Tallinn, November 12, 2024
Photo: orthodox.ee
An international conference on the theme of “The Orthodox Church in Estonia—Independence: Development Opportunities, Risk, Consequences,” was held in Tallinn last week.
The academic-practical conference, held on November 6-7, featuring speakers from Estonia, Germany, France, Great Britain, and Ukraine, was organized by the Alexander Orthodox Brotherhood. The purpose of the conference was to address the crisis in relations between the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and state, which is demanding that it renounce canonical ties with the Moscow Patriarchate due to Patriarch Kirill’s statements regarding the war in Ukraine, reports the Estonian Orthodox Church.
“The conference aimed to discuss the possibility of overcoming the division among Orthodox Christians in Estonia and provide food for thought to Church and state officials, thereby contributing to a joint search for reasonable compromise, achieving mutual understanding, and building constructive relations between state structures of the Estonian Republic, the EOC-MP, and the EAOC [the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s jurisdiction in Estonia—OC],” the Church writes.
Archpriest Igor Prekup, chairman of the committee that organized the conference, noted that the authoritarian approach of state officials and parliamentarians has only contributed to hostility in society and between the two Orthodox jurisdictions.
The heads of other Christian denominations were invited to the conference. Metropolitan Stephanos of Constantinople’s jurisdiction was invited to attend and discuss the situation, but he declined.
Met. Stephanos earlier proposed creating a vicariate to subsume the Moscow Patriarchate parishes into Constantinople, but the clergy and people of the Estonian Orthodox Church rejected this option.
Conference participants included people of different civic and party affiliations, ethnic origins and age categories, religious and non-religious, Christians from three different denominations, Orthodox from Constantinople and Moscow Patriarchates, clergy, monastics and laity. People differing in many secondary matters were all unanimous in the main point: Canonical affiliation is an internal Church matter. In a democratic society, the state cannot force believers to change their religious self-identification.
Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church pastor Veiko Vihuri expressed the common position of conference participants:
“Since Estonia has no state church according to the constitution, state authority has no right to interfere in churches’ internal affairs—this is conceivable only to a very limited extent and in cases strictly prescribed by law. Even the national security argument cannot ignore rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution… State authority is obligated to respect law-abiding religious associations and not hinder their activities for ideological or political reasons.”
It should be noted that while the state continues to treat the Estonian Orthodox Church as a threat and in turn threatens it with liquidation, it has also admitted on several occasions that it has no evidence of the Church doing anything suspicious or that could pose a threat to the state.
“We need to learn to understand each other and perceive each other as equals so that Orthodox reunification in Estonia becomes possible,” concluded the conference organizers and expressed hope that the Estonian Council of Churches could help with this.
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