Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church

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Episcopal coat of arms and flag of the EELK in Tallinn Cathedral

The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church ( EELK ; Estonian Eesti Evangeelne Luterlik Kirik ) is the national Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia . The official seat is Tallinn ( Reval ). The church is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), both in Geneva , the Conference of European Churches (CEC) in Brussels, the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe (CPCE) and the Council of Christian Churches in Estonia in Tallinn. The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church is also a member of the Porvoo Community and has agreed full church fellowship with these churches .

history

Church in Viljandi

Although the Estonians' first contacts with Christianity date back well into the first millennium, organized church activity did not begin until the 13th century. At that time there were three Roman Catholic dioceses on Estonian territory: The Diocese of Reval (from 1229), the Diocese of Dorpat (from 1224) and the Diocese of Ösel (from 1228), temporarily Virumaa (Wierland) . In the 15th century, Estonia had 94 parishes with churches and chapels, and 15 monasteries.

The Reformation with the ideas of Martin Luther established itself in Estonia in 1524 and produced sermons in the Estonian language. In 1832 the Lutheran Church in the Tsarist Empire was recognized as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia . It comprised Russia including the Baltic provinces , which included the Estonian settlement area. In the Russian-dominated Grand Duchy of Finland and the Kingdom of Poland there were separate Lutheran churches. With the collapse of the Tsarist Empire, the Lutherans formed new regional churches in the areas ceded by Russia, whose areas of office were oriented towards the new borders.

The decisive factor was the “First Estonian Church Day” on May 31, 1917, when the Church in Estonia emerged as a free people's church by uniting the country's 127 Lutheran parishes with their 920,000 members for the first time. When the Red Army marched into Estonia in 1918, the Lutheran congregations were brutally persecuted by Estonian troops on January 14, 1919 until they were liberated; three of their martyrs during this time were Pastor Walther Paucker , Pastor Traugott Hahn and Pastor Carl Hesse .

The Second World War and the following 45 years of Soviet rule with their atheistic ideology prevented church work and alienated the population from religious life. The Estonians were denied the opportunity to get to know the values ​​and ideas of the Christian faith, let alone do theological research.

Although the majority of the Estonians professing their Christian faith still belong to the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, the number of parish members had fallen to 167,000 by 2010. According to this, 13.6% of the population belonged to the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (before the two Orthodox churches = 12.8%, the Roman Catholic Church = 0.5% and the Baptists = 0.5%). The EELK gave its 160,000 members in 2019 for the parliamentary elections in Estonia in 2019 an election recommendation, according to which the Estonian Center Party most closely reflects the positions of the EELK.

Church structure of the EELK

consistory

Consistory in Tallinn

The church is administered by the consistory . The seat of the church leadership is in 10130 Tallinn, Kiriku plats 3.

Archbishop and Bishops

The spiritual head of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church is the archbishop (bishop until 1949). As the highest-ranking pastor, he leads the entire church. His right hand is the bishop . Together they supervise the church, which is divided into 12 provosts .

Previous incumbents:

  • Bishops:
  1. 1921–1933: Jakob Kukk
  2. 1934–1939: Hugo Bernhard Rahamägi
  3. 1939–1944: Johan Kõpp
  4. 1949 (then Archbishop): Jaan Kiivit (senior) (1906–1971)
  • Archbishops:
  1. 1949–1967: Jaan Kiivit (senior)
  2. 1967–1977: Alfred Tooming (1907–1977)
  3. 1978–1986: Edgar Hark (1908–1986)
  4. 1987–1994: Kuno Pajula (1924–2012)
  5. 1994–2005: Jaan Kiivit (jun.) (1940–2005)
  6. 2005–2014: Andres Põder (* 1949)
  7. since 2015: Urmas Viilma (* 1973)
  • Bishops:
  1. since 1992: Einar Soone (* 1947) (Deputy Archbishop, responsible for Tallinn, Ida-Harju, Järva and Viru)
  2. 2010–2018: Andres Taul (* 1936 † 2018) (responsible for the EELK congregations abroad in Australia, Canada and the USA)
  3. since 2015: Joel Luhamets (* 1952) (responsible for the provosts of Pärnu, Tartu, Saarte, Viljandi, Võru and Valga)
  4. since 2015: Tiit Salumäe (* 1952) (responsible for the Lääne and Lääne Harju provosts, the diaspora in Europe and Russia as well as for media, communication, ecumenism and culture)

Church leadership

The church leadership lies with the Oberkirchenrat. The archbishop is the chairman. Members of the Oberkirchenrat are the bishop and five assessors, who each lead a specific work area.

General Synod

The parishes delegate their representatives to the general synod. It is the highest decision-making body.

Provosts

The EELK is divided into twelve provost districts:

  • Ida-Harju (Provost Tanel Ots)
  • Järva (Provost Teet Hanschmidt)
  • Lääne (Provost NN.)
  • Lääne Harju (Provost Jüri Vallsalu)
  • Pärnu (Provost Enn Auksmann)
  • Saarte (Provost Veiko Vihuri)
  • Tallinna (Provost Jaan Tammsalu)
  • Tartu (Provost NN.)
  • Valga (Provost Vallo Ehasalu)
  • Viljandi (Provost Marko Tiitus)
  • Viru (Provost Avo Kiir)
  • Võru (Provost Urmas Nagel)

Parishes

The 167,000 parishioners are connected in 165 parishes and are looked after by 214 pastors.

Among these congregations there is a small German-speaking congregation in Tallinn, which consists mainly of Russian-Germans.

Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad

history

In autumn 1944 around 80,000 Estonians were forced to flee the country due to the approaching Red Army . Among them were about 60,000 Lutherans. Many of them then lived in Sweden, Great Britain and Germany, some also in the USA and Canada. There they began to plant their own churches in their mother tongue.

This created their own Estonian churches, which, although they maintained connections with the local indigenous congregations, had their own legal status in these countries. This Estonian church in exile, with parishes that are often larger in area than the entire area of ​​Estonia, had its official seat first in Sweden, and most recently in Toronto, Canada . She united with the Mother Church in 2010; the previous archbishop has since acted as bishop of his own bishopric abroad.

(Arch) bishops

literature

  • Lutheran Service , year 43, 2007, issue 2 (= special issue: Estonia ). Edited by Martin Luther Bund, Erlangen.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2010 World Lutheran Membership Details; Lutheran World Information 1/2011 ( Memento of September 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) The annual statistical report of the Lutheran World Federation 2010, however, still recorded a membership of 172,000.
  2. ↑ taz online from March 2, 2019: Good forecasts for right-wing extremists
  3. ↑ Old Archbishop Kuno Pajula † , in: Lutherischer Dienst. Journal of the Martin Luther Association, year 2013, issue 1, p. 20
  4. ↑ a b Canada's suri peapiiskop emeritus Andres Taul
  5. ↑ a b Elected in an extraordinary synod in January 2015, introduced in Tallinn Cathedral on August 23, 2015, Lutheran Service , Volume 51, 2015, No. 3, p. 8
  6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from April 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Udo Petersoo: Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church on the EELK website.
  8. ↑ Estonia: Church abroad agrees to unification with the Lutheran home church , report by the institute G2W, Ecumenical Forum for Faith, Religion and Society in East and West , accessed on September 4, 2018.