September 6, 2012

Bishop Alexander 
Ruling Hierarch of Bulgarian Diocese of Toledo
Orthodox Church in America
738 Glenwood Rd.
Rossford, Ohio 43460

Dear Bishop Alexander:

Both the Orthodox Church in America and Bulgarian Diocese of Toledo’s web site list and link St. John of Rila in Chicago as a church in the Bulgarian Diocese.  Included in the information regarding the origin of St. John of Rila is the following.
 
In February of 1996, a group of several individuals took the initiative to establish the new Bulgarian Orthodox Church of St John of Rila, Wonderworker to answer the need for an indigenous place of worship for the ever-growing Bulgarian community in Chicago.  

St. John of Rila’s background information also explains how it “celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in March, 1996 at the kindergarten of one of the church’s members.”  I am that founding member of St. John of Rila, at whose kindergarten the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated, and with whose work, commitment and financial support, along with the other founding members and first parishioners, led to purchase of the current church property on Cullom Avenue in Chicago.  I served as St. John of Rila’s Vice President from 1996 until 1999, and then President from 1999 until 2005.

To abbreviate a very long story, somewhere in the 2003-2004 time period, there were growing conflicts arising between the parish rector at St. John of Rila, Father Valentin Notzkov, and the Board of Directors of St. John of Rila that had been elected (as was the case since 1997) by the Members.  Without belaboring all of the details of the conflict and how it arose, it is sufficient to say that matters “came to a head” when the Board sought to hold Father Notzkov accountable to St. John of Rila regarding certain financial matters, and also, over the issue of whether or not St. John of Rila needed/could afford to also employ Father Notzkov’s son-in-law, Father Dimov, as a second priest.  Father Notzkov’s  response to and way of handling these issues was to by his own authority remove me from the Board, appoint his own, new and non-elected Board Members (from those persons whom Father Notzkov believed would support his position or at least not question him regarding any financial matters), and eventually, to lock-out me and a large group of the other Members (including most of the founding Members of St. John of Rila), in order to insure that St. John of Rila’s “Board” would no longer be elected by the Members or include anyone who might question or seek to hold Father Notzkov accountable to St. John of Rila and its Members, particularly with regard to Father Notzkov’s involvement in church financial matters.

You are likely already aware of the lawsuit filed in 2005 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Case No., 05 CH 13247, by me and several of St. John of Rila’s founding Members who were dispossessed from St. John of Rila by Father Notzkov.  Our original intention in filing the lawsuit was not to engage in a fight with Father Notzkov regarding St. John of Rila’s affiliation, or lack thereof, with the Diocese, but simply to restore the regular and ordinary process of installing a Board of Directors for St. John of Rila that was elected by its Members.  This was in fact the procedure followed at St. John of Rila since its inception and until Father Notzkov’s unwarranted interference with that process in 2004 and again in 2005.  More significantly, this is the process mandated by the Illinois Not For Profit Corporations Act, pursuant to which St. John of Rila was incorporated in 1996.  We sought to restore St. John of Rila to compliance with the laws of the state of Illinois, requesting that the court order an annual meeting of Members and election of the Board.  Instead, the focus of the lawsuit became whether or not St. John of Rila was/is a parish within the jurisdiction of your Bulgarian Diocese, and further, whether the determination of membership (and thus the right to vote in an election) at St, John of Rila involved a religious or ecclesiastical component that would preclude the civil court from adjudicating the matter.  Following the trial that was conducted over several weeks spanning a nine-month period, on July 20, 2012 the Cook County Circuit Court issued its decision finding that St. John of Rila was a parish within your Bulgarian Diocese, and because the determination of who was a “Member” of St. John of Rila (and thus entitled to vote in an election) involved an inquiry into religious or ecclesiastical issues, the Circuit Court found it could not delve further into and/or order the election because it believed that doing so would run afoul of the “religious abstention doctrine”, which precludes civil courts from becoming involved in church disputes involving issues of religion or church polity.

At this time we are considering and will shortly need to decide whether or not we will continue the litigation with an appeal to the Illinois Court of Appeals.  Although it is certainly within our rights under the state’s civil laws to do so, it is not necessarily the way we would like to see the matter resolved.  It is our intention to first reach out to you, seeking your guidance and assistance in bringing St. John of Rila back to compliance with not only Illinois law, but also, as we have now been made aware of, the Constitution of your Bulgarian Diocese, which Father Notzkov on the one hand vehemently claimed was applicable to the governance of St. John of Rila, but on the other hand, clearly never attempted to follow himself at any time during his service at St. John of Rila.  As we went through the trial of the case in the Circuit Court of Cook County it became apparent that not only was St. John of Rila, under Father Notzkov’s direction and control, failing to comply with Illinois law, but even more flagrantly, with virtually every proscription of the Diocese’s own Constitution.  It also became apparent that under the present state of affairs, i.e., with Father Notzkov essentially “de-frocked” by the Bulgarian Holy Synod and “suspended” by the OCA and Diocese, it is impossible for anyone to become a Member (or maintain their prior membership status) at St. John of Rila, owing entirely to the fact that St. John of Rila has no priest who can administer the Holy Sacraments, conduct Holy Liturgy, etc., in order to satisfy any of the criteria that the Constitution itself proscribes for being not only a church member, but a Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Christian.
  
We reach out to you here not as civil litigants, but as Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Christians and the founders of St. John of Rila. We respectfully request that you reinstate the members, who signed petition on May 14, 2005 asking for election meeting, reinstate the Board elected at the last meeting on 2003 and direct and supervise an election. Also to install a real canonical priest at St. John of Rila.

					Very truly yours,

					George T. Ivanov
                                                            4100 N California
                                                            Chicago, IL 60618