 Orthodox Church in Finland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | National church |
| Classification | Eastern Orthodox |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Primate | Elia ofHelsinki and allFinland |
| Bishops | 5 |
| Priests | c. 140 |
| Dioceses | 3 |
| Parishes | 12 |
| Monasteries | 2 |
| Language | Finnish,Swedish,Skolt Sami,Church Slavonic,Greek |
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
| Territory | Finland |
| Independence | 1921 (Autonomy granted fromMoscow Patriarchate) 1923 (Autonomy granted fromEcumenical Patriarchate) |
| Recognition | Autonomy granted and recognised in 1923 by theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and in 1957 by theRussian Orthodox Church. |
| Members | 55,607 (31.12.2025)[1] |
| Official website | ort.fi |
TheOrthodox Church in Finland (Finnish:Suomen ortodoksinen kirkko,lit. 'Finnish orthodox church';[2]Swedish:Ortodoxa kyrkan i Finland,lit. 'Orthodox church in Finland'[3]) is anautonomousEastern Orthodox archdiocese of theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The church has a legal position as anational church in the country, along with theEvangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.[4]
With its roots in the medievalNovgorodian missionary work inKarelia, the Orthodox Church of Finland was a part of theRussian Orthodox Church until 1923. Today the church has three dioceses and 54,895 members inFinland, accounting for almost one percent of the native population of Finland. The parish ofHelsinki has the most adherents. There are also 2,700 members living abroad.
Along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Orthodox Church of Finland has a special position in Finnish law.[5] The church is considered to be a Finnish entity of public nature. The external form of the church is regulated by an Act ofParliament, while the spiritual and doctrinal matters of the church are legislated by the central synod of the church. The church has the right to tax its members and corporations owned by its members. Previously under the Russian Orthodox Church, it has been an autonomous Orthodox archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople since 1923.[6]
The Orthodox Church of Finland is divided into threedioceses (hiippakunta), each with a subdivision of parishes (seurakunta). There are 21 parishes with 140 priests and 57,613 members in total, of whom 54,895 are in Finland.[7] The number of church members has been steadily growing for several years.[8][9] A convent and a monastery also operate within the church.
The central legislative organ of the church is the central synod which is formed of:
The priests and cantors elect their representatives on a diocesan basis, using theplurality election method. The lay representatives are electedindirectly. The nominations for representatives are made by the parish councils which also elect the electors who then elect the lay representatives to the central synod. The central synod elects the bishops and is responsible for the economy and the general doctrine of the church.
The two executive bodies of the church central administration are the synod of bishops, responsible for the doctrinal and foreign affairs of the church, and the church administrative council (kirkollishallitus), responsible for day-to-day management of the church.
The parishes are governed by the rector and the parish council, which is elected in a secret election. All full-age members of the parish are eligible to vote and to be elected to the parish council. The members of the parish have the right to refrain from being elected to a position of trust of the parish only if they are over 60 years of age, or have served at least eight years in a position of trust. The parish council elects the parish board, which is responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the parish.
Financially, the church is independent of the state budget. The parishes are financed by the taxes paid by their members. The central administration is financed through the contributions of the parishes. The central synod decides yearly the amount of contributions the parishes are required to make.
The special status of the Orthodox church is most visible in the administrative processes. The church is required to conform with the general administrative law and the decisions of its bodies may be appealed against in the regional administrative courts. However, the court is limited to reviewing the formal legality of the decision. It may not overturn an ecclesiastical decision on the basis of its unreasonableness. The decisions of the synod of bishops and the central synod are not subject to the oversight of the administrative courts. In contrast, similar legal oversight of private religious communities is pursued by the district courts.
Finnish law protects the absolutepriest–penitent privilege. A bishop, priest or deacon of the church may not divulge information he has heard during confession or spiritual care. The identity of the sinner may not be revealed for any purpose. However, if the priest hears about a crime that is about to be committed, he is responsible for informing the authorities in such manner that privilege is not endangered.
The Diocese ofHelsinki has the most members, over 28,000. The Diocese of Helsinki is the seat of the archbishop. The diocese is divided into three parishes, with 50 priests. The main church of the diocese isUspenski Cathedral in Helsinki. Characteristic to the diocese is the large number of members who have recently immigrated to Finland, especially in the Helsinki parish where several churches also officiate at the service in foreign languages, including Russian, English, Greek and Romanian.
