Tallinn, August 5, 2024
Photo: spzh.live
Today, there are two Orthodox Churches operating in Estonia: the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The history of Orthodoxy in Estonia dates back to Russian missionaries of the 10th-12th centuries. Constantinople’s parallel jurisdiction was established in 1996.
Constantinople’s incursion into Estonia led to a 3-month break in communion at the time. In the end, parishes were given the right to choose their jurisdiction, and 65% chose to remain with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Now, against the backdrop of the controversial document published by the World Russian People’s Council in late March, the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs is pressuring parishes under the Moscow Patriarchate to transfer to the Constantinople jurisdiction, despite the state acknowledging several times that it sees no security threat from the Estonian Church.
Recall that Moscow and Constantinople have been out of communion again since 2018, when Constantinople entered into communion with the Ukrainian schismatics and established a new structure in Ukraine on the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.
Last week, the Ministry and the Church reported that an agreement was reached to amend the Church’s statutes by removing references to the statutes of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was also stated that talks about the possibility of unification would begin with the Constantinople jurisdiction in Estonia.
However, in an interview given to the Estonian outlet err.ee, His Grace Bishop Daniil of Tartu, vicar of the Tallinn Diocese (recall that the ruling hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny, was forced to leave the country in February, again, despite the open acknowledgement that he poses no threat), stated that the people of the EOC do not see unification with Constantinople as a possibility:
This option [of unification with the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church] was offered to us somewhat unexpectedly back in May. But we said that we do not see the constructiveness of such a proposal. Neither the leadership nor the parishioners agree with such a transition.
At the same time, the hierarch noted that autocephaly is a possibility in theory, but in practice, it would be a long, drawn-out process.
As for the possibility of changing the EOC’s statutes, His Grace explained:
Regarding the charter, we often hear accusations against us or just a statement of fact: They say, we’re directly subordinate either to the Patriarch or even to the president of a neighboring state. But we’ve already said we don’t have such direct subordination—we have canonical Church ties. And since this topic is very acute, the Church agrees to change the statute, remove references to the current statute of the Russian Orthodox Church and return to the 1993 references fundamental to our Church structure.
Under the proposed changes, the EOC statutes would thus retain a reference to the 1993 tomos of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II that granted the EOC its self-governing status.
Asked about the current role of Met. Evgeny, Bp. Daniil emphasized: “Metropolitan Evgeny, who was elected primate by our Church Council in 2018, remains in his place. The people of the Church chose a primate who is still in long-distance communication with us.”
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