The Baltic churches and the national revival

Abstract

The rapid growth of national revival movements in the Baltic republics over the last three years has not been just a political phenomenon. The assertion of their national identity and rights by the Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, their demands for reform and democratisation, have been accompanied by a noticeable revival of interest in religion and increased commitment to religious causes. The involvement of religious activists in national political movements and the founding of some specifically Christian parties are merely part of this change in the churches' position. As recently as July-August 1987, I Dean Modris Plate and a number of other influential clergymen in the Latvian Lutheran Church were dismissed from their positions by Archbishop Mesters because they had founded a 'Rebirth and Renewal' movement to 'defend openly the right of Latvians to lead a Christian life;' they had called for alternatives to military service, legalisation of religious instruction for children, legal status for the church and authorisation of religious activities in hospitals and old people's homes. The archbishop, yielding to pressure from the Council for Religious Affairs, had stated 'there are authorities we caI\not ignore'. In November 1986, the Lithanian CRA official P. Anilionis had refused to allow the Lithuanian Catholic bishops to visit Rome for the 600th anniversary of Christianity in Lithuania, because of their support for 'extremist priests' and 'illegal literature'. He rejected their 'impossible demands' for the return of confiscated -churches such as Vilnius Cathedral and St Casimir's church (a well known museum of atheism) and told them to discipline clergymen who wrote petitions to the CRA asking for the release of imprisoned priests. The changes since then have been substantial. The CRA officials in both Latvia and Lithuania have been replaced. In 1988 Lithuanian priests imprisoned for their participation in the Catholic Committee