The current bishop isArchbishopElia (Wallgren). He was appointed in 2024.[10]
The seat of the Bishop of Kuopio and Karelia is inKuopio.
The Diocese of Karelia has 19,000 church members in 5 parishes. The number of priests in the diocese is about 45, and churches and chapels total over 80. The diocese also includes the only Orthodox monasteries in Finland.
The Orthodox Church Museum of Finland also operates in Kuopio.[11]
The current bishop isMetropolitanArseni (Heikkinen). He was appointed in 2018.
The small Diocese ofOulu has four parishes, the largest of which is Oulu.
The diocese was established in 1980 and it has 6,000 members. The cathedral of the diocese is theHoly Trinity Cathedral of Oulu. Traditionally, theSkolts, now a small minority of only 300 speakers, have been the earliest Orthodox Christians in theFinnish Lapland. Today, they live predominantly in theInari parish.[12]
The Diocese of Oulu was founded as part of ArchbishopPaul (Olmari)´s plan to make the Finnish Orthodox Church autocephalous. However, the autocephaly plan has now been abandoned.
The Locum Tenens after Metropolitan Elia`s election as Archbishop isBishopSergei (Rajapolvi).
The only Orthodox Christian monastery in Finland,New Valamo (Valamon luostari), is situated inHeinävesi.[13] The only Orthodox Christian conventLintula Holy Trinity Convent (Lintulan Pyhän Kolminaisuuden luostari) is in Palokki,[14] some 10 kilometers away from the monastery. Both were established during World War II when residents of the Karelian andPetsamo monasteries were evacuated from areas ceded to the Soviet Union. With friendly support from the Finnish Orthodox Church, a private Orthodox Brotherhood of Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrovan veljestö ry) has operated inKirkkonummi since 2000, with two permanent members.[15][16]
The following organizations operate within or on behalf of the Orthodox Church in Finland:
The Finnish Orthodox Church established its own missionary organization in 1977 known as theOrtodoksinen Lähetys ry (Orthodox Missions). It has mainly been active in eastern Africa.[19] It later merged with OrtAid and formedFilantropia.
The Finnish Orthodox Church is the only Orthodox church that, to comply with national legislation, celebrates Easter according to theGregorian calendar. (Formerly, also theautonomous Estonian church followed this calendar.[20][21]) Easter is the greatest feast of church year as it is with other Orthodox churches. Alsothe Twelve Great Feasts are observed. Other highly observed feasts are:
Many Orthodox churches in Finland are small. The few more impressive shrines were built in the 19th century, when Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire, with the Orthodox Christian Emperor as theGrand Duke of Finland. Notable churches in Helsinki from that era are theUspenski Cathedral (1864) and theHoly Trinity church (1826). The oldest Orthodox church in Finland is the church of Protection of the Theotokos in Lappeenranta from 1782 to 1785.[22]
The Orthodox Church of St. Peter and St. Paul inHamina was completed in 1837. Built in the architectural style ofNeoclassicism with some Byzantine-style elements, the exterior was designed in the form of a round-domed temple, while the interior is cruciform. The belfry was built in 1862 in theNeo-Byzantine style. The Orthodox church ofTampere was built in Russian romantic style, with onion style cupolas, and was ready in 1896. The architect of the Russian army, T.U. Jasikov, drew the floor plan. The church was consecrated in 1899 to SaintAlexander Nevsky, a Novgorodian who in 1240 fought against the CatholicSwedes and two years later the CatholicTeutonic Knights with equal success. Emperor Nicholas II donated the bells to this church. The church suffered heavily during theFinnish Civil War in 1918; its reconstruction took many years.[23] After Finland declared its independence, it was re-consecrated toSt. Nicholas.
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After theSecond World War, Finland had to cede land to theSoviet Union underParis Peace Treaties. Almost all Orthodox churches and chapels remained on the Soviet side in Karelia and Petsamo. The Finnish state enacted a special reconstruction law, in which it financed the construction of 14 churches and 44 chapels for the Orthodox church. The churches and chapels were modern in architecture, lacking domes and other features typical to the Orthodox church architecture. This was mandated by the Finnish state which strictly selected the architects. Most reconstruction era churches and chapels are designed by Ilmari Ahonen and Toivo Paatela.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Karelian-type log churches and chapels were built were built in Finland with some modern exceptions.
From the 1990s, some contemporary churches have been built in large cities and towns.
