Under Estonian law it is the legal successor to the pre-World War II Estonian Orthodox Church, which in 1940 had had over 210,000 faithful, three bishops, 156 parishes, 131 priests, 19 deacons, two monasteries, and a theological seminary, the majority of the faithful were ethnic Estonians. Its official name in English is the Estonian Orthodox Church.
The current primate of the church is Stephanos, Metropolitan of Tallinn and all Estonia, elected in 1999.
