Tallinn, January 21, 2025
Photo: orthodox.ee
The Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate held its third Council session on January 10, 2025, in Tallinn. The session addressed concerns raised by the Tartu County Court’s registration department regarding the Church’s statute adopted on August 20.
Clergy and lay representatives participated in the session, including all active clergy, Synod members, and lay representatives from each parish.
Estonia is pressuring the Estonian Church to break ties with the Moscow Patriarchate and join the Constantinople Patriarchate, which has its own presence in the country. While the Estonian Church has opposed the war and authorities confess they have found no evidence of wrongdoing, the government expelled His Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn in February and is demanding that the Church unilaterally end its connection to the Moscow Patriarchate, despite its autonomy in administration, at the threat of an entire ban.
The main agenda item for the recent Council session was resolving issues with the Church’s statutes, particularly the state’s requirement to change its name from “Estonian Orthodox Church” (“Eesti Õigeusu Kirik”), the Estonian Church reports. The Council adopted this name, dropping any official reference to the Moscow Patriarchate, but the state objected that this name is already used by Constantinople’s Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church when presenting itself in other languages.
The Council also addressed the fact that the court rejected the August decisions based on the fact that His Met. Evgeny, who chaired the session remotely, had already been driven out of the country
The Council participants reached a compromise solution, agreeing to rename the church to “Estonian Christian Orthodox Church” (“Eesti Kristlik Õigeusu Kirik”) and make minor clarifications to the statutes. However, they maintained that Met. Evgeny leadership remains legal, as Estonian law allows religious organizations to have up to half of their board members as non-residents. The Council emphasized that the Metropolitan thus retains full legal rights to continue his activities as head of the Church and member of its Synod.
The amended statute and required documentation were submitted electronically to the Tartu County Court’s registration department on January 16, for official registration of the changes.
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