Metropolitan Kornily believes attacks against Tallinn mayor in building church on Russian means Unclever

Moscow, January 13, Interfax – Metropolitan Kornily of Tallinn and All Estonia spoke to back up Tallinn mayor Edgar Savisaar who was earlier criticized for his intention to ask Russian St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation to donate on building an Orthodox church.

“I consider attacks against city mayor Edgar Savisaar not only groundless, but unintelligent, irrelevant and proving that people who unleashed the scandal don’t know the core of the question,” the Metropolitan said in his interview published by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily on Thursday.

He stressed that Orthodox believers in Estonia cooperate with Savisaar not like with the leader with the leader of an oppositional party, but rather like the mayor. According to the Metropolitan, without permission of the local administration “it is impossible even to choose a land lot, leaving alone the approval of building plan and so on.”

“We have cooperated with St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation not for the first year. Yes, Estonian residents donate much to Foundation of the “Quick-to-Hear” Icon of the Mother of God. But to complete the building process much more is needed,” the Metropolitan stressed.

He pointed out that St. Andrew the First-Called has extended help in building and repairs of churches in Israel and Ukraine “and in has never caused hostile attitude of any politicians and special services.”

“Why no one is interested who give money for churches of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who preach there, how much these preachers earn and how much they give to state treasury? Our clerics have official salaries and pay taxes to the Estonian state,” the Metropolitan said.

The Church of the Mother of God Icon “Quick to Hear” is built in Lasnamae District where Russian-speaking people mostly live. Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia laid the church foundation in autumn 2003. Today the territory in front of the church is being equipped. It is decided that it will bear late Primate’s name who was Tallinn native.

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