Violations of the rights of believers in Estonia discussed in Russia’s Foreign Ministry
7.06.2001 · English, Архив 2001
VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHTS OF BELIEVERS IN ESTONIA DISCUSSED IN RUSSIA’S FOREIGN MINISTRY
As was reported earlier, the Estonian Interior Ministry again refused to register the Statute of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, demanding yet again that the name of the Church should be changed and that the article pointing to its continuity with the Orthodox Church that existed in Estonia in the pre-war period should be dropped.
An intermediate response with remarks made by minister T. Loodus was sent to Metropolitan Cornilius of Tallinn and All Estonia last April. It was followed on May 21 by the final refusal to register the Statute presented to the Estonian Interior Minister as far back as January.
“This news was received with profound sorrow and bewilderment by the Synod of the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate”, says the letter that Metropolitan Cornilius sent to the Estonian Prime Minister M. Laar on May 28. The document noted that the decision of the interior minister “grossly violated the constitutional principles of separation between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities and the equality of all before law”, since it deprived the believers under the canonical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate of the right to the name they choose for their religious organization and the right to own the church property they had built during the long history of Orthodoxy in Estonia.
The long history of gross violations of the rights of believers, who comprise a considerable part of the Russian-speaking population of this country, cannot leave people in Russia indifferent.
The situation where the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has existed in Estonia for over seven years now outside law was discussed on June 6 at a meeting in the Russian Foreign Ministry. Participating in it were the Russian Foreign Minister I. Ivanov, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Cornilius of Tallinn and All Estonia, the State Duma Committee for International Affairs chairman D. Rogozin, the First Deputy Prime Minister A. Avdeyev, and heads and staff of the foreign ministry departments.
After an exchange of information, decisions were made to continue common efforts for improving the situation of the Russian-speaking believers in Estonia.
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