New head of the Archdiocese of Finland of the Patriarchate of Constantinople elected

On November 28, 2024, a local council of the Finnish Archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople was held in Helsinki. One of the main issues discussed at the event was the election of a new head of the structure of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Finland, as the previous Archbishop of Finland, Leo, submitted a request for retirement. This is reported by the official website of the Archdiocese.

“On 11/28/2024, the Local Council of the FOC completed its work by electing Metropolitan Elijah (Wallgren) as Primate of the Finnish Orthodox Church. The candidates for the election were His Eminence Elijah, Metropolitan of Oulu, and His Grace Sergius, Bishop of Hamina. The election was presided over by His Eminence Leo, Archbishop of Helsinki and All Finland. The result of the secret ballot: 24 votes were cast for Metropolitan Ilya and 9 votes were cast for Bishop Sergius. Two ballots were blank. […] The result of the election will be immediately reported by His Eminence Archbishop Lev to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. After that, Metropolitan Elijah, accompanied by two secretaries, will travel to Constantinople on 11/29/2024 to take part in a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 12/1/2024 at the administrative center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Phanar (Istanbul, Turkey),” – reads the press release on the website of the Archdiocese.

As we reported earlier, in 2023, during the visit of the head of the OCU to Finland, it was planned to celebrate a joint liturgy with the Primate of the Finnish Church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Leo. However, at the last moment, Archbishop Leo refused to concelebrate with representatives of the OCU Epiphany Dumenko and Yevstratiy Zoria, who represented the Ukrainian delegation.