Tomorrow,
June 3, the Orthodox Church of Estonia (OCE) will convene for
its ordinary General Assembly in the Transfiguration Church
of Tallinn.
The General Assembly of the OCE starts with the divine liturgy
headed by His Eminence, Metropolitan Stephanos of Tallinn and
All Estonia.
On the agenda
of the General Assembly there are the speech by the Metropolitan,
the confirmation of the year economic report, the internal regional
structure of the Church and the economic plan of the Church.
A new Church Administration and auting committee are elected
on the General Assembly.
The forthcoming
General Assembly is the first after the adoption of new statutes.
The OCE adopted new statutes on October 27, replacing the old
ones dating from 1935. The statutes were brought into harmony
with new law on Churches and parishes.
In his speech,
Metropolitan Stephanos stresses the work done between the two
General Assemblies for the development of the Church and draws
attention to the elderly people in the Church, both clergy and
lay. Especially, he marked things connected with the new statutes:
‘I can state with satisfaction that the new statutes work well
in the consciousness of our Church’, Metropolitan Stephanos
said.
‘The
present day shows that nobody is tarrying on the way: you
are all here and you wish a future for our Church’.
Touching
on the structural matters of the Church, Metropolitan Stephanos
told the participants in the General Assembly, ‘I expect a
responsible attitude from all of you, because it is our duty
to build a firm base for our Church, a base that would warrant
its stable development in future. Let those people, who knock
on the door of our Church, find help and support. Let us always
find strength to awake a new spring of the preaching the good
news in our parishes.’
The
Orthodox Church of Estonia is an autonomous local Church acting
on the basis of the 1923 tomos of the Oecumenical Patriarch.
The General Assembly of the OCE is the general meeting of
the Church.
