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Danilov Monastery, 22 Danilovsky Val, Moscow 113191, Russia
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29 February 1996
Written sources concerning the adoption of Orthodoxy by the Esths are traced back to the early 12th century. It was Russian missionaries from Kiev, Novgorod and Pskov who preached Christ in the Estonian land. By the 13th century Orthodox churches had existed in a number of Estonian cities. Their parishioners were both Esths and Russians. In the 1560s the dioceses of Yuryev and Viliandi was established. When the North War was over in 1721, Estland was incorporated into Russia. This contributed to a degree to the consolidation of Orthodoxy in the country. In August 1817 a special vicariate of Revel (Tallinn) was established within the diocese of St. Petersburg and in May 1865 it was included in the diocese of Riga.
In December 1917, by the decision of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Russia and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Veniamin of Petrograd and Ladoga and Bishop Arseny of Gdovsk consecrated Archimandrite Platon, who was Archpriest Pavel Kulbush before he took monastic vows, for service at the vicariate of Revel. As bishop of Revel he was charged with temporary administration over the diocese of Riga.
After the independent Estonian Republic was formed, a delegation of Orthodox parishes in Estonia came to Moscow in 1920. The delegation received a resolution made by the joint meeting of the Holy Synod and the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on 27 April [10 May] 1920, granting autonomy to the Orthodox Church in Estonia in all ecclesio-economic, ecclesio-administrative, educational and ecclesio-civil affairs. In October 1920 Rev. Alexander Paulus of the Church of the Holy Transfiguration in Tallin was elected administrator of the newly-formed diocese of Revel (Tallinn) and Estonia and confirmed in this capacity by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. He was consecrated bishop on 5 December 1920 by the former Archbishop of Pskov and Porkhov and by Bishop Serafim of Finland and Vyborg. Elevated to the rank of archbishop, he began his service as Primate of the autonomous Orthodox Church in Estonia.
In the beginning of the 20s, the state authorities in the Soviet Russia began an open persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, and its church authorities were in effect deprived of any contacts with dioceses and church units abroad.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that in the period from May 1922 to June 1923 His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon was under arrest without any possibility for administering over the Russian Orthodox Church.
The lack of normal communication with the church authorities in Moscow compelled the archpastor of Revel and Estonia to approach Patriarch Meletios IV of the Church of Constantinople with a request to take the Orthodox Church in Estonia under his spiritual care. To this end Archbishop Alexander visited the Patriarchate of Constantinople and received the Patriarchal and Synodal tome of 7 July 1923 confirming the autonomous status of the Estonian Orthodox Church and the rights and obligations of its Primate. The ruling archpastor was given the title of "Metropolitan of Tallinn and All Estonia", while the Church was named "The Estonian Orthodox Metropolia." This decision was made by the Patriarch of Constantinople because the Russian Church was temporarily deprived of the opportunity to administer over the Orthodox communities in Estonia.
In September 1924, the Estonian Orthodox Church was divided into two dioceses: those of Tallin and Narva. In October 1937, Archpriest Pavel (Dmitrovsky) was installed as Bishop of Narva.
It should be noted that in 1935, under the influence of Metropolitan Alexander, the Council of the Estonian Orthodox Church adopted a new statute. The Church was now designated "The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church" (EAOC). The EAOC was given the right of a legal identity which includes the rights of its parishes and other institutions to own and dispose of the movable and non-movable property (church and other buildings, lands, etc.)
In June 1940, Estonia was incorporated into the Soviet Union. On 27 December 1940, the enlarged meeting of the EAOC Synod, chaired by Metropolitan Alexander of Tallin and All Estonia, made the decision to restore canonical relations with the Mother Russian Orthodox Church. In March 1941, Metropolitan Alexander visited Moscow, where on 31 March the official reunification took place between the Estonian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Sergiy, Patriarchal Locum Tenens, incorporated the Estonian Orthodox Church in the Baltic Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Sergiy (Vokresensky) of Lithuania and Vilno.
