Metropolitan Stephanos of Estonia, elected to his position by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1999, spoke on Voice of Greece and the program “Our Global Voice” with Dimitris Kontogiannis. He referred to the work of the Orthodox Church in the Baltic country, where its flock continues to grow, to the small Greek community, and to the challenges in relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, which belongs to the Patriarchate of Moscow.
His Eminence was also asked about surveys indicating that a significant percentage of Estonians identify as atheists. He replied that he observes more and more people returning to the Church, stressing that one must take into account Estonia’s history: from 1945 until the early 1990s the country was part of the Soviet Union, under a communist regime in which religion was forbidden. For this reason, he is only the second Metropolitan of Estonia since the 1920s.
Metropolitan Stephanos further underlined that Estonia has made remarkable economic progress during the decades he has served there, becoming a model in digital services for other European countries, while its citizens also show great environmental awareness.