About Us
The evangelical congregational church in Haskovo was established in 1876 by the first American missionaries in Bulgaria. It was born from the church in Merichleri which was started by Charles Morse. When Pano Shopov was pastor there he and some other active members of the church visited Haskovo and began evangelizing the town through conversations and distributing evangelical literature. In this time Haskovo was visited by the evangelical bookseller D.Tenev from village Usuzler. In the same time appeared sympathizers of the Gospel. They started Bible meetings in a turkish house. The first followers were Kostadin Komatev, Lambri Mishkov, Mihail Monedjikov, and the brothers Dimitar and Lambri Kamovi. Nikola Gandovski and Kostadin Zheliazkov from village Omarchevo, belonging to the vicinity of Nova Zagora, were clerks in Haskovo. They took the responsibility to lead the services that were held in the house of Lambri Mishkov.
The group of evangelicals was organized in community in 1878 as a branch of the church in Merichleri. A large place was bought in the centre of the city, where church building was built. From the 30th of Octomber till the 1st of November 1886 in Haskovo was held church council and the community was accepted as church. The number of the members quickly increased. Persecution arised, especially sharp during the time of Stoqn Vatralski who was the first preacher. The church became stronger when missionaries came from the villages Merichleri, Mariino, Briast and from the region of Aegean Thrace. There was evangelical school at the church that existed till 1905.
This is the list of the people who ministered as preachers and pastors in the church: Stoian Vatralski, Kosta Zheliazkov, Veliko Petranov, Pavel Todorov, Kostadin Chavdarov, Ivan S. Popov, Ivan M.Tsakov, Aleksandar Georgiev, Elijah Kutukchiev, Stefan Gradinarov, Trifon Kraichev, Vasil Angelov, Kostadin Bozovaiski, Krastiu Tihov, Georgi Kojuharov, Krum Bumbarov and Todor Bojkov. Bible workers were Tana Krasteva-Tsokova, Todorka Ianeva, Nevenka Karagiuleva, Tianka Mishkova. Boicho Boev worked as missionary between Muslems in Haskovo and the environs.
Now the leaders of the church are Nikolay Tymbarkov and Deyan Ivanov.