Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church

The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (Estonian: Eesti

Estonian Apostolic
Apostlik-Õigeusu Kirik; EOC) is an Orthodox church in Estonia
under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Orthodox Church
Constantinople. Under Estonian law it is the legal successor to the
pre–World War II Estonian Orthodox Church, which in 1940 had
over 210,000 faithful, three bishops, 156 parishes, 131 priests, 19
deacons, two monasteries, and a theological seminary; the majority
of the faithful were ethnic Estonians. Its official name is the
Orthodox Church of Estonia.

The current primate of the church is Stephanos, Metropolitan of Abbreviation EOC

Tallinn and all Estonia, elected in 1999. Primate Stephanos of
Tallinn
History Language Estonian
Headquarters Wismari 32,
Little is known about the history
Tallinn, Estonia
of the church in the area until the
17th and 18th centuries, when Territory Republic of
many Old Believers fled there Estonia
from Russia to avoid the liturgical Independence 1923
reforms introduced by Patriarch
Nikon of Moscow. Recognition 1923, 1996 by
Constantinople
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Congregations 60 (2003)[1]
Estonia was a part of the Russian
Empire. In the 1850s a rumour Members 31,500 (2020)[2]
spread that the Orthodox Church Other name(s) Orthodox Church
promised to provide everybody of Estonia.
who converted to Orthodoxy a
Official website Orthodox Church
Saint Catherine's Estonian piece of land of their own
somewhere in Russia. Some of Estonia (http://
Apostolic Orthodox Church in
Võru. 65,000 Estonian peasants were www.eoc.ee/)
converted to the Orthodox faith in
the hope of obtaining land, and numerous Orthodox churches were
[3]
built. Later, when the rumour turned out to be a hoax, a great part of the new Orthodox peasants returned
to the Lutheran Church.

In the late 19th century, a wave of Russification was introduced, supported by the Russian hierarchy but
not by the local Estonian clergy. The Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Tallinn and the Pühtitsa
(Pukhtitsa) convent in Kuremäe in East Estonia were also built around this time.

Autonomy under the Moscow Patriarchate

After the Republic of Estonia was proclaimed in 1918, the
Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Tikhon, in 1920
recognised the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAOC) as
being autonomous (Resolution No. 1780), postponing the
discussion of its autocephaly.[4] Archbishop Aleksander Paulus was
elected and ordained Metropolitan of Tallinn and All Estonia, head
of the EAOC.[5]

Prior to this, Soviet Russia had adopted a Marxist–Leninist

ideology which held as an ideological goal the elimination of
religion and its replacement with state atheism.[6] In response,
Patriarch Tikhon had excommunicated the Soviet leadership in
1918, leading to a period of intense persecution of the Russian
Orthodox Church.[7] In April 1922, Tikhon was imprisoned,[8] and
the Estonian clergy lost contact with the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on

Transfer to the Ecumenical Patriarchate Toompea hill in Tallinn.

In September 1922 the Council of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox

Church petitioned the Patriarch of Constantinople, Meletius IV, to (1) transfer control of the Estonian
church from the Russian Orthodox Church to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and (2) clarify the
Estonian church's canonical status. In 1923 the Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a tomos (ecclesiastical
edict) which brought the EAOC under Constantinople's jurisdiction and granted it autonomy, but not full
autocephaly.[9][4]

Before 1941, one-fifth of the total Estonian population (who had been mostly Lutheran since the
Reformation in the early 16th century when the country was controlled by the Teutonic Order) were
Orthodox Christians under the Patriarchate of Constantinople. There were 158 parishes in Estonia and 183
clerics in the Estonian church. There was also a Chair of Orthodoxy in the Faculty of Theology at the
University of Tartu. There was a Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery in Petseri, two convents in Narva and
Kuremäe, a priory in Tallinn and a seminary in Petseri. The ancient monastery in Petseri was preserved
from the mass church destructions that occurred in Soviet Russia.

World War II

In 1940, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union, whose government undertook a general programme of
the dissolution of all ecclesiastical independence within its territory. From 1942 to 1944, however,
autonomy under Constantinople was temporarily revived. In 1945, a representative of the Moscow
Patriarchate dismissed the members of the OCE synod who had remained in Estonia and established a new
organisation, the Diocesan Council. Orthodox believers in occupied Estonia were thus subordinated to
being a diocese within the Russian Orthodox Church.

Just before the second Soviet occupation in 1944 and the dissolution of the Estonian synod, the primate of
the church, Metropolitan Aleksander, went into exile along with 21 clergymen and about 8,000 Orthodox
believers. The Orthodox Church of Estonia in Exile with its synod in Sweden continued its activity
according to the canonical statutes, until the restoration of Estonian independence in 1991. Before he died
in 1953, Metr. Aleksander established his community as an exarchate under Constantinople. Most of the
other bishops and clergy who remained behind were deported to Siberia. In 1958, a new synod was
established in exile, and the church was organized from Sweden.

