Taking stock four years after the 2020 Annual General Meeting [AGM] vote “to look for a buyer of the church’ - St. Peter’s is still standing, and serving God’s Christian flocks. During this last year, with much help from our Heavenly Father, the new 2023 St. Peter’s Council has been able to place the Congregation and Church onto more stable financial footing, and has acquired the services of intern pastor Karl Paju, [University of Toronto, Wycliffe College, Masters of Divinity graduate student], to provide our Congregation with Lutheran services in Estonian and English. The 2023 Council’s focus for the remainder of this year are fall services, updating the membership list, and working on meeting the government’s new 2024 ONCA requirements.
While the future looks brighter, it is worthwhile to take a look back how we got here. In mid-September 2020, weeks prior to the Toronto St. Peter's Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Congregation’s September 27th AGM, the Executive/Council published two articles in the Toronto Eesti Elu [EE] newspaper. The purpose of these two articles was to communicate to St. Peter’s Congregants and to EE readers that the Toronto's St. Peter's Estonian Congregation and Church were facing financial hardship and probable insolvency, and thus the St. Peter’s Church property needed to be sold quickly to save the congregation.
The Estonian article, https://eestielu.ca/et/olla-vo... was released on September 11, 2020. The English article, https://www.eesti.ca/to-be-or-... was released on September 18, 2020.
The Council’s 2020 AGM directive was clear – ‘if plans were not made to sell the Church as quickly as possible, then the St. Peter's Congregation and Church would not last longer than 3 or 4 years’. If Congregants did not vote to commence looking for a buyer of the church property, the Council’s message in English was, that sale “will determine whether we continue for another four years and shut down". Their message in Estonian was, "kas meie kogudus kestab veel vaid järgmised 3-4 aastat ning siinsed eestlased kaotavad nii kiriku kui koguduse" ja "kõigi eelduste kohaselt saame oma kirikus olla veel kuni 3 aastat".
The two EE articles also identified that the Council was preparing its Congregation to adopt the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada [ELCIC] Constitution, which was selected for several reasons, not the least of which was providing generous severances to departing ministers.
In the first column of their first article, "Olla või mitte olla, selles on küsimus", the St. Peter’s Executive/Council stated that, “EELK Toronto Peetri kogudus asutati 3. augustil 1948". This was a blunder, as EELK and E.E.L.K are two very different churches founded on very different principles. The ‘Eesti Evangeelne Luterlik Kirik [EELK]’, was introduced by the Stalinist era Communist Party in Estonia, in April 1949, a month after the March 1949 mass deportations. The Toronto St. Peter’s Estonian Congregation was founded in 1948 upon the democratic 1919 Estonian ‘Eesti Evangeeliumi Luteriusu Kirik [E.E.L.K.] Constitution’. The mistake was not repeated in their English article.
During World War II, many of St. Peter’s founders and early members fought the Soviets to keep Estonians free and independent on their own land. When the Soviet seizure of Estonia became imminent 80 years ago in September 1944, over sixty thousand Estonians, including the St. Peter’s founders, managed to find safe shores in their personal, perilous “great escape / suurpõgenemine”. Embedded in 1955 into the St. Peter’s cornerstone is the proclamation, (in both Estonian and English) - ”Our St. Peter's Church has been built to the glory of God and is a memorial of our escape to a free country. This church is being erected in memory of the thousands of Estonians who have died in World Wars, the Wars of Liberation, and the dangerous escape. This temple of the Lord shall be our spiritual home where the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall resound. It shall be a place where we pray for heavenly blessing for those who are heavy-laden and those who are in bondage. It is a place where we shall pray for true peace and the deliverance of all oppressed.”
For the 2020 St. Peter’s AGM, the two EE articles along with AGM messages from the minister and a few council members, were the only elements provided to Congregants prior to having to make two very important voting decisions; (i) ‘to look for a buyer of the church property?’ … and, (ii) ‘to evaluate whether the St. Peter’s Congregation should accept the terms and join the Canadian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada [ELCIC]?’ For the ELCIC vote, the ELCIC Constitution was provided to Congregants for reference.
However, no financial justification was provided to the Congregation as to why this decision to ‘look for a buyer of St. Peter’s church’ needed to be made immediately, as prescribed by the Council. The closest that Congregants came to receiving financial information was that both articles referred to the Future Committee’s statistical analysis. “In 2018 a Future Committee was formed to focus on solutions for St. Peter’s to continue. It became clear, that statistics do not support the illusion that increased donations are the answer. The committee consulted with various experts in real estate, construction, etc. as well as to Bishop of the ELCIC.” However, these statistics and their financial expert’s decision-making criteria and evaluation were not made available to the Congregation. The Council did not give serious thought as to how revenues, operating expenses and investments could have been improved. Instead, their message was clearly calibrated towards creating an appearance of an immediate need to “sell the church”? Before voting, why could Congregants not have had time to talk with each other during the Covid lockdown?
Not covered in either EE article was the answer to the question - ‘where would the St. Peter’s Congregation go after the sale of its Church?’ That Council never shared their plans for the Congregation, nor did they schedule a meeting to discuss this topic with their Congregants. Was this inactivity simply the Council implying that there would be time after the sale to sort out that complex move? Or did the minister reveal his and the Council’s true plan, when at the AGM he stated that, ‘our Congregation of 60-70 would fit ‘nicely’ into the house on Madison Avenue’?
What the 2020 St. Peter’s Council also did not share with its Congregants, (in either EE article or at the AGM), were the results of their 2019 meeting with the “Estonian Centre Project” Lead, [now called International Estonian Center/KESKUS]. To this scribe, it appears that the 2020 Council was attempting to hoodwink its own Congregants, by creating a narrative of imminent financial doom at St. Peter’s as their reason why the church property had to be sold quickly.
Accepting the terms for joining ELCIC was more straightforward, as the ELCIC was built on similar democratic principles and congregational membership rules as was the E.E.L.K. What was hard to understand; why in 2021 did the St. Peter’s 2020 Council ignore their new ELCIC terms which they finalized in December 2020? By not following the now applicable ELCIC terms, and not initiating the creation of a proper St. Peter’s membership list, meant that decisions and votes using previous Council methodologies to help ‘find a buyer for the church’ were improperly conducted. From January 2021 onward, all improper votes and decisions should have been declared null and void.
This last year has seen more Congregants and many other people supporting St. Peter’s with their attendance and donations. Due to this wonderful, revitalized support, and with two new income streams, St. Peter’s future looks brighter today than it did in September 2020. At that time, a Council member called for help, “tulge appi”, to their ‘financially floundering’ St. Peter’s. Today, everyone who loves St. Peter’s should be pleased, that with God’s love and assistance, this call for help has now been answered in a positive manner. Thus our beloved St. Peter’s continues to serve God, and Estonian and local communities.
At St. Peter’s Church on September 22, over 100 Vana Andres and St. Peter’s congregants commemorated the 80th anniversary of the ‘great escape to freedom by our ancestors’. Thanks to those ancestors, the following generations have had bright futures in a free land which offered many opportunities. Now is a good time for all those thus blessed Toronto and area Estonian Lutherans and Christians to come together at St. Peter’s; at the temple that our ancestors built to thank God, and to give thanks for their, and our, freedom and safety!
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding” - Proverbs 3.13
Toomas Trei
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