Finns are doing it right. Peetri members all need to get behind exploring options before it’s financially too late. Moving the columbarium is the necessary first step. https://www.blogto.com/real-es...

I read that article in Globe and Mail last week and don’t see any connection to what the Finns are doing other than real estate development is always complex and has associated risks. Peetri Kiriku juhatus is on right path with moving columbarium, which would allow for options that might save the congregation.

You say “Moving the columbarium is the necessary first step”. It is the step required to get “proceeds from the sale of the church”.

On that point I recall the discussion and the terms in which the current leadership presents the issue:

https://www.eesti.ca/the-gener...

The question put forward by the current leadership is what will be done with the “proceeds from the sale of the building”, and they would have a new Future Committee examine all “available options”.

In the same announcement already there is a bait and switch. For one group, pitched in Estonian, the proceeds from the “sale of the church” would “allow us to continue our own activity for a longer time and to broaden our missionary work as well as better serve our community”.

Then a switch in English makes explicit a previously undisclosed option and that “all options” on the use of proceeds from the sale of the “property” are open, subject to the “examination” of what’s “available” (“outreach” and “additional programmes”) by the “new Future Committee”.

This article is disingenuous. 'There had been no substantial opposition to the proposal'. How many knew about it at that early stage amidst the lockdowns? Once the opposition comes, you just diss them instead of listen and try to work with them.

Weird how the Esto community is swimming in cash for vanity projects like the Monks house and glass hut with no space for a dumpster, but cannot even have one fundraising drive to boost the church before pushing to sell it off. The pastor is on the board of the 'Estonian Center', right? This is a grave conflict of interest and he should step down now.

The church is not able to survive financially beyond another 2-3 years. It takes at least a couple of years to go through the application process and move the columbarium. I’m signing off this thread as my preference is to discuss with people who attach their names to posts.

The Finns’ architect’s plan consists of tearing down the existing church building and then redevelop as a condo building with a church on-site. And they have to apply for rezoning the property.

To Olev Maimets - Golden Calf? Is that what St. Peter's church is? A false idol, a cult image, worshipped by non-believers? This biblical reference boggles the mind.

Our Toronto Estonian community is fractured and EKN seems blind to this .EKN members Reet Marten-Sehr, Kairi Taul-Hemingway Urve Tamberg and others took a free trip to Stockholm in June to attend the World Council Conference. Is this wise use of ANY organization's funds? The conference could have easily been on Zoom but, a free trip is more exciting.

Not so Mr. Maimets. The church is part of the congregation, built, paid for and owned by the members. Not the juhatus. No-one, certainly not the minister can override the wishes of, at the moment, over 1100 signatories of the petition to save the building. The proposals of how to do this financially seem eminently reasonable. E.E.L.K. is our Lutheran Church abroad, run from the bottom up. The congregation. EELK, run from Eesti, is a top-down church, run by the bishops, not the worshippers. St. Peter's ill-advisedly joined EELK.The congregation's wishes should be heard, not through a questionable rigged vote by a few, as seems to be the case.
There has been no transparency, if through wile and guile, great expense St. Peter's church is sold, as to where the monies will go. Nor where the congregation will worship. Without their own house of worship the congregation will certainly dwindle. Has the juhatus considered this?