Vilnius, October 19, 2026
Holy Spirit Monastery in Vilnius. Photo: Diocese of Vilnius-Lithuania
The Lithuanian Orthodox Church says two bills now before Parliament are aimed at stripping it of its historic churches and making the Patriarchate of Constantinople the sole representative of all Orthodox believers in Lithuania.
The Church’s Council held an emergency meeting on October 17 to respond, after celebrations marking the bringing of the wonderworking Vilnius Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign to the Holy Spirit Monastery, which drew a large crowd of faithful.
In a statement, the Council says this is not simply another attack on the Church, but part of far-reaching plans to take away its historic churches, including the Holy Spirit Monastery, the Cathedral of the Mother of God, the Churches of St. Nicholas and St. Paraskeva in Vilnius, and the Dormition Church in Vievis. It adds that the initiative lays the groundwork for removing the Church from the list of Lithuania’s traditional religious communities over an alleged threat to national security, though no reliable facts or evidence of such a threat exist.
The bills were introduced by Audronius Ažubalis and Arvydas Anušauskas, members of Parliament from the opposition Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats faction. One bill amends the Law on Religious Communities and Associations. It would bar communities from gaining traditional status, or any other state recognition, if their administrative centers are tied to entities under international sanctions or Lithuanian restrictive measures, or if their activities threaten state security or public order. It would also say the Lithuanian Orthodox community is represented by the religious center established under the canons and internal norms of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
That center is the Lithuanian Exarchate. It has its origins in February 2023, when Constantinople accepted clergy who had been defrocked by the Lithuanian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, the canonical ecclesiastical authority in the country. The Exarchate was formally established and legally registered in early 2024.
The second bill amends the Law on the Rights of Religious Communities and Associations to Real Estate. It would enshrine traditional communities’ rights to property they held in the past or acquired after March 11, 1990, and set a legal basis for handing the Exarchate the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God, the Churches of St. Paraskeva and St. Nicholas, the Holy Spirit Monasteries in Vilnius and Surdegys, and the Dormition Church in Vievis. Decisions on specific properties would be made by parliament or the government. The amendments would take effect January 1, 2027.
The lawmakers say the amendments are meant to reduce the influence of the Moscow Patriarch in Lithuania, pointing to the State Security Department’s 2026 threat assessment. The Church responded to the state’s unfounded accusations in March.
Lithuanian authorities have signaled such a course before. Already in 2022, they said they were ready to help take churches from the Lithuanian Church and transfer them to Bartholomew.
In its statement, the Lithuanian Church Council expresses its deepest concern, alarm, and resolute protest, saying the bills violate constitutional norms and the rights of believers, and could lead to unnecessary and dangerous religious confrontation. It stresses the importance of preserving religious peace, something the Church’s representatives have repeatedly called for.
The Council also backed the call of His Eminence Metropolitan Innokenty of Vilnius and Lithuania for intensified prayer. With His Eminence’s blessing, molebens and akathists to the Mother of God will be served weekly in all parishes and monasteries of the Church.
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