Kuremäe Convent head: Breaking bond with Russian Orthodox Church impossible

In an open letter to the Estonian Council of Churches, Abbess Filareta of Kuremäe, or Pühtitsa Convent, said the convent does not intend to break canonical ties with Moscow, as Estonian Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets (SDE) insists. According to Filareta, such a move would be impossible as the monastery's stavropigial status is enshrined in its statutes.
"In the world – the world outside the monastery's walls – tensions are flaring, conflicts are arising, and wars are breaking out, including between the fraternal Orthodox nations of yesteryear – Russia and Ukraine. For the inhabitants of the monastery, this armed and bloody conflict in the center of Europe is a source of great heartache. In our constant prayers, we ask God to reveal His divine power to all and to bring peace to those involved in this fierce military confrontation, which makes us recall the terrible pages of world wars past," Abbess Filareta wrote.
He added that, with great sadness, Kuremäe Convent and its inhabitants were being drawn into political controversies.
"The authorities of the Republic of Estonia want us to break the blood bond with the Russian Orthodox Church, which – in the person of its patriarch, Patriarch Kirill – has taken sides in this armed conflict. In other words, they want us, on our own initiative, to renounce our stavropigial status. Such a move on our part is simply impossible – the representatives of the Estonian authorities may, of course, not know that and not understand it, but you, our brothers in Christ, know what it means for the monastery to have a canonical link with the Mother Church. We cannot and have no right to, unilaterally break it, because the stavropigial status of the monastery is written into our Monastery Statutes, which we have no right to change of our own accord," the letter continued.
"The monastery was granted stavropigial status in 1990 thanks to the work and efforts of Patriarch Alexey II (Rüdiger). For the nuns of the monastery, his memory is sacred, as it was he, as the high primate of Tallinn during the 'Khrushchev' era, who saved the monastery from closure," the appeal said.
Abbess Filareta added that state interference in the life of the monastery, which had evolved over more than a century, lacked any constructive meaning. "The monastery was praying and working during the time of Tsarist Russia, during the Soviet Union, during the Republic of Estonia, and we sincerely hope that we will not be deprived of the opportunity to continue to turn to God in prayer, so that life in peace may be given to the entire Earth, to all countries and to all peoples."
"We appeal to you, as Christians, regardless of your confession, with an urgent request for your full support for Pühtitsa Monastery. We are sure that every believer understands that any kind of politics, and even more so, political pressure, is absolutely out of place for the inhabitants of the monastery. The monastery is beyond politics. Such is our creed. And we hope that your prayers will help bring this objective truth to the authorities of the Republic of Estonia, in whom we have great respect," the letter concluded.
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.
On Tuesday morning, Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets (SDE) visited the convent, with 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.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Michael Cole