Christians gathered in Sofia for three consecutive Sundays in November, protesting planned amendments to the Law on Religious Communities.
The amendments would place restraints on evangelising, bans on worship outside officially recognised buildings, restrictions on training denominational ministers, and a membership threshold of 300 people required for official recognition of religious groups. Financial donations are also being targeted, with the state demanding greater control over ‘international donations for religious purposes’.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, who supported the Baptist World Alliance in a letter to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, wrote: ‘No state should be in a position to control the training and activities of ecclesiastical ministers, nor should a state favour one faith expression over another … our concern [is] that the implementation of this law could lead to unintended restrictions on religious freedom and the direct persecution of churches and individuals of faith’.
