Estonian Orthodox Church Drops ‘of Moscow Patriarchate’ from Its Name, Further Reducing Size of Russian Church’s Claimed Canonical Territory

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 21 – Offended by the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate’s cheerleading for Putin’s war in Ukraine and pressed by the Estonian government to break with that church or face a possible ban, the Estonian Orthodox Church has taken another step in that direction.

            Last spring, the EOC MP as it was then known explicitly rejected Moscow’s Russian world ideas and declared that it was canonically attached but not subordinate to the ROC MP (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/04/moscow-church-in-estonia-rejects.html and want

            Now, to the horror of many in Moscow but in a step Tallinn is certain to welcome, the Estonian Orthodox Church has dropped “of the Moscow Patriarchate” from its official name and removed all references to its links to Moscow and Russian canonical territory in its charter (stoletie.ru/lenta/estonskaja_pravoslavnaja_cerkov_ubrala_iz_nazvanija_upominanije_moskovskogo_patriarkhata_999.htm).

            How this will affect the EOC’s relationship with the other Estonian Orthodox Church which is subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople and whether this step will satisfy Estonian officials who may not be inclined to trust a denomination whose leadership in the past has consisted of ethnic Russians and been appointed by Moscow is uncertain.

            But one thing is clear: this Estonian church action is another nail in the coffin of the Moscow Patriarchate’s insistence that its canonical space extends to all the territory of countries once part of the Soviet Union, a position Putin in particular values because the ROC MP has been the only institutional arrangement that had extended to the Soviet borders.