President Lennart Meri received Metropolitan John of Pergamon, Metropolitan Meliton of Philadelphia, and Metropolitan Stephanos in Kadriorg today.

Metropolitan John forwarded the heartfelt gratitude and best wishes of Patriarch Bartholomew to President Meri. The Patriarch remembers his meeting with President Meri in Athens last year and hopes to meet the President again in the future.

Metropolitan John spoke to the President of the Assembly of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and informed that Metropolitan Stephanos, who was so far canonically the leader of the Orthodox Church, has now been elected the Head of Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church also in the legal sense.

The Metropolitans spoke of the prospective establishment of a theological seminary in Tallinn. The seminary, where a study period will be two years, will start its work in September next year. As Metropolitan John said, it is very important that the Assembly of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church approved the work with young people and the founding of the theological seminary.

Metropolitan John requested the President on behalf of the Patriarch to participate in the international symposium of environmental issues that will be arranged by the Orthodox Church. President Meri accepted the invitation. Earlier, the Patriarchate has discussed the environmental issues of the Black Sea and the Danube, and the results have also appeared in print. The Patriarchate now wants to continue this tradition in the region of Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea. The President consented to be the patron of the symposium.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, March 20, 2000

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