Estonian Methodist Church (formerly also United Methodist Church in Estonia; ) is a Methodist church organisation in Estonia. Until 1 July 2023, when it severed its ties to the United Methodist Church, it belonged regionally to the Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference of the United Methodist Church and to the United Methodist Church Nordic and Baltic Episcopal Area. On the world level it is a member of the World Methodist Council.
Currently it has 26 congregations. It operates a theological seminary in Tallinn and a number of other ministries. Its official publication is the magazine Koduteel.
According to the 2011 census there were 1,098 Methodists in Estonia. According to the statistics from the Estonian Council of Churches, based on the numbers submitted by the member churches, there were 1,642 Methodists in 2012, served by 33 pastors and 1 deacon.
History
The first decades (1907–1940)
Methodist ministry in Estonia commenced in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1907, George A. Simons, an American of German descent, was named the superintendent of Finland and Russia with a seat in Saint Petersburg by bishop William Burt in Zürich. Estonia became part of Simmons' missionary area because it was part of the Russian Empire. The first missionary in Estonia was Vassili Täht, a colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Saint Petersburg. On 9 June 1907 Vassili met his friend Karl Kuum, a brother in the Moravian Church, on the island of Saaremaa. They started to proclaim the Gospel together. This date is considered the beginning of the activities of the Methodist Church in Estonia. The first Methodist service in Estonia was held in merchant Mihkel Trey's home in Kuressaare, Saaremaa. The congregation of Kuressaare, the first one in Estonia, was officially established on 26 August 1910 when three men and two women were accepted into communion. On 28 October 1912 the first Methodist church building in Estonia was consecrated in Kuressaare.
The evangelisation outside the town of Kuressaare was carried out by Martin Prikask. In July 1910 the first branch of the Kuressaare congregation was established in the village of Reeküla, the next one in September 1910 in the village of Rahniku. From the island of Saaremaa the Methodist mission spread to the mainland where the first congregation was established by Karl Kuum in July 1912 in Tapa.
The wider spread of Methodism to various areas of Estonia began in 1918, approximately at the same time with Estonia gaining its independence. The first Methodist congregation in the capital, Tallinn, was established on 3 March 1922. By 1 January 1940 the Methodist Church in Estonia constituted of 1,836 members in 14 congregations (Tallinn I and Tallinn II, Haapsalu, Tapa, Rakvere, Paide, Tartu, Viljandi, Pärnu, Narva, Avanduse, Kuressaare, Targu, and Paide). From 1920 to 1940 Methodists published a monthly magazine Kristlik Kaitsja and had their own publishing house of the same name. From 1935 to 1940 a second magazine, Koduteel, was published by congregations on the island of Saaremaa. Clergy was educated abroad, mostly in Germany. The church sent out its own missionaries among whom the most notable was Johannes Karlson, a missionary in South America.
As Methodism had spread in Estonia as part of the Russian mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC), the local congregations continued to be affiliated with this oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States. They remained for over a decade part of the Russian missionary district of the MEC. The first attempt to form a separate church district for Estonia took place in 1921 when the first annual Methodist conference in Estonia took place and Martin Prikask was appointed the first local superintendent, however, the position was abolished a year later. The district was restored in 1928 with Prikask becoming again superintendent. After the changes in the Estonian law of religion the local Methodist organisation was registered in 1935 as an independent church under the name of Methodist Episcopal Church in Estonia (). The Methodist Church was given similar privileges to the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church. As according to the new law all churches had to be governed locally, superintendent Prikask was elected an acting bishop but was never consecrated as one, so the spiritual episcopal authority continued to be exercised by bishop Raymond J. Wade in Stockholm, Sweden.
Under occupations (1940–1991)