Barnabas Fund, 11 December 2018
Christians in Sofia have protested planned amendments to the Bulgarian 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.
Alarm has been raised by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in a letter to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boyko Borissov, expressing their “concern that the implementation of this law could lead to unintended restrictions on religious freedom and the direct persecution of churches and individuals of faith.”
The Bulgarian constitution itself guarantees freedom of religion stating, “The practising of any religion shall be unrestricted.”