STATEMENT  of Archbishop Kornelius of Tallinn and All Estonia  

STATEMENT
of Archbishop Kornelius of Tallinn and All Estonia

The annoying confrontation between the state apparatus of the Estonian Republic and the Estonian Orthodox Church, an autonomous canonical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in Estonia, has continued for over six years.

A church structure under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which calls itself the ‘Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church’ (EAOC), was registered in Estonia in 1993 without participation of the overwhelming majority of Orthodox believers in the country. At that same time all church property was handed over to the aforementioned registered structure by court decision. In spite of all our protests and repeated appeals to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Estonia, our Church was denied registration as an equal legal successor and was forced the status of a newly-formed Church. Thus, our parishes have no legal rights to their historical property – holy churches, church buildings and other property, which has been acquired and preserved with care for centuries.

Particularly distressing is the fact that representatives of the EAOC administration under the jurisdiction of Constantinople in Estonia have taken not a constructive stand on the granting equal rights to our Church in terms of possessing historical property and enjoying actual support on the part of the state structures. A well-known request by the head of the Estonian Republic to the Patriarch of Constantinople to take Estonian Orthodoxy under the jurisdiction of Constantinople was an obvious intervention of the state into church affairs.

Such a stand is based on the false assumption that our Church was formed during the time of the Soviet occupation and because of it and that the pre-war Orthodox Church of Estonia was allegedly stopped functioning on its territory in 1944 and moved ‘into exile’ to Sweden, where it has continued its life since then. Also disputable are the attempts to prove that throughout all these years the Stockholm Synod has functioned in accordance with requirements and with plenary powers under the EAOC Statute.

The illegality of the above-mentioned registration is evident to any unbiased observer, since according to the Law on the Church and Parishes, ‘the administration of the Church, of a union of parishes or a parish shall be in Estonia’, whereas the ideologists of the ‘EAOC in Exile’ stated that their administration was in Stockholm.

If we look at the history of Orthodoxy in Estonia in the 20th century, we shall see that our Church is called the Estonian Church because its has always been with its flock on the territory of Estonia, even in the most hard years of atheistic persecutions and attempts of physical destruction of the faithful. Therefore, there are no grounds whatsoever to talk about the move of the Orthodox Church ‘into exile’ and the cessation of its activities on the territory of Estonia. Analogies with the government ‘in exile’ are irrelevant and run counter to the very spirit and vocation of the Orthodox Church.

We have enough reasons to prove that the EAOC was registered in 1993 contrary to the Law of State Registers, according to which any state register can be established only on the basis of an ordinance issued by the Government of the Estonian Republic. We do not consider this registration legal also because in this case a structure was registered which was not headed by a bishop, whereas a Church under the Law on Churches and Parishes is an episcopal structure.

Participating in the Church Council of 1993 were all the Orthodox in Estonia, those who wished to remain in the canonical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and those who expressed their intention to change the jurisdiction to that of Constantinople. They have taken a mutually agreed decision to be registered as one Church, and after that to divide out in accordance with canonical norms. Unfortunately, this had not been done.

Today we cannot join the registered EAOC as it would have meant juridical subordination to its administration, which is under the jurisdiction of Constantinople. Also, we cannot and will not recognize our Church as a newly-formed structure as that would have placed our parishes into an unequal and unfair position of leaseholders of their own holy places and churches from the Church under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, which is registered by the state.

Our Church is the most numerous religious society after the Lutherans in Estonia and is full of spiritual and moral strength. The Orthodox citizens of Tallinn vividly expressed their hopes during the two Holy Processions in 1995 and 1996, which brought together many thousands of people. Thus our faithful, in the hope for God’s mercy and for the awakening of understanding in those on whom the restoration of justice depends, testified to everyone that the Orthodox Church in Estonia was strong in its spiritual and liturgical life in spite of the desire of certain state forces to make it legally, at the same time violating their own laws.

Under the circumstances I see the only way out, which is to register the Orthodox parishes and to guarantee their equal legal rights to historical property irrespective of the jurisdiction to which they belong. However difficult it seems to do formally, the government, which is called to protect and defend the rights of its citizens, should exert every effort – right up to the change of the legislation – in order to contribute to the cessation of injustice, which has continued almost seven years, so that the religious rights of all those living in Estonia be restituted.

I hope for the mercy of God and for the unbiased and fair attitude of the public to our excruciating problem which we have been trying to solve throughout all these years with patience, but so far without success.

+ KORNELIUS
ARCHBISHOP OF TALLINN AND ALL ESTONIA