Paul Goble
Staunton, Apr. 4 – The synod of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has declared that the idea of “a Russian world” now being pushed by Patriarch Kirill does not correspond to the Gospels and has called on all members of its denomination to “pray for peace and the safety of all residents of our independent Estonia.”
By rejecting Kirill’s position as expressed at the World Russian Popular Assembly at the end of March, the leaders of the EOC MP are following the strategy the Moscow church in Ukraine has in its attempt to defend itself against charges it is a foreign agent in Ukraine (ru.orthodox.ee/messages/mpeok-sinodi-lakitus-poslanie-sinoda-epcz-mp/).
Whether that will help the EOC MP to maintain its separate status better than a similar approach has for the Moscow church in Ukraine remains to be seen. On the one hand, Estonia has had a much longer and more successful experience with having two Orthodox churches, one subordinate to Moscow and the other to Constantinople.
But on the other, the EOC MP has been under increasing pressure from the Estonian government which earlier this year ordered the head of that church, a Russian citizen, to leave after his Estonian residence permit expired (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/01/moscow-patriarchs-policies-making.html).
Despite the small size of the EOC MP, the Moscow Patriarchate and the Kremlin behind it have always seen its foothold in that Baltic country as critically important; and thus they can now be expected to respond extremely negatively if quietly to this latest Tallinn action (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/10/despite-small-numbers-involved-moscow.html).
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