The Church of Sweden asked its parishes to stop inviting nuns from the St Elisabeth convent in Minsk because of their collaboration with the Russian state and support of its invasion of Ukraine.
The Church made the recommendation after reports that Orthodox nuns from Belarus were selling their handicrafts at the Täby parish north of Stockholm, which had been inviting them annually since 2017.
Michael Öjermo, vicar of Täby, told the Svenska Dagbladet daily that the parish is now breaking contact with the monastery: “Täby parish has no intelligence service, so to speak. It’s not that easy to know everything. But we’re trying now.”
According to Lisa-Gun Bernerstedt, head of civil preparedness at the Church of Sweden, there might be around 10 or 20 parishes that collaborated with the Minsk monastery, which is well known across the region.
“They used to come here [to Lithuania] all the time, sell their products. They travel all over the world,” said Gintaras Sungaila, an Orthodox priest of the Constantinople Exarchate in Vilnius.
“Right after the start of the war in 2022, they were fully operating in Lithuania, but I’m not aware if there are any restrictions against them at present”, he told The Tablet.
Euromaidan Press, a Ukrainian political outlet, reported that the leader of the St Elisabeth convent Archpriest Andrey Lemeshonok declares its support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, calling his monastery “a combat unit” whose nuns “fight for our future”.
Investigators describe it as an “Orthodox holding company” with 1,600 employees, 12 churches, 70 shops and workshops producing crafts sold at Christmas markets across Europe.
Sweden’s Migration Minister Johan Forssell announced a possible review of the rules of residence in the country for persons linked to the interests of the Russian state.
“Sweden is not obliged to show hospitality to those who support Russian aggression against Ukraine,” he said, according to Open Orthodoxy Network.
In 2022, Winchester Cathedral suspended the St Elisabeth convent’s Christmas stall over concerns about its pro-Russian leadership.
In December 2024, their stall in Szczecin was shut down after protests from the Belarusian diaspora in Poland.
“As far as I know, after my talk with their Orthodox Archbishop Elia, the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Finland adopted an official agreement not to buy anything from them,” Sungaila said.