Estonian Lutheran archbishop: a cultured nation rebuilds churches, it doesn't tear them down
Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church archbishop Urmas Viilma argues Tallinn's Alexander Nevsky Cathedral should not be demolished, urging instead attention to other symbolic churches left in disrepair.
Debate has flared rapidly in Estonia over the future of Tallinn's Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral, which is linked to the Moscow Patriarchate. Interior Minister Igor Taro reportedly raised with Tallinn's city government the question of terminating the building's lease, while other proposals have called for selling, dismantling, relocating, turning into a museum, or even demolishing the cathedral. The debate stems from Moscow Patriarch Kirill's endorsement of Russia's war against Ukraine and concerns about shielding Estonia from the ideological influence of a hostile state.
In a published article, Archbishop Urmas Viilma of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church notes that the cathedral remains a place where people come daily to pray, light candles, baptize children, marry and bid farewell to loved ones. He points out that other buildings on Toompea Hill — the Dome Church and the House of the Estonian Nobility — historically symbolized foreign rule too, yet their heritage was not destroyed but reinterpreted over time. The Dome Church is now the main church of Estonia's Lutherans.
Viilma recalls that back in 1936, the Estonian and Russian Orthodox congregations swapped buildings — the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral became the representative church of the metropolitan of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, which at the time removed the demolition question from the agenda.
The archbishop notes that while attention is focused on the cathedral's fate, other symbolically significant churches await state support: Narva's Alexander Lutheran Church, damaged in World War II and later used as a Soviet-era warehouse, remains only partially restored, as does St. Mary's Church in Tartu, tied to the history of Estonia's first national song festival. Fully restoring both would require government backing.
Viilma states that over the past 35 years, the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, with the help of donors, has restored around 50 churches that were closed or desecrated during Soviet rule, and calls for continuing to choose restoration over demolition, noting that shutting down churches was characteristic of the Soviet atheist regime.
