EOC bishop on government demands: Salvation does not depend on legal status

Bishop Daniil of Tartu. Photo: s.err.ee

“It is un-Orthodox to claim that the salvation of the soul depends on legal status,” said Bishop Daniil of Tartu on the program Coffee+, commenting on the position of the Pühtitsa Convent regarding the Estonian government’s demands to leave the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), as reported by Postimees.

The bishop of the Estonian Orthodox Church explained that the Pühtitsa Convent cannot change its jurisdiction but hopes this will not affect the convent's activities.

“I think our minister does not want to go down in history as the person who closed a 133-year-old monastery,” said the bishop.

As previously reported, on October 29, the Pühtitsa Convent sent a letter to Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets explaining that the state's demand for the nunnery to leave the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate and renounce its stauropegial status is unacceptable and cannot be fulfilled. The convent underscored that the “proposed granting of the right to the nuns to choose their jurisdiction is in direct contradiction with both the concept of monasticism and the vows based on renunciation of the world.”

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