In an interview with yle.fi, Archbishop Elia of Helsinki and all Finland said that the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has created deep divisions within the Orthodox Church of Finland.
According to the Archbishop, one of the main fault lines concerns members of the Russian-speaking community living in Finland. He noted that some of them were surprised and even unsettled by the fact that the Church’s leadership has supported Ukraine from the very beginning of the war. The conflict, he explained, has divided not only parishioners but also the Church’s leadership, clergy, and other employees.
Archbishop Elia was reported as saying that the situation becomes problematic when people active in the Church do not follow its common and publicly stated position on Ukraine. In such cases, he warned, Russia may seek to exploit internal disagreements as part of its influence efforts. “We Finns are often naïve and tend to trust easily,” he said, adding that the Church now must remain vigilant and learn to recognize signs of hostile influence.
He stated that he is in regular contact with Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service, Supo, regarding “Russia’s attempts at influence and the broader geopolitical situation,” though he declined to give details. The Archbishop emphasized that the Church must not be naïve in the face of these challenges.
Russia’s role shaped the election of the Archbishop
Archbishop Elia was elected head of the Orthodox Church of Finland in November last year. According to the report, the election at the New Valamo Monastery effectively became a referendum on the Church’s stance toward Russia.
Before the vote, the strongest candidates—aside from Elia—were Metropolitan Arseni (Jorma Heikkinen) and Bishop Sergei of Hamina (Jyrjö Rajapolvi). Arseni later withdrew his candidacy after his values were publicly questioned due to “unclear claims” published in the Church newspaper Aamun Koitto.
The newspaper had reported that Arseni’s secretary, Kai Appelberg, made “pro-Russia comments,” including statements that the Russian Orthodox Church possessed values that the Church of Finland supposedly lacked. Appelberg told yle.fi that he felt he was used as part of a campaign aimed at discrediting Arseni as being overly sympathetic to Russia. Metropolitan Arseni himself does not share this opinion but explained that he withdrew because the Diocese of Helsinki is “poorly managed and conflicted.”
Background ties with Russia
The article noted that many priests of the Finnish Orthodox Church have historically maintained close ties with Russia, with some having studied there. Among them is Metropolitan Arseni, who studied for several years at the Leningrad Theological Academy in the 1980s, during the period when Patriarch Kirill—now the head of the Russian Orthodox Church—was serving there. Kirill is widely believed to have been a senior KGB officer during and after the Soviet period and is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Orthodox Church has officially declared that Russia is waging a “holy war” in Ukraine, and as recently as last week Kirill justified the invasion by framing it as a continuation of the Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany—claiming that Russians had not “fully destroyed the evil of Nazism.”
Metropolitan Arseni acknowledged in the interview that he “understands Russia to some extent.” Arseni also prohibited the prayer for the Ukrainian people from being read in his diocese on the anniversary of the invasion in 2025, despite Archbishop Elia’s directive to do so. Other bishops told yle.fi that this was due to a “work-related misunderstanding” and insufficient communication.
