Thirty communities of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church appeal to the Seimas against bills on church property

Thirty parishes and monastic communities of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, which belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, sent appeals by 10 November to the leadership and deputies of the Lithuanian parliament. The communities oppose bills that change the legal status of the Church, restrict its rights and transfer a number of churches to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In 2023 the Patriarchate of Constantinople created its own exarchate in Lithuania, that is, a church structure subordinate directly to the patriarch. According to the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, the core of the exarchate was formed of clergy who had been suspended from service and defrocked.

One of the bills proposes to transfer to Constantinople the Holy Spirit Monastery, the Cathedral of the Mother of God (Prechistensky Cathedral), the churches of Saint Paraskeva and of Saint Nicholas in Vilnius, and the Dormition Church in Vievis. Parishioners of the Church of Saints Constantine and Michael in Vilnius write that canonical ties with Moscow do not diminish their civic loyalty to Lithuania. Parishioners of the Church of the Archangel Michael object to the law granting Constantinople the exclusive right to represent the Orthodox of Lithuania, and ask that the bills be checked for compliance with the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The appeals were also signed by the brethren of the Holy Spirit Monastery and the sisters of the Monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene.

The Legal Department of the Chancellery of the Seimas has already concluded that a number of provisions of the bills contradict the Constitution of Lithuania

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