Christianity started to spread to Finland from the east in the Orthodox form and from the west in the Catholic form at the latest in the beginning of the 12th century. Some of the earliest excavated crosses in Finland, dating from the 12th century onward, are similar to a type found in Novgorod andKyiv.[24] Orthodox parishes are believed to have existed as far to the west asTavastia, the area inhabited byTavastians in Central Finland.
Some core concepts of the Christian vocabulary in the Finnish language are supposed to be loans from early Russian, which in turn has borrowed them from MediaevalGreek. These include the words for priest (pappi), cross (risti) and Bible (raamattu). This hypothesis is, however, not unchallenged.[25]
In the middle of the 13th century the inevitable clash between the two expanding countries, Sweden andNovgorod, and the two forms of Christianity they represented, took place. The final border between Western and Eastern rulership was drawn in the PeaceTreaty of Nöteborg, in 1323. Karelia was definitely ceded to Novgorod and Orthodoxy.[26]
The main missionary work fell to the monasteries that cropped up in the wilderness of Karelia. Two monasteries were founded on islands inLake Ladoga, which became famous some centuries later: the monasteries ofValaam (Finnish:Valamo) andKonevsky (Finnish:Konevitsa).
Karelian and Finnish forests were also populated by spiritually advanced hermits. Often around the hermit's hut or skete, there settled other fighters of the good fight of faith, and so a new monastery was founded. One of the most important examples of this process was St.Alexander of Svir (Finnish:Aleksanteri Syväriläinen) 1449–1533. He was a Karelian who fought the fight of faith for 13 years in Valaam monastery, but finally left it, and in the end founded a monastery at the river of Svir.[27]
The 17th century was a period of religious fanaticism and many religious wars as the newly emerged Protestant countries fought against countries that remained Catholic or Orthodox. At this time Sweden became a great force, expanding both southward and eastward. In Karelia the Swedish forces destroyed and burnt to the ground the monasteries of Valaam and Konevsky. Monks that did not flee, were killed. Many peasants met the same fate.
Karelians mostly identified themselves with the Russians, and not with the Finns.[28] Karelians rather called the Finns "ruotsalaiset," which is the Finnish word for Swedes.[29]
TheLutheran state church of Sweden tried to convert the Orthodox population. They were not allowed to obtain priests from Russia, which meant, in the long run, that they did not have priests at all. As Lutheranism was the only legal religion in Sweden, to be Orthodox was difficult on many levels. About two-thirds of the Orthodox population fled to central Russia from the Swedish oppression. They formed the population ofTver Karelia.[30] The Swedish state encouraged Lutheran Finns to occupy the deserted farms in Karelia. This massive flight of Orthodox Finns away from Finland meant that Eastern Orthodoxy was never again the majority religion of any part of Finland. However, in the remoter areas of Eastern Finland and Karelia, like Ilomantsi, the Eastern Orthodox Christianity survived.[31]
The period of the grandiose expansion of Sweden met its limits in two wars: theGreat Northern War which ended in theTreaty of Nystad in 1721 and theHat's War (1741–43) with theTreaty of Turku in 1743. Sweden lost all its provinces in theBaltic region, and a portion of eastern Finland to Russia.[32]
TheValaam Monastery was re-established in Lake Ladoga, and a new main church was consecrated in 1719. Monks returned toKonevsky Monastery before 1716.[33] The Russian government favoured the activities of the religion they had professed for many centuries. The Emperors and Empresses paid for the reconstruction of burnt or otherwise demolished churches. The Orthodox population of Eastern Finland again had access to making pilgrimages to the monasteries ofSolovetsk andAlexander-Svirsky.[34]
TheOld Believers, a schismatic group of Russians who did not accept the religious reforms ofpatriarch Nikon in 1666–67, were excommunicated from the Orthodox Church and fled to the outskirts of Russia. They also moved into the remote areas of Finland building three small monasteries there. However, the activity of these monasteries stopped during the following century.[33]
When all of Finland becamean autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire in 1809, it already had an established Lutheran Church. Eastern Orthodox Christianity also gained a recognized status in Finland. The old Swedish constitution which Finns generally regarded as the constitution of the grand duchy, specifically required that the sovereign wasProtestant, but this was overlooked regarding the Orthodox Emperors.
