Tallinn, September 19, 2025
Photo: err.ee
The Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) voted on Wednesday to pass the Churches and Congregations Act without amendments for the third time, after President Alar Karis twice refused to promulgate it into law. The Act aims to ban the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church because of its affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate.
The vote passed with 63 legislators in favor, 15 against, and 9 abstentions. Another 14 members were absent from the session, reports err.ee.
Since the Riigikogu has now passed the law unchanged for the third time, President Karis must either promulgate it or petition the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional.
The legislation, which aims to sever administrative ties between religious organizations in Estonia and foreign entities deemed threatening to national security was first passed by Parliament on April 9. President Karis refused to sign it on April 24, sending it back to lawmakers. After making amendments, Parliament passed a revised version on June 18, but the President again declined to promulgate it on July 3, stating that the changes were insufficient.
During Wednesday’s debate, Constitutional Committee Chair Ando Kiviberg noted that the President had acknowledged that severing dangerous administrative ties is likely constitutional and agreed with the law’s main objective, but questioned which doctrinal connections could remain and which must be severed.
“These legal amendments do not restrict anyone’s religious freedom, the amendments do not ban any religious denomination in Estonia, do not close any church, congregation, monastery or union of congregations,” Legal Affairs Committee Chair Madis Timpson stated, though the law is clearly aimed at closing an entire jurisdiction.
Abbess Philareta of Pükhtitsa Monastery wrote to Parliament in February:
Without a doubt, you understand perfectly well—by approving amendments to the law, you are placing the monastery outside the law, giving only 2 options: either a change of jurisdiction or forced liquidation—you understand perfectly well that by your actions you are effectively closing the monastery. Do you truly want to go down in history as parliamentarians who forcibly terminated the existence of a well-known Orthodox women’s monastery in Estonia that has existed for more than a hundred years?
What she writes concerning her monastery equally applies to the entire Estonian Orthodox Christian Church.
The renewed Parliamentary action comes just days after President Karis reiterated his constitutional concerns about the law in his speech opening the autumn Parliamentary session on Sunday.
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