Paavo Kontkanen and his role in normalization of relations between the Russian and Finnish Orthodox churches

It was he who said that at the meeting of the Synod in 1960, Archbishop Herman (Aav) would be asked to retire as he was very sick indeed and was not able to cope with his duties anymore. Bishop Pavel was seen as the only candidate to become a new archbishop: “energetic and sane person, having no prejudice against the Russian Orthodox Church” Ibid. L. 177.. It was expected that the composition of the Church Council would soon change too: Archpriest Ioann Sukhola and Simo Harkenen, who by all means tried “to slow down the establishment of friendly relations with the Moscow Patriarchate” Ibid. L. 176., should give the way to more agreeable people.

According to Kontkanen -- and it is a really important insight -- all of the questions above were evidently highlighted not without the state's intervention, namely the Agrarian Party, which made it clear to Archbishop Herman and the Church Council that they were not satisfied with “the Church's lagging in the development of friendly relations between the Soviet Union and Finland” Ibid..

The question of the Finnish Orthodox Church as a national Orthodox Church re-mained quite acute in the second half of the 1960s, during the rule of Archbishop Paul (Olmari). There were both supporters of this point of view and opponents. At the time, Paavo Kontkanen had a critical attitude towards the national character of Orthodoxy in Finland and, in particular, claimed the following: “That small group of Christians (circa 61 thousand people), which comprises the Finnish Orthodox Church and the autonomous Archdiocese, must never forget its smallness as well as its features. It has never been the so-called National Church. It is useless to say such a nonsense. The Orthodox Christians by the majority of the population have been neither in Helsinki, nor in Finland. Perhaps, in tsarist times one could speak about “the national Churches” in the regions of Salmi and Suojarvi. But it is in the past already. The National Church, which registers marriages 90 % of which are contracted between orthodox members and non-believers or unorthodox ones, is a “parody” of the National Church. This should always be remembered by us, who belong to these 10 %” Pis'mo professora P. Kontkanena arhiepiskopu Pavlu (Olmari) i episkopu Aleksandru (Karpinu) // GARF. F. R-6991. Op. 6. D. 141. L. 35..

Regarding the increase and spread of the Greek liturgical traditions in the Finnish Orthodox Church in the second half of the 1960s, Paavo wrote: “Neither Byzantine (Con-stantinople -- sorry, Istanbul), nor Greek and Alexandrian traditions guarantee the future of the Finnish Orthodox Church. From the outside, our church has become so Finnish that the Swedish part of the population of Finland should not forget that there are two official languages in our country. I hope, from the side of our Church it is only about the ignorance of our laws. The Synod of the Church, leastwise since 1925, has been in the hands of the Finns -- or at least those, calling themselves Finns, and maybe even consid-ering themselves Finns, maybe competent” Ibid..

In 1967 on the pages of “Aamun Koitto”, some controversy between the historian and professor Heikki Kirkinen and Paavo Kontkanen erupted. Kirkinen claimed that “every-thing, being Russian, has already become obsolete and needs to be replaced by Finnish and Greek” Dokladnaia zapiska o tekushchem polozhenii v Pravoslavnoi tserkvi Finliandii i sobornom prikho- de v Helsinki // GARF. F. R-6991. Op. 6. D. 141. L. 30.. In response, Kontkanen drafted an open letter to the Episcopate of the Finn-ish Orthodox Church with the following paragraphs:

• the Finnish Orthodox Church should demonstrate and maintain a good attitude towards the Moscow Patriarchate;

• the Finnish Orthodox Church should strive for friendly relations with the Evan-gelical Lutheran Church;

• the church policy should keep up with the official foreign policy of Finland;

• the Finnish Orthodox Church should stay away from the “labyrinth of the church policy in the Middle East churches” Dokladnaia zapiska o tekushchem polozhenii v Pravoslavnoi tserkvi Finliandii i sobornom prikhode v Hel'sinki. L. 30.;

• the Finnish Orthodox Church should be grateful to the Ecumenical Patriarch, but not be a “foreign policy toy” of this Patriarchate;

• both Karelians and non-Karelian members of the Church should participate in the ecumenical work of the Church.

Father Elias Piiroinen warmly wrote about the author of these paragraphs and his activities: “Paavo Kontkanen was known as an intelligent person, in whose words and speeches there were wisdom, humor, wittiness. His attitude to faith and especially to Or-thodoxy was childishly warm, in secular life he respected church traditions” Piiroinen E. Sielunpaimena ja kirkonmiehia. S. 61.. It is known that after leaving the Church Council in Autumn 1955, Paavo got a job at the Zoological Museum of the University of Helsinki. In 1962, he became an adjunct lecturer of zoology and until 1972 he worked as an assistant professor at the University of Helsinki. In 1967, he held the post as the head of the Commission on Higher Theological Education for Or-thodox students on the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki. It was expected that in the coming years three professorial departments would be established: Orthodox Church History Department (1969); Orthodox Dogmatics Department (1971) and Or-thodox Liturgics Department (1978) Additional travel report of archp. Evgeniy Ambartsumov to Finland from (February 7-25, 1967) // GARF. F. R-6991. Op. 6. D. 141. L. 144..

In addition to biology (entomology), Paavo was interested in the history of Ortho-doxy: even before the war, he wrote a manuscript about the history of the Joensuu parish, and in 1958 he published the “Overview of the History of Orthodoxy in Karelia” Piiroinen E. Sielunpaimena ja kirkonmiehia. S. 60.. Having been a member of the Church Council, Kontkanen devoted his life to the Lintul Monas-tery; and later, already in 1965, he discussed with the Lutheran Archbishop Martti Simo- joki the question of raising funds for the construction of a temple in this monastery Report on the 6^th Archpriest Evgeniy Ambartsumov's trip to Finland on February 4-18, 1965 // GARF. F. R-6991. Op. 2. D. 559. L. 91.. It is known that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland donated 10 thousand Finnish markkas for these needs Report to the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod Nicodemus (Rotov), from the Dean of the Patriarchal Parishes in Finland, Archpriest Evgeniy Ambartsumov, dated June 10, 1965 // GARF. F. R-6991. Op. 2. D. 599. L. 41..

The modern Finnish historian Teuvo Laitila, describing Kontkanens diplomatic ac-tivity in bringing the Churches closer, pointed out, “Although the negotiations were not successful, the relations between the Finnish and Russian Churches improved, and it can be assumed that this was what the Russian Church wanted to achieve. At a time when

Finland's foreign policy was determined by friendly relations with the Soviet Union, it was hardly possible to act in a different way” Laitila T. The Finnish Orthodox Church // Eastern Christianity and the Cold War, 1945-[19]91. London; New York, 2010. P. 288-289.. Paavo Kontkanen died on January 29, 1976. He was buried next to his previously deceased wife in the Orthodox cemetery of Helsinki.

References

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