In areas where Orthodox faith was not indigenous as in the towns ofHelsinki,Tampere andViipuri and theKarelian Isthmus,[clarification needed] Orthodoxy was especially associated with the Russians, most of whom were Russian troops permanently stationed in Finland. The birth of Helsinki's Orthodox Church is generally associated with the construction of theHoly Trinity Church, Helsinki in 1827.[35][36] Generally most ecclesiastical activity outside Karelia centered on the garrison churches. There were also a growing number of Russian emigrants, most of whom were merchants or craftsmen. These started to identify themselves with the Swedish-speaking bourgeoisie, and so a Swedish-speaking branch of the Finnish Orthodox Church was born.
The 19th century was also a period of active building of new churches, theUspenski Cathedral being the most important of them. The garrisons needed Orthodox churches and so did the new emigrants to the towns. A good examples are the Orthodox church of Tampere and Turku.
In the rural countryside of Karelia, the local form of Orthodox faith remained somewhat primitive, incorporating many features of older religious praxis. Literacy among the Orthodox population was low. In 1900 it was estimated that of all persons over the age of 15 in East Finland, 32 percent were illiterate.[37] The Orthodox population knew very little of their faith except the outer forms. The priests were generally Russians who seldom knew Finnish. As Karelia and its arable land was poor, it did not attract first class priests. The language of the services wasChurch Slavonic, a form of old Bulgarian. A Russian could understand some parts of the services, a Finnish-speaking person nothing.[38]
A separate Finnishepiscopate with a leading archbishop was established in 1892 under the Russian Orthodox Church. It was stationed inVyborg, with the Russian Antoniy as its first bishop.
When Russia at the end of the 19th century tried to retract the autonomy of Finland, the Lutheran Finns started to associate the Orthodox Church with the imperial Russian rule, labeled as theryssän kirkko.[39] The cultural gap between the two churches remained significant.
Shortly after Finland declared independence from Russia in 1917, the Orthodox Church of Finland declared its autonomy from the Russian Church. Finland's first constitution (1919) granted the Orthodox Church an equal status with the (Lutheran) Church of Finland.[40]
In 1923, the Orthodox Church of Finland completely separated from the Russian Church, becoming an autonomous church affiliated with theEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. At the same time theGregorian Calendar was adopted. Other reforms introduced after independence include changing the language of the liturgy fromChurch Slavonic to Finnish and the transfer of the Archiepiscopal seat fromViipuri toSortavala.
Until World War II, the majority of Orthodox Christians in Finland were located inKarelia. As a consequence of the war, residents of the areas ceded to the Soviet Union were evacuated to other parts of the country. Themonastery ofValamo was evacuated in 1940 and the monastery of New Valamo was founded in 1941 atHeinävesi, on the Finnish side of the new border. Later, the monks from Konevsky andPetsamo monasteries also joined the New Valamo monastery. The nunnery of Lintula (now Ogonki) nearKivennapa (Karelian Isthmus) was also evacuated, and re-established at Heinävesi in 1946.
A new parish network was established, and many new churches were built in the 1950s. After the cities of Sortavala and Viipuri were lost to the Soviet Union (Viipuri is now Vyborg, Russia), the archiepiscopal seat was moved toKuopio and the diocesan seat of Viipuri was moved toHelsinki. A third diocese was established inOulu in 1979.
After the Second World War the membership of the Orthodox Church in Finland decreased slowly, as the Karelian evacuees were settled far from their roots among the Lutheran majority of Finland. Mixed marriages became common and the children were often baptized into the religion of the majority. But quite unexpectedly a "romantic" movement arose in Finland beginning in the 1970s onward glorifying Orthodoxy, its "mystical" and visually beautiful services andicons (religious paintings) and its deeper view of Christianity than that of the Lutheran Church. For these reasons, similar to Catholicism in England, conversion to the Orthodox Church became almost a fad, and its membership started to grow.
At the same time Archbishop Paavali of Karelia and All Finland (1960–1987) made liturgical changes to the services, that gave the laity a more active role in the church services, and made the services more open (earlier the clergy stayed behind a curtain for part of the services) and intelligible. Archbishop Paavali also stressed the importance of partaking in the Eucharist as often as possible.
In the 2010s, church membership has begun to decrease due to membership resignations and the declining number of baptisms. Compared to the membership trends of the Finnish Lutheran Church, members who resign from the Orthodox Church are on average slightly older and more likely to be female than those resigning from the Lutheran Church.[42]
About 3,000 Orthodox Christians in Finland belong to theRussian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which is not connected to the Orthodox Church of Finland. Unlike the Orthodox Church of Finland, the Russian Orthodox Church in Finland follows theJulian calendar.
Under Patriarchate of Moscow:[43]
Under Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople:
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