the experience of God and its adequate and substantive theological interpretation. Such approach provides an alternative to oppressive system and structures, unquestionably critiques their tools and methods, and rebukes the agents who represent and practice them, thus denying them place in history.

A further concern for developing strategies for social transformation is also strongly present including education, law, politics and economics. These dynamics employ Christians in a common task and motivate the church for further development and implementation in order to connect theology with practice and thus to fulfill the divine calling for church’s role in the processes of restoration of justice and social transformation, both now and eschatologically.

Bibliography

Anderson, David E. “European Union Debate on Religion in Constitution Continues”

May 26, 2004.

Barth, Karl (tr. E.C. Hoskyns), The Epistle to the Romans (Oxford: Oxford University

Press: n/a).

Ford, David F. ed., The Modern Theologians (Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 1997).

Geffrey B. Kelly & F. Burton Nelson, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings

of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (San Francisco: Harper Publishing House, 1995).

Green, Clifford. Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989).

Grentz, Stanley J. Theology for the Community of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans

Publishing Company, 1994).

Johnson, Ed. Associated Press, June 19, 2004.

Moltmann, Jürgen. The Power of the Powerless, (Norwich: SCM Press Ltd., 1983).

Taylor, Mark K. Paul Tillich: Theologian of the Boundaries (London: Collins, 1987).

[1] The Fall of the Berlin Wall, http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/fall-of-berlinwall.htm June 29, 2004; also Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing, The Cold War, Thomas Fleming, The Berlin Wall and Wolfgang Schneider, Leipziger Demotagebuch.

[2] Ed Johnson, Associated Press, June 19, 2004 and David E. Anderson, “European Union Debate on Religion in Constitution Continues” May 26, 2004.

[3] Clifford Green, Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), 184.

[4] Karl Barth, (tr. E.C. Hoskyns), The Epistle to the Romans (Oxford: Oxford University Press: n/a), 324.

[5] Stanley J. Grentz, Theology for the Community of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 437.

[6] Geffrey B. Kelly & F. Burton Nelson, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (San Francisco: Harper Publishing House, 1995).

[7] Green, 106.

[8] David F. Ford, ed., The Modern Theologians (Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 1997), 369.

[9] Barth, 99.

[10] Jürgen Moltmann, The Power of the Powerless, (Norwich: SCM Press Ltd., 1983).

[11] Mark K. Taylor, Paul Tillich: Theologian of the Boundaries (London: Collins, 1987), 325.

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Pentecostal articles for Pentecost Sunday

June 5, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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Offering a few recent Pentecostal articles in light of the upcoming Pentecost Sunday celebration:

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Missions for the Third Millennium 15 Years Later

December 5, 2024 by Cup&Cross
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by Rev. Dony K. Donev, D.Min.

The time of changes in the world of missions is at hand. The search for a new paradigm for doing missions in the beginning of the 21st century has begun. Much like in the world of the internet, it cannot be a closed-circuit reinstallation of the same old software, which changes the interface, but not the structure; or a copyrighted etalon designed to be used by a tender legal minority. It must be an open-source, people oriented, social networking, body-like organism of believers that practice the Bible providing the diakonia of missions to peoples and nations in a need of salvation.

This necessity for a fresh evaluation of the way we do missions in the Spirit is based on issues which older missional paradigms were unable to adequately address. Rethinking of world missions today, includes rethinking the global problems of economic crises, world terrorism, immigration and open border markets. Problems that point not to new frontiers in some unknown cosmic future, but back to the old countries upon which modern day civilization was built.

Churches and missionaries, then, cannot afford to simply follow any secular, political, social or economical wave, but must propose Biblical solutions, which surpass both the understanding and history of the natural world to the realm of the Kingdom of God – the sole solver, provider and proprietor of the restoration of God created humanity, social justice and every relationship within the universum for eternity.

It is there, in the very Kingdom identity, or the lacking of such thereof, that the problem of ministry in missions is found. And this problem is deep, penetrating the very soul and make of the church, changing it from a community of mission minded believers willing to dedicate their lives to missions, to an agency that sends half-prepared, half-sponsored, half-aware missionaries to a mission filed where cultural, leadership and financial dilemmas hit them as a hurricane and never seize to oppose their call to minister in a foreign land.

Several characteristics are apparent immediately. The ministry of missions in the 21st century must be:

1. More mission minded than agency structured
2. More missionary focused than leadership centralized
3. More operational than organizational
4. More result oriented than self and strategy containable
5. More praying than thinking while more feeling, than cognitive
6. More giving than fundraising oriented
7. More focused on the Dominion of the Kingdom, than the denomination.

