A number of bishops threw in their lot with him, but few thought that Pymen would be among them. But when he did so the synod loyal to Maxim removed him as Metropolitan of Nevrokop and the diocese was temporarily put in the hands of Bishop Ioan of Dragovista, the head of the Rila Monastery.When Pymen was proclaimed patriarch in 1996, Maxim promptly excommunicated him. He was transferred to become Metropolitan of Nevrokip (based in Blagoevgrad) in 1953, and it was there that he remained until 1992.When the dispute arose in 1991 as to how far the Church should repent for its Communist-era collaboration, the dissident faction was led by a monk priest, Father Hristofov Subcv. In December 1947 he was consecrated bishop and assigned to Stobi. The sight of robed clerics coming to blows over church premises disgusted many people.Born Enev Nedelchev in Chirpan, not far from Plovdiv, he took the religious name Pymen on becoming a monk in July 1933 The following year he was ordained a monastic priest. Pymen, who had worked closely with the Communist regime himself and had been one of Maxim’s closest colleagues, was an unlikely leader for the rebel faction, but in May 1992 he formed a “renewed synod” consisting of 12 bishops who rejected Maxim. The rebels took over the Church’s headquarters in central Sofia.

In July 1996 the dissidents names Pymen as their Patriarch in Maxim’s place, a decision not recognised by the majority of the Church within Bulgaria or by the Orthodox Churches in the rest of the world.
The unseemly schism also had political overtones: Maxim and his supporters had the backing of the Socialists (the reformed Communists), while Pymen and his supporters received the backing of the Union of Democratic Forces.Although the Bulgarian Church has not traditionally enjoyed such fervent support as the national Churches in other Orthodox countries, this dispute did nothing to raise its prestige. SainsburyAlfred John Bridle, fire-fighter: born London 30 June 1907; OBE 1942; married 1936 Eva Talbot (two sons); died St Peter Port, Guernsey 27 January 1999.. A MEMBER of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church episcopate for almost the entire period of Communist rule, Pymen surprised everyone in post- Communist Bulgaria by siding with a dissident faction that was seeking reform in the Church. The rebels were particularly gunning for Patriarch Maxim who, they said, had been appointed by the Communist government in 1971 rather than being freely elected according to church canons.

Bridle at 34 was by far the youngest of the Fire Force Commanders, and it is significant that he was appointed OBE the next year. His first command was of 23 Area, which covered Warwickshire and the West Midlands; in 1943 he was given the larger command of 4 Area, based at Leeds. Thereafter he saw little of the war on the Home Front and, when it ended and the National Fire Service was restored to the counties and boroughs of the day, he ended his fire-fighting career as Chief Fire Officer of West Sussex from 1948 In 1963 he retired to Guernsey.A.B. How much operational responsibility was given to seconded officers is not always clear, but Bridle was called to account by the legendary A.L.