Kuremäe Convent: Estonia must negotiate with Moscow
Religious leaders at Estonia's Kuremäe Convent said on Tuesday after a meeting with Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets (SDE) that it cannot leave Moscow's subordination itself. Tallinn and the Moscow Patriarch Kirill must negotiate with each other.
Kuremäe, also known as Pühtitsa, said the Moscow Patriarchate, or stavropegial status, is written into the monastery's statutes, which makes it impossible to change jurisdiction.
"Consequently, a monastery cannot itself initiate a refusal of Stavropigian status," a press release said.
"If the government of the Republic of Estonia, in the person of the Minister of the Interior, intervenes to change the jurisdiction of the monastery, then the government, as the initiator of the process, can itself approach Patriarch Kirill with a proposal to revoke the Stavropegic status of Pühtitsa Monastery," the monastery announced.
Abbess Filareta noted that this path is canonically legitimate for the convent's nuns.
The press release added that the only allowed result of the process of revoking the stauropygial status for the monastery is a guarantee from the Estonian government, which allows the monastery to choose the jurisdiction itself, and the monastery should not feel any pressure in this matter.
The convent said it was noted during today's meeting that it has not participated in political action and has not allowed itself to be manipulated by political forces.
Kuremäe received stavropegial status from Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow in 1990.
"For the monastery, the memory of this patriarch is sacred, because in the "Khrushchev era", as Supreme Prior, he saved the monastery from closure," the press release stated.
Läänemets said on Tuesday morning that his visit had two goals. Firstly, to assure the convent that Estonia will not interfere in religious matters. Secondly, to explain the government's position on churches and congregations of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPEÕK) answering directly to the Russian patriarch and the Kremlin.
The Moscow Patriarchate has said the Republic of Estonia should not exist. The government is urging the churches within its domain in Estonia to leave and join the Constantinople Patriarchate instead.
The Pühtitsa Dormition Convent is a nunnery of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kuremäe, Estonia that directly answers to the patriarch of Moscow and all Rus. The convent was created in 1892-1895 and is home to over one hundred nuns and novices.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Helen Wright
