Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church

It arose on the basis of the Tomos of the Patriarch of Constantinople Meletius IV of July 7, 1923, who accepted the Estonian Orthodox Church into its jurisdiction on the basis of autonomy as the Estonian Orthodox Metropolitanate in response to the appeal of the Council of the Estonian Church of September 23, 1922 for the provision of autocephaly . Bishop Alexander (Paulus) , who headed parishes in Estonia, was granted the title of Metropolitan of Tallinn and all of Estonia. In September 1924 it was divided into two dioceses - Tallinn and Narva . In 1933, Bishop John of Narva (Bulin) was removed from the administration of the diocese and left for Belgrade . In the same year, Nicholas (Leisman) was consecrated bishop of Pechersky, vicar of the Estonian diocese; in 1937, the new bishop of Narva, Paul (Dmitrovsky) , was consecrated. In 1935, the Church adopted the current name of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church . By 1940, when Estonia joined the USSR, 210,000 believers belonged to the Estonian Orthodox Church, 80 percent of whom were Estonians , 3 bishops, 156 parishes, 131 priests, 2 monasteries and one theological seminary. Orthodox made up 17.5% of the country's Christians.

After Estonia joined the USSR, the theological faculty of the University of Tartu (on the basis of the Decree on the Separation of the Church from the State and the School from the Church ) and the Theological Seminary in Pechora were immediately closed. On September 23, 1940, the Synod of the Estonian Church turned to the Moscow Patriarchate with a request to accept them under its omophorion, but with the preservation of autonomy . Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), Patriarchal Locum Tenens, decided that the bishops would remain in their departments, but there was no need for autonomy. On March 30, 1941, the structure was officially abolished: Metropolitan Alexander was accepted into canonical communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, and Estonian Orthodox parishes (Tallinn and Narva dioceses) entered the exarchate of Latvia and Estonia, headed by Metropolitan Sergius of Vilensky and Lithuania (Voskresensky) .

In July 1941, due to the occupation of Estonia during the war between Germany and the USSR, its inclusion in the Reichskommissariat Ostland of the German Empire followed. Metropolitan Alexander immediately announced his withdrawal from compulsory submission to the Moscow Patriarchate for "canonical and religious reasons" and the restoration of the EAJC, having received on September 19, 1941 the registration of the German authorities as Primate of the EAJC. By the end of the year, Orthodoxy in Estonia was completely demarcated - Russian parishes were subordinate to Pavel (Dmitrovsky), who retained communion with the Russian Orthodox Church, and ethnically Estonian - to Metropolitan Alexander. This situation did not last long: in September 1944, Estonia was liberated from the occupation of German troops . Metropolitan Alexander and 23 priests emigrated.

On March 5, 1945, the Archbishop of Pskov, Grigory (Chukov) arrived in Tallinn, and on March 6, an act of joining the parishes belonging to the EAPC to the Moscow Patriarchate was completed - in the St. Nicholas Church of Tallinn for the reunion of the Renovationists ^[1] . The ruling bishop of Estonia and Tallinn was appointed Archbishop Pavel (Dmitrovsky).

The Synod of the EAOC was established in Stockholm , remaining subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. About 10 thousand Orthodox Estonians located in different countries remained faithful to the structure. In 1956, Bishop George (Vyalbe) , who was vicar of the Thyatira Archbishopric , was consecrated for this structure. After the death of Bishop George in 1961, the structure ceased to exist as an administrative unit; her parishes were reassigned to the local bishops of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1978, at the request of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarchate of Constantinople declared the Tomos of 1923, which established the autonomous Estonian Church, as invalid.

