The church support fund of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church has launched a public campaign to raise funds for four churches: St Mary’s Church in Tartu, Alexander’s Church in Narva, St Nicholas’ Church in Paldiski and St Mary’s Church in Tõstamaa; some of the donations will be used to offer people spiritual assistance in these difficult times.
Through the campaign, the fund hopes to find 10,000 regular donors who will donate €10 per month on average.
“These are difficult times not only emotionally and spiritually, but also materially,” the archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, Urmas Viilma, said in a statement.
“The society in Estonia needs one another’s support, and as the scriptures teach us, those in need should not suffer, but those who have should give to those who have not. The goal of the church fund is to fix our churches as well as our people. Good mental health will make Estonians stronger as a nation. We will fix our churches, and we will fix our people. We will fix ourselves, and we will fix our loved ones.”
The chairman of the council of the church fund, Indrek Laul, said that of the approximately 300 sacral buildings in Estonia, close to 50 have been fixed in the last 30 years. “That’s not fast enough if we want to preserve the artistic and cultural heritage of our ancestors and the spiritual environments that tell us where we come from and show us where we’re going,” he asserted.
People can donate to the church fund online.
The fund was established on 9 January 2018. It raises money in support of the churches of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, to be used for the renovation and refurbishment of the church buildings and for spiritual work.
Cover: St Mary’s Church in Tõstamaa. Photo by Amadvr, shared under the Creative Commons 4.0 International license.
