However, authorities are now questioning whether the Estonian Church is acceptable. “The highest spiritual leader of their Church has declared a holy war against the West, including Estonia. This amounts to incitement to terrorism: if a similar action were taken by an Islamic cleric, would we tolerate it? Certainly not,” said Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets.
And he doubts that Kirill will change his position. “On the contrary, they are becoming more and more aggressive over time, as the Russian people mobilize behind the Putin regime’s aggression, which requires justifying aggression in Ukraine as serving a ‘higher purpose’ “, he added.
“This is what an extremist group speaks, but not the head of the Church,” agreed Pavel Borşevschi, another Orthodox priest from Moldova.
Moldova is currently home to nearly 1,000 Russian Orthodox churches, with more than 90% of Moldovans identifying as Orthodox Christians. Indeed, Kirill is still officially the highest spiritual leader of the Church of St. Dumitru of Borşevschi in Chișinău – and yet, “the name of Patriarch Kirill is not mentioned in the church on working days. People can no longer tolerate the Russian Church, which has turned into a sect,” Borşevschi said.
So why, one might ask, does St. Dumitru’s Church continue to operate under Russian religious leadership, as does the entire metropolis of Moldova?
“We must stay united no matter what. This is one of the teachings of Christ,” Borşevschi said. Instead, he hopes that the Metropolitan of Moldova will spearhead a merger of the Moldovan Orthodox Church with the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Politices