After Estonia regained state independence, there was a desire to restore an autonomous church. The head of the Tallinn diocese at that time was Cornelius (Jacobs) . On August 11, 1993, the Estonian Department of Religious Affairs registered the Synod of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church in exile as the sole legal successor to the inter-war Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, although the “Synod” did not have legal representatives in the country. In 1994, 54 (out of 83) Orthodox parishes were asked to take them into the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. On February 22, 1996, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople resumed the operation of the Tomos of 1923 and simultaneously established the Autonomous Church under the jurisdiction of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Communiqué of the Supreme Secretariat and the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of February 22, 1996 emphasized that “the Ecumenical Patriarchate made this decision at the urgent request of the Estonian government and the vast majority of Estonian parishes who asked to be accepted under the protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate” ^[2] . The Archbishop of Karelia and Finland, John (Rinne), was appointed Locum Tenens of the Primate of the EAOC. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, chaired by Patriarch of Moscow Alexy II (Ridiger) , who was born in inter-war independent Estonia ( First Estonian Republic ) and became bishop in Soviet Estonia ( Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR)), suspended the Eucharistic communion with Constantinople in February 1996 patriarchy. ^[3] After several rounds of negotiations in 1996, the parties compromised, recognizing the possibility of temporary coexistence of two church jurisdictions in Estonia; parishes were given the freedom to choose which jurisdiction to belong to ^[4] . Communication with the Patriarchate of Constantinople interrupted by the Moscow Patriarchate was resumed by the decision of the ROC Synod in a meeting on May 16, 1996. ^[five]

On October 21, 2008, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to ordain two new bishops for the EAOC in order to create its own synod ^[6] . Hieromonk Iliya (Oyaperv) and priest Alexander Khopersky were unanimously elected to the departments of Tartu and Pärnu - Saaremaa ^[6] .

On May 26, 2011, by a decision of the EAOCC Council, by a majority vote (out of 88 delegates, 73 voted “for”, 1 “against” and 14 “abstained”) a decision was made to switch to the New Julian calendar from 2012 on. The decision to abandon the Julian calendar is motivated as “a desire to free oneself from the heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church ” ^[7] .

On June 9, 2012, in the town of Reomäe, 12 km from Kuressaare , a female monastery of John the Baptist was opened. ^[eight]

Currently, the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church unites about 7 thousand believers, most of them are ethnic Estonians. The EAOC has 60 parishes in which 30 priests and 9 deacons serve. For comparison: the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has 31 parishes where 45 priests and 13 deacons ^[9] serve, uniting from 100 to 200 thousand believers ^{[10] [11]} . Also in Estonia is the stavropegic Pyhtitsky monastery .

The church is divided into three dioceses: Tallinn , Pärnu and Tartu . There is a monastery monastery of John the Baptist on the island of Saaremaa .

“The Moscow Patriarchate does not recognize the church structure of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Estonia as the canonical dignity of the autonomous Orthodox Church” ^[12] .

Disagreements on the situation of the Orthodox Church in Estonia led “to the forced refusal of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church to participate in the meeting of the Joint International Commission on Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church held in Ravenna (Italy) on October 8, 2007” ^[13] .

• Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate

• prot. Nikolai Balashov , arch. Igor Prekup. Morality and law vs political expediency? From the history of church-state relations in Estonia // The State and the Church in the USSR and Eastern Europe during the period of political crises in the second half of the 20th century. / Ed. G.P. Murashko and A.I. Filimonova. - 2013.
• prot. N. Balashov, prot. I. Prekup. The History of Estonian Orthodoxy and an Attempt at Unscrupulous Revision: About the book of Archimandrite Gregory Papatomas “The Misfortune of Being a Small Church in a Small Country” . - 2013.
• Konstantinov N. Discord dominates in Tallinn // Nezavisimaya Gazeta . - January 31, 2001.
• Scandalous visit // Youth of Estonia . - 3.10.2000.
• Shkarovsky M.V. Constantinople and Russian churches during the period of great upheavals (1910s - 1950s). - M .: Publ. House "Knowledge", 2019. - S. 304. - ISBN 978-5-906960-59-7 .

• The official website of the EAOC (est.)
• EESTI APOSTLIK-ÕIGEUSU KIRIK (Website about the EOCA Orthodoxy in Estonian, English and French.)
• Stephanos (Charalambides) of Tallinn
• Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Orthodoxy in Estonia
• Igor Klyuev. The Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is again refused to register , March 21, 2002.