Amid calls in Lithuania’s Orthodox Christian community to secede from the Moscow Patriarchate, Bartholomew I of Constantinople visited Vilnius on Tuesday.
“Today, a new perspective opens before us along with the possibility to work together for the establishment of an exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Lithuania,” he told reporters on Tuesday after meeting with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and signing an agreement on closer cooperation.
An exarchate is an administrative area of the Orthodox Church, made up of several adjacent dioceses on a national territorial basis.
Lithuania currently has the Archdiocese of Vilnius and Lithuania, which is subordinate to the Patriarchate of Moscow.
‘Historical justice’
Bartholomew I says the creation of such a structure is what both the clergy and the Orthodox Christian community in Lithuania want.
“We support the aspiration of both group of Lithuanian Orthodox priests and believers,” the patriarch said.
In his words, the possibility of practicing the faith under the Patriarchate of Constantinople restores “historical justice”.
“The presence of Orthodox Christianity in Lithuania dates back to the thirteenth century,” the patriarch, adding that is when the relationship between Lithuania’s Orthodox Christians and the Ecumenical Patriarchate was established.
Later in the day, the patriarch is meeting with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and five Orthodox priests who were reinstated last month.
The priests were defrocked by Metropolitan Innokentiy of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, subordinate to the Patriarchate of Moscow, last summer. The priests – who urged the Lithuanian Orthodox Church to secede from the Moscow Patriarchate due to its support for the Ukraine invasion – were accused of making false reports, disobeying the ruling bishop and conspiring.
Government vows support
For her part, the prime minister said it was “natural and human” that after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, supported by Moscow Patriarch Kirill, “it is no longer possible for some Lithuanian Orthodox Christians to be part of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Vilnius and Lithuania without a conflict with their conscience”.
“It’s quite understandable and historically justified that in order to practice their faith without any conflict with their conscience representatives of national communities appealed to His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to accept them into the mother Church of Constantinople,” Šimonytė said.
While she said she backed the appeal, she also stressed that the final decision rested with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
“This is a matter for the Church and the faithful to decide,” the prime minister said.
She stressed, however, that the government “will do everything” to ensure the freedom of belief, conscience and religion, enshrined in the Lithuanian constitution.
“The state and its officials cannot interfere or try to influence the canonical decisions of Churches, but when they are made, it would be hypocritical to pretend that we don’t understand their importance,” the prime minister underlined.
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