Metropolitan Joseph II (in the world Ivan Blagoev Bosakov ; December 6, 1942 , the village of Slavovitsa , Pazardzhik region ) - Bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church , Metropolitan of America, Canada and Australia .
Biography
From 1956 to 1961 - student of the Sofia Theological Seminary . In 1970 he graduated from the Sofia Theological Academy .
On April 12, 1970, in the Troyan monastery, Metropolitan Lovchansky Maxim (Minkov) was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph in honor of the righteous Joseph of Arimathea . On May 3 of the same year, Metropolitan Maxim of Lovchansky was ordained a hierodeacon , and on December 27th he was ordained a hieromonk and appointed protosynkel of the Lovchansk diocese.
Since July 1971 - Protosinkell of the Sofia Diocese .
From October 10, 1971, in the direction of the Holy Synod, he passed specialization at the Moscow Theological Academy . July 21, 1973, after defending his dissertation with the blessing of the Patriarch of Bulgaria Maxim, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Pimen .
Upon his return to Bulgaria, he was again appointed protosingel of the Sofia Diocese .
On December 7, 1980, he was consecrated bishop of Velichi and appointed second vicar of the Sofia diocese.
Since March 24, 1981 - hegumen of the Troyan Monastery .
On April 1, 1983, he was appointed administrator of the Akron diocese and on April 17, 1986, was approved by its metropolitan .
On December 19, 1989, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church united the New York and Akron dioceses into a single American and Australian Bulgarian diocese . Metropolitan Joseph became her metropolitan with a chair in New York .
He published a number of articles on church-public issues in the Bulgarian church periodicals.
In June 2009, Metropolitan Joseph, taking advantage of his right to familiarize himself with his formerly secret state file, discovered that from 1980 to 1988 he was listed as an informant of the special services of socialist Bulgaria , although he himself was not fully aware of it. He announced the information he received about his file in open letters and, in accordance with his previous promises, resigned. However, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church On December 1 of that year, he decided not to accept his resignation, praising his archpastoral work in America and urging him to continue serving there.
On February 15, 2013, at a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the purpose of which was to identify three candidates for the patriarchal throne, he was appointed Chairman of the Central Commission for the Preparation of the Elected Council [1] .
At the end of February 2013 he filed a petition for retirement. Vladyka Joseph informed that he has a trained candidate for his place and wants to return for permanent residence in Bulgaria. The dioceses of the USA, Canada and Australia have accumulated a lot of problems: litigation continues for many years in the Bulgarian parish in Chicago, while the diocesan bishop has not visited Bulgarian church communities in Australia for about 20 years.
Notes
- ↑ Beginning of the process of beating up the new Bulgarian Patriarch / Orthodoxy.Ru [1608] | Orthodox social network Ecclesia.Ru | News . Date of treatment February 18, 2013. Archived March 14, 2013.
Links
- Joseph (Bosakov) // Open Orthodox Encyclopedia "Tree"
- Sorry, Bulgarian people! on the website pravoslavie.bg