Talk:Finnish Orthodox Church

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It sure looks like the original version of the page was a machine translation of http://www.ort.fi/sivut_ortodoksisuus/kirkon_historia/kirkon_historia_3.php which is copyright by the Finnish Orthodox Church. Is there a permission for this?

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The edits by 62.145.191.2 seem to be cut-n-pasted from a copyrighted page at Virtual Finland. So I am reverting the article. -- Jniemenmaa 11:28 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Timelines

"Eastern Orthodox Christianity was introduced to Finland during Russian rule in the 19th century." Surely, eastern orthodoxy was introduced to (the area of) Finland (and its predecessors) long before the 19th century. Most of the vocabulary in Finnish language relating to the Christian belief are of an eastern rather than a western origin (raamattu, pappi, risti etc. etc). Clarifer 10:47, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

In fact Eastern Orthodoxy was introduced in Finland in the 11th century. The Orthodox Finns are however called Karelians to distinguish them from the Lutherian Finns. I am marking the section as ((disputed)) -- Petri Krohn 01:43, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

I clarified the section. As far as I know, it represents the current Finnish consensus view on the history of Orthodox Christianity in Finland. The main points:

• There was a population of Orthodox Karelians in Finland since 11th century, although their religion was somewhat primitive, containing rudiments of paganism.
• In the 19th century, the most visible Orthodox phenomenon was the Orthodox Christianity of the Russian minority in Finnish cities. However, these persons cannon be accurately described as a "ruling class". Most of them were well-off, but the political power was in the hands of Swedish-speaking Finns at that time.

I have not described the change in Finnish Orthodoxy from 19th to early 20th century, as some Finnish Orthodox clerics started a reform movement for a more Finnish form of Orthodoxy. This involved the use of Finnish in the liturgy and a more prominent reprensentation of laity in the church. However, before the Finnish independence, the movement was restricted severely by the fact that the Finnish Orthodox church was dominated by Russian church bureaucracy. After the Finnish independence, the movement was heavily supported by the government, as it diminished the Russian influence inside the church. As a part of the process, the Finnish Orthodox Church became a part of Ecumenical Patriarchate. Unfortunately, I do not have enough knowledge to write on these with required accuracy in the article. If someone knows better, please help with it. --MPorciusCato 08:22, 4 October 2006 (UTC)