The Orthodox  Church of  Finland

 owes  its  origin  to  monks  from  the  Russian  monastery  of

Valamo on Lake Ladoga, who preached among  the pagan Finnish tribes in Karelia during the

Middle Ages. The Finnish Orthodox were dependent on the Russian Church until the Revolution,

but since 1923 they have been under the spiritual care of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, al-

though the Russian Church did not accept this situation until 1957. The vast majority of Finns

are nominally Lutheran, and the 66,000 Orthodox comprise only ***1.5 percent of the popula-

tion. There is an Orthodox seminary at Kuopio. .With its active youth, concerned with interna-

tional and ecumenical contacts, anxious to appear a western and European community, while at

the same time safeguarding its Orthodox traditions, the Church of Finland is perhaps destined to

play an important role in the western witness of Orthodoxy. (J. Meyendorff, L.Eglise orthodoxe hier et

aujourd.hui, Paris, 1960, p. 157).