A proposal of such caliber must begin simultaneously at three starting points. First, perhaps not by importance, but by legal requirement, a professional counsel is a must. Many mission agencies follow the secular practice of debriefing missionaries, who have been on the field for a long time as part of their reentry. It is expected that post-missional experiences are often defined as problems requiring a professional counselors. But there are so many more cultural, financial, leadership, church and purely structure related problems. For example, how can one ever imagine doing missions in the 21st century without assertive financial planning in difficult times and rapidly changing international currencies, or political and security advisory in times of ever-present global terrorism? If addressed properly by in-house professionals beforehand, most of them can and should be easily prevented in the ministry of the missionaries. Thus, released from the burden of solving problems they are not qualified to deal with, missionaries will be allowed to fully focus on their main goal: namely, the salvation of eternal human souls.

Second, but equally important, are some very practical implications concerning the church recognition of the ministry of the missionary. Unfortunately, even in the beginning of the 21st century, some of the leading Pentecostal denominations in the world do not have the ministry of missions present on their ministerial report forms, as if it simply does not fit there. Others are yet to include missions as a ministry occupation on their voting registrations for business meetings at assemblies.

And finally, a word about the Prophetic Utterance of Pentecostal Missions. Historically, we, the missionaries baptized with the Holy Ghost, seldom followed models and paradigms. Our guidance has been that prophetic Word, that utterance of the Spirit, that divine guidance and Heavenly call that are never wrong. We went without knowing. We prayed without ceasing. We prophesied without seeing in the physical or even purposefully refusing to reckon with it. We preached without a season, for preaching was the vibe of our ministry and the life of our churches. And this made us Pentecostal. Even more important, this made us powerfully Pentecostal and Pentecostally powerful.

And if indeed, it is true that this very power is being lost today, it means that the very identity of our movement has changed from power giving to power needing – from powerful to powerless. The main questions that must be raised then are these: “What is the prophetic word for Pentecostal missions in 21st century?” and “What does the Spirit wants us to do?” And their answers could be found in the restoration of Pentecostal preaching, prophecy and prayer, as the foundation of any paradigm or model on which we continue to build the Ministry of World Missions.

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THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANT-GARDE OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS, BEHEADING IT FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (Part 3)

Yanko Nikolov Ivanov

Vasil Marinov Popov

Simeon Dimitrov Popov — Age 43

Gavril Tsvetanov Tsvetanov — Age 47

Tsvetan Alexandrov Litov

Iliya Yakov Iliev — Age 38

Marin Dobrev Gluharov

Zdravko Stefanov Bezlov

Nikola Mikhailov Naumov

Ivan Petrov Igov

Vasil Georgiev Angelov

Atanas Andonov Georgiev — Age 52

Mitko Mateyev Dimitrov — Age 39

19th Century History of Protestantism in Bulgaria

LIST OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICAL PASTORS WHO COMPLETED THEIR EDUCATION ABROAD

THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANT-GARDE OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS, BEHEADING IT FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (Part 2)

Georgi Nikolov Chernev — Age 45

Emanuil Stoyanov Manolov — Age 49

Boris Ivanov Kuzmanov

Yoncho Nikolov Dryanov

Haralan Ivanov Popov — Age 47

Gruy Iliev Kuzmanov — Age 54

Ivan Zerev Angelinov — Age 37

Diko Dimitrov Mavrudaev — Age 42

Yosif Georgiev Kokonchev — Age 38

Enyo (Enyu) Iliev Tsonev — Age 40

Nikola Stefanov Stoyanov — Age 40

Edward Agop Kuriyan — Age 34

Todor Stoykov Godjorov — Age 41

Ivan Stoychev Ivanov — Age 40

Ladin Ivanov Popov — Age 34

Ivan Mitev Yalamov — Age 36

Stoicho Dimitrov Kupenov — Age 38

Nikola Harlamiev Tsenkov — Age 41

19th Century History of Protestantism in Bulgaria

LIST OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICAL PASTORS WHO COMPLETED THEIR EDUCATION ABROAD

THE PASTORAL TRIALS ELIMINATE THE AVANT-GARDE OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICALS, BEHEADING IT FOR AN ENTIRE GENERATION (Part 1)

Archival Preamble

Vasil Georgiev Zyapkov — Age 47

Lambri Marinov Mishkov — Age 40

Simeon Petrov Iliev — Age 37

Konstantin Stoyanov Marvakov — Age 55

Kiril Yotov Vladov — Age 43

Kostadin Spasov Bozovayski — Age 35

Krum Georgiev Bumbanov — Age 43

Sarkis Bedros Manukyan

Pavel Hristov Nikolov — Age 49

Nikola Borisov Dimitrov — Age 42

Yosif Isakov Danailov — Age 49

Atanas Angelov Kremenliev — Age 37

19th Century History of Protestantism in Bulgaria

LIST OF BULGARIAN EVANGELICAL PASTORS WHO COMPLETED THEIR EDUCATION ABROAD

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