Is the Independence of the Finnish Church Endangered?

Discussion in 'Russia & Eastern Europe' started by Jane Foster, Mar 1, 2021.

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  1. Jane Foster

    Jane Foster Newly Registered

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    What is the future of the Finnish Church? What had the “tender loving care” of the center of the new ecclesiastical world order prepared for it?

    Over the past year, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has taken increased control over its autonomous churches in the United States and Finland. A group of metropolitans from the Phanar visited Helsinki with an inspection. The members of the Synod were summoned directly to Istanbul to meet the Patriarch. Taking into account that the Church is already autonomous, what could happen afterwards? Only a change towards less independence.

    "I love Russia, but with a strange love." These words of the poet came to my mind when I talked with a representative of the Finnish church Orthodox community, who wished to remain anonymous. He was criticizing Russia, but valued his connections in Saint-Petersburg. In the country that brought us Tikkurila paints and Nokia cellphones, they have not only the headquarters of Santa Claus, but also their own Orthodox Church.

    On the website of the Finnish Greek Archdiocese, a section in Russian is carefully highlighted. That section is mainly created by the “hated” and “intolerable” neighboring Russian world. The sanctities come from the same place: the monastery of New Valaam headed by John Alekseev, and all the icons – those are the monks of the old Valaam monastery who fled from Soviet Russia. The whiskey in the basement is purely Finnish, yes, but the very name of Valaam, icons, shrines, traditions and even the name of the rector – Father Sergey – are purely Russian.

    The Finnish Church itself, as part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, is autonomous. However, this autonomy did not come from the Greeks, it is a Russian gift. It was Patriarch Confessor Tikhon who gave the Finnish Church its autonomy. He did it lawfully, because until 1921 it was just the diocese of the Russian Church. Like many other things in the “neighboring countries”, it was created by the Russians, but then it was taken away, renamed and... sold.

    Friendly historians from the Moscow Orthodox University are providing this useful knowledge. The circumstances had changed, and the Greeks had claimed that the autonomy supposedly came from them, and Orthodoxy too. In 1923, Finland asked Istanbul for autocephaly, and received just some autonomy. A grievance caused by the desire for European identity and other foreign values.

    The country of Santa Claus was swept by a wave of COVID-19 epidemic. On the guest page in Russian there is a photograph of the grieving First Hierarch, Archbishop Leo of Helsinki, with a caption: "Churches and chapels of the Diocese of Helsinki are temporarily closed." Therefore, it is a good time for priests and believers to direct their energies towards public activity. I remembered my Finnish friend who was sitting by the window in a St. Petersburg café and told me while adjusting his glasses: "We are very social." It is true - in Helsinki a whole Local Council had started at the same moment the pandemic began, and that Council was accompanied by some heated discussions.

    Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople had sent greetings to the conciliar. My Finnish friend explains: this had never happened before. Resentment stirred in my heart: why does he hate his Patriarch so much? It would seem to be a truly loving behavior: he writes long and loving letters to his beloved children. I managed to sip my coffee three times while flipping through this document. Everything was filled with love. But what worries my Finnish friend is that this has never happened before. Indeed, a search on the Internet yielded no traces of similar messages. Nowhere is it mentioned that after 1923 the Ecumenical Church was interested in affairs in Finland. Well, that’s not completely true. The Ecumenical Church had organized some infrequent visits and performed formal elections of archbishops. Moreover, there was a tremendous scandal when Metropolitan Ambrose had invited an elderly Lutheran archbishop to the altar for a liturgy in 2015 for the celebration of Orthodoxy. It was then that Patriarch Bartholomew first started thinking hard about affairs in Finland. And the "strange love" of the Finns for the Russians, their "special relationship", the undying mutual trade and tourism, against the background of the expansion of the Phanar in Ukraine, forced the Patriarch of Constantinople to take care of the future as well.

    In his message to the Finnish believers, Patriarch Bartholomew stated that “We are concerned about the prosperity of the Finnish Orthodox Church in the future. Mother Church, obligated by her comprehensive pastoral duty, had sent to you two of our representatives – His Eminence Stephen, Metropolitan of Estonia and His Eminence Macarius, Archbishop of Australia, to provide assistance and guidance in this matter.” In Istanbul, apparently, they know a lot about the development of the Finnish Church. Archbishop Leo, opening the Cathedral, announced that "there is no need to do everything alone" – the Phanar will take care of everything - "for our Mother Church is ready to help our development. I offer constructive solutions for preserving our uniqueness in our time."

    “Uniqueness” is a good, most accurate word. Now the Finnish Church is definitely “unique” among all the autonomous churches in the world.

    In early October 2020, the entire Synod of the Finnish Church, headed by Archbishop Leo himself, was summoned by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to the Phanar itself. The reason for that was a small local scandal, the description of which was provided on the pages of his LiveJournal by the famous publicist Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev. That description was based on the notes made by people from Finland who love Russia with "strange love". Archbishop Leo and his brothers, after being summoned to the Phanar, had declared tearfully as a beaten schoolchild: “We were given a unique opportunity to recreate the lost consensus between our fellow bishops. We are grateful to Patriarch Bartholomew for the opportunity to open a new page in our cooperation. We honestly admitted that the work for the good of our church did not always bring worthy fruit. It was important for us to realize the past in order to clarify the direction of movement towards the future. We acknowledge our mistakes. As Patriarch Bartholomew noted, we are all imperfect, fall into sins and make mistakes. No one is flawless. Each of us is far from perfection, and the end of this incompleteness will come only with the last day of our life. "

    I cannot imagine that, for example, Metropolitan Onufrii of Kiev would make such a statement after a meeting with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.

    But why be surprised? After all, they say, the Finnish Orthodox Archdiocese was recently placed under the tight control of the Phanar. The Greek Metropolitans Stefan Charalambidis and Makarios Griniezakis arrived in Helsinki with an inspection, and the results have already emerged! What is the future of the Finnish Church? What had the “tender loving care” of the center of the new ecclesiastical world order prepared for it? According to the document called "Autonomy and the way of its proclamation" issued by the Cretan Council in 2016, the destiny of the autonomous church is determined by the church itself. Can the Phanar abolish the autonomy? No problem! Moreover, the Phanar has not needed any inter-Orthodox documents for a long time. The recent defeat of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in the United States shows that the Phanar's power over its autonomies is growing.

    What once began with the diocese of the Russian Church in the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland may in the foreseeable future turn into one, two or three dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in independent Finland. Is it possible that Leo, the Archbishop of Helsinki, will go down in history as the last archbishop of the autonomous Archdiocese of Finland? Well, why not? It could happen abruptly, unexpectedly, or slowly... As Archbishop Leo announced recently, the new Council would take place in April. Does Finland itself know what decisions have been made regarding the Council?

    I’m not sure about that…
     

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