On November 8, 9 and 10, 2023 in the "Acad. Ivan Evstratiev Geshov" Hall of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences the international conference "The Church and Otherness" was held. The event was organized by the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Tracology "Prof. Alexander Fol" at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBSCT-BAS). The conference was funded by the Bulgarian National Scientific Fund, contract No. КП-06-МНФ/ 25 dated 08.08.2023. Partner of the event was the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria.

The conference was opened by the deputy director of the IBSCT-BAS Assoc. Kalin Stoev. Among the participants were established scholars from different academic institutions in Bulgaria and abroad, including Prof. Momchil Metodiev, Prof. Georgeta Nazarska, Prof. Sorin Paliga, Prof. Rafal Latka, Prof. Vlasis Vlasidis, Assoc. Prof. Zlatomyra Gerdzhikova, Assoc. Prof. Irina Ognyanova, Dr. Ilaria Pagani, Dr. Miguel Gales and others.

More than 50 scholars affiliated with various scientific institutes, universities and museums from 14 countries participated in the conference in person and online. The scholarly forum became a platform where established scholars in the Humanities, young researchers, doctoral students and postdoctoral students met and discussed the issuesof otherness through the eclesiastical perspective.