The Russian Orthodox Church on Estonia and more

This a link to a long memorandum on the problem in Estonia; one Church under Russia and one under Constantinople with the latter being less recognized and its very existence quite upsetting the Moscow Patriarchate. It is also an article on the delegation to the Orthodox-Catholic Ravenna Dialogue refusing to sit with the Estonian Church (Constantinople) and leaving the conference entirely. Moscow then publicly refutted the value of Ravenna both because of what it said and because Moscow wasn't there. Here is the preamble for the full article found here.

Delegations of the Patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople held negotiations on 26 March 2008 in Zurich to discuss their differences concerning the situation of the Orthodox Church in Estonia, which had forced the Russian Orthodox Church delegation to withdraw from the meeting of the Joint International Commission for theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, which took place on 8 October 2008 in Ravenna, Italy. The withdrawal was caused by the fact that a representative of Constantinople’s church jurisdiction in Estonia was invited to the meeting as a participant from the autonomous Estonian Orthodox Church that is not recognized in this canonical status either by the Russian Orthodox Church or other Local Orthodox Churches. The invitation had been sent by the Orthodox co-chairman of the Commission, Metropolitan John of Pergamon, Patriarchate of Constantinople, without any consultation with representatives of other Local Orthodox Churches.

Acting on requests coming from the mass media, the DECR Communication Service has issued the following memorandum reflecting the position taken by the Russian Orthodox Church at the recent negotiations in Zurich.

Complete article here.