Jüri Uluots (1890–1945) is primarily known for his contributions as an Estonian politician, statesman, and university professor. His active participation in the Republic of Estonia’s church life is far less known, despite the fact that he reached the highest echelons of the Lutheran Church of that time, the highest position that a non-cleric could achieve. From 1923 to 1925, he was deputy chairman of the consistory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Estonia. This article will examine the process by which Uluots was appointed, drawing upon a letter from Uluots and a proposal to the cabinet by the Minister of the Interior of that time, which is published herewith. In this study, we analyse how Uluots’s appointment signifies the evolution of legal relations between the state and the church in the aftermath of the establishment of the Republic of Estonia.
The appointment of Uluots to the position of deputy chairman of the consistory in 1922 was not without controversy. The election of Uluots by the highest governing body of the church, the Church Diet, was followed by submission to the Ministry of the Interior for approval. However, Uluots was not satisfied with the ministry’s response, which asserted that ‘there were no obstacles to the nomination’. He regarded this as a form of mockery and even threatened to resign from the position he had been elected to. The procedure was then corrected: the candidacy of Uluots was submitted to the ministry, whereupon the minister made a nomination to the Government of the Republic. The latter then appointed Uluots to the post.
The case of Uluots not only reveals his passionate nature but also provides insight into the legal relations between the state and the church in the early years of Estonia’s statehood. Upon Estonia’s attainment of independence, a definitive objective was established regarding the separation of church and state. This was enshrined in § 11(4) of the 1920 Constitution, which unequivocally stipulated the absence of a state church. The Law of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (1832) of the former Russian Empire remained in force following the government’s decision in February of 1919. This meant the state church continued to exist and perform various administrative functions, including issuing divorces and keeping marital records. Meanwhile, the clergy had been reforming the church’s organisation by adopting its own statute in September of 1919. This introduced a democratic form of administration, where the clergy elected all the church’s governing bodies. This was a change from the old feudal system where non-clerical church authorities were appointed by the nobility, who then had to be approved by the Russian Tsar. The head of the church was actually a secular president, often a member of the nobility. Following the establishment of the constitution, which provided for the separation of church and state, the Estonian government expressed its readiness to support the self-rule of the church. However, at that time, no legislative framework existed to enable this.
A compromise was needed between the legislative framework, the constitutional principle, and the church’s self-organisation. The church’s statute stipulated that the election of the deputy chairman was to be conducted democratically by the Church Diet. Given the church’s ongoing status, involvement in administration, and financial reliance on the state budget, the church deemed it necessary to submit the candidate to the ministry for approval in accordance with previous procedure. The minister submitted the nomination to the government, which confirmed the deputy chairman, acknowledging the circumstances as illegal. The procedure ended in 1926 with the adoption of a law regulating church-state relations. Five years after the Constitution was adopted, a constitutional order for church-state relations was also established at the level of ordinary legislation.