Inactive

In 1978, at the urging of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ecumenical Patriarch declared the charter (tomos) of
the Church as granted in 1923, inoperative. The church ceased to exist until the breakup of the Soviet
Union, when divisions within the Orthodox community in Estonia arose between those who claimed that
the Moscow Patriarchate has no jurisdiction in Estonia and those who wished to return to the jurisdiction of
Moscow. The dispute often took place along ethnic lines, as many Russians had immigrated to Estonia
during the Soviet occupation. Lengthy negotiations between the two patriarchates failed to produce any
agreement.

Reactivation

In 1993, the synod of the Orthodox Church of Estonia in Exile was re-registered as the legal successor of
the autonomous Orthodox Church of Estonia, and on February 20, 1996, the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I formally reactivated the tomos granted to the OCE in 1923, restoring its canonical
subordination to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This action brought immediate protest from the Estonian-born
Patriarch Alexei II of the Moscow Patriarchate, which regarded the Estonian church as being part of its
territory. The Patriarch of Moscow temporarily removed the name of the Ecumenical Patriarch from the
diptychs.

In this difficult situation, the Orthodox Church of Estonia received help and support from the Finnish
Orthodox Church, especially from Archbishop Johannes (Rinne) of the Archdiocese of Karelia and All
Finland and Auxiliary Bishop Ambrosius (Risto Jääskeläinen) of Joensuu. The Ecumenical Patriarchate
decided that Archbishop Johannes, Bishop Ambrosius and pastor Heikki Huttunen from Espoo should be
available to give help in the reconstruction of the newly restored church. Archbishop Johannes would
temporarily act as a deputy metropolitan (1996–1999) of the Estonian Autonomous Church.[10]

An agreement was reached in which local congregations could choose which jurisdiction to follow. The
Orthodox community in Estonia, which accounts for 16.15% of the total population,[11] remains divided,
with the majority of faithful (mostly ethnic Russians) remaining under Moscow. From a U.S. Department of
State report released in November 2003, about 20,000 believers (mostly ethnic Estonians) in 60 parishes
are part of the autonomous church, with 150,000 faithful in 31 parishes, along with the monastic
community of Pühtitsa, paying allegiance to Moscow.[1]

In 1999, the church received a resident hierarch, Metropolitan Stephanos (Charalambides) of Tallinn,
formerly an auxiliary bishop under the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Metropolitan of France.

See also
Religion in Estonia
Catholic Church in Estonia
Eastern Orthodoxy in Estonia

References
 1. International Religious Freedom Report 2003 (https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2003/24
355.htm)
2. US State Dept 2022 report (https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religio
us-freedom/estonia)
3. "Eesti Apostlik-Õigeusu Kirik, Ajalugu (=History) (In Estonian)" (www.eaok.ee)
4. Toom, Tarmo. "Estonia, Orthodox Church in" (https://books.google.com/books?id=JmFetR5
Wqd8C&dq=The%20encyclopedia%20of%20Eastern%20Orthodox%20Christianity&pg=PA
226), The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, p.226-8, Wiley-Blackwell
Publishing, 2011.
5. Historical background of Orthodoxy in Estonia (http://www.orthodox.ee/indexeng.php?d=hist
ory/history), Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate website.
6. Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich. "The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion" (https://www.marxists.o
rg/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm), Proletary, No.45, May 13 (26), 1909.
7. Pospielovsky, Dimitry V. The Russian Church Under the Soviet Regime, 1917–1983, ch.2,
St Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood NY, 1984.
8. "Glorification of St Tikhon, the Apostle to America" (http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.a
sp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=102906), Orthodox Church in America website.
9. Ringvee, Ringo. "History of the controversy" (http://www.estonica.org/en/Eastern_orthodoxy
_in_Estonia_%E2%80%94_a_brief_overview_of_religious_controversy/History_of_the_con
troversy/), Estonica – Encyclopedia about Estonia, Estonian Institute.
10. Metropolitan Johannes:"Viron ortodoksisen Kirkon tie uuteen itsenäisyyteen" Aamun Koitto
Number 19/2007 p.18-20
11. "PC0454: AT LEAST 15-YEAR-OLD PERSONS BY RELIGION, SEX, AGE GROUP,
ETHNIC NATIONALITY AND COUNTY, 31 DECEMBER 2011" (http://pub.stat.ee/px-web.20
01/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=PC0454&lang=1). Statistics Estonia. 31 December 2011.
Retrieved 9 January 2014.

Sources
Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, pp. 183–4
The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (http://www.cnewa.org/default.aspx?ID=33&pagety
peID=9&sitecode=HQ&pageno=1) by Ronald Roberson, a Roman Catholic priest and
scholar.

External links
Former official website of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (http://www.orthodoxa.or
g/) (in English, Estonian, French, Russian, Greek, and Finnish)
Current official website of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (http://www.eoc.ee/) (in
French and Estonian)
Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (http://www.orthodox.ee/index.html)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180504010611/http://www.orthodox.ee/index.html)
2018-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
The History Files Churches of Estonia (http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/MainChurchesEurope.ht
m)

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