Riga, September 20, 2022

Orthodox Church in Riga. Photo: rferfl.org

The Latvian Cabinet of Ministers has authorized Minister of Justice Jānis Bordāns to appeal to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on behalf of the state with a request to issue a tomos of autocephaly to the Latvian Orthodox Church.

The Minister is also tasked with formally informing the Patriarch about the amendments adopted by the Saeima, the Latvian Parliament, which legally define the Latvian Orthodox Church as wholly independent, the Ministry of Justice told the Baltic News Service today, reports Interfax-Religion (the Baltic News Service is the sole representative of Interfax in the Baltic states).

The Saeima adopted the relevant amendments earlier this month, citing national security concerns, as the Latvian Church is autonomous structure within the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Latvian Church didn’t protest the move from the government. Its press service informed the faithful:

This decision is of a legal nature and the adopted amendments relate to the legal status of the Church. The state has established the status of our Church as autocephalous. The state has determined that the Latvian Orthodox Church is legally independent from any Church center located outside Latvia, maintaining spiritual, prayerful and liturgical communion with all canonical Orthodox Churches of the world.

For the Russian Church, the state’s decision is a “crazy, unconstitutional intrusion,” as Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, adviser to Pat. Kirill, told RIA-Novosti.

According to the statutes of the Russian Orthodox Church, autocephaly can only be granted by a Local Council of the Church, which consists of bishops and clerical, monastic, and lay representatives.