The end of the Cold War triggered a process of repositioning the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Domestically, the crashed monopoly of atheism inspired the Church’s hierarchy to seek a restoration of the pre-communist dominant status of Eastern Orthodoxy as the majority religion. The realization of this goal, however, was impeded by the newly adopted understanding of freedom of conscience and belief as a just and equal treatment of all religious communities. As a result, the promotion of nationalism and of new interpretations of the communist past by the Bulgarian Holy Synod turned out to be a dynamic process provoking ambivalent reactions in society. The end of communist rule in Bulgaria also challenged the pre-1989 orientation of the national Orthodox hierarchy vis-à-vis the patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople. The Church’s attempts to align its positions with the post-Cold War geopolitical situation, however, provoked divisions in the local Orthodox community.