When German troops entered Estonia in 1941, the diocese of Narva under Bishop Pavel (from December 1942 Archbishop Pavel), remained in the Baltic Exarchate. Metropolitan Alexander, who headed the diocese of Tallin, left again the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church and in 1944 emigrated first to Germany and later to Sweden. In 1947 in Stockholm, Rev. Yuri Vjaide created the so-called "Synod of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church in Exile" under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, whose declared purpose was to provide the Estonian Orthodox diaspora with spiritual care. In 1953 Metropolitan Alexander died in Stockholm. There is information that he dismissed the EAOC Synod a year and a half before his death. The Estonian Orthodox parishes in Sweden were subjected to Metropolitan of Sweden under the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In May 1978 Patriarch Demetrios I of Constantinople in his letter to Metropolitan Paul of Sweden, Exarch of Scandinavia, officially confirmed that the Patriarchal and Synodal Tome of the 7 July 1923, issued by the Patriarchate of Constantinople with regard to the Estonian Orthodox Metropolia was recognized as "no longer valid" due to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church and the Estonian had restored their premordial canonical relations. It should be added to the above that the canonical status of the Synod in Stockholm is more than dubious, for actually a Synod is a collegial body under a bishop, the head of a church, while the Estonian Orthodox parishes abroad had no such head after Metropolitan Alexander died in 1952. A Synod should be canonically elected, while the Synod in Stockholm was not elected at all and, therefore, has no canonical power.
Immediately after the hostilities in Estonia ended in November 1944, the EAOC Synod, who stayed in their country, appealed to the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Alexis of Leningrad and Novgorod, to accept them and all the clergy and laity of the Estonian Orthodox Church in canonical communion with the Mother Church. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexis I of Moscow and All Russia, the rite of acceptance was performed by Archbishop Gregory of Pskov and Porkhov on 6 March 1945 at St. Nicholas's Church in Tallin. This re-unification was welcomed by all the parishes of the Estonian Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Holy Synod united the dioceses of Tallin and Narva and placed it under the spiritual care of Archbishop Pavel of Narva (member of the EAOC Synod), making him the Archbishop of Tallin and Estonia.
In September 1961 the Tallin see was entrusted to Bishop Alexy (Ridiger), now the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who was born in Estonia and began his pastoral ministry there. He administered over the Estonian diocese till September 1990 when Archimandrite Kornily (Jakobs) took over after as Bishop of Tallin, Patriarchal vicar, after 30 years of service as rector of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Tallin. In August 1902 he was appointed ruling bishop of the diocese with the title of Bishop of Tallin and Estonia.
The sovereignty of the Estonian Republic was restored in 1991 after it broke away from the Soviet Union. At that time the ruling bishop in Estonia was Kornily (Jakobs), an outstanding pastor whose steadfast faith had not been broken even by imprisonment during atheistic persecution. He started energetically to order life in the Estonian Orthodox Church in the new situation. He held negotiations with the Government concerning a number of urgent internal ecclesiastical matters which could not be resolved without state support. He reached an oral agreement, but the political changes in Estonia prevented it from being officially sealed.
In April 1992 the Council of the Estonian Orthodox Church including both the clergy and laity who met at the Pukhtitsy Convent declared the unanimous desire to stay canonically under the Moscow Patriarchate and asked for independence in internal affairs in keeping with holy canons (Ap. 34, 35; 1Ec. 6; 3 Ec. 8, etc.). Bishop Kornily accordingly submitted a report to the Patriarch asking to restore the independence (autonomy) of the Orthodox Church in Estonia as was granted by Patriarch Tikhon in May 1920. On 11 August 1992 the Russian Orthodox Holy Synod confirmed Patriarch Tikhon's action to give independence to the Orthodox Church in Estonia in ecclesio-economic, ecclesio-administrative, educational and ecclesio-civil affairs. The Moscow Patriarchate recognized the Orthodox Church in Estonia as the owner of all the church property in its territory. Bishop Kornily was charged with drafting the statute of the Orthodox Church in Estonia on the basis of 1935 Statute with necessary amendments of canonical nature to be made to reflect the present situation of the Church. This Statute was to be presented for registration with the state subject to approval by the Holy Synod.