Published, both in Estonian and English, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Estonian Council of Churches in 1989, this weighty volume is both a history and an encyclopaedia, including, for example, a twenty-two-page chronology of the actions of the council from 1989, a sixty-page biographical lexicon, a formidable bibliography and some translated documents. One thing lacking, however, is a map to make sense of the geography.

Historically the major concentration is on the period since 1989, but there are also helpful chapters on church relationships from 1900 to the outbreak of the Second World War, and on how the Churches co-operated in periods of Nazi and Soviet control. That depth of history is important for it underlines the dependency of the Lutherans on the German language – still the language of Old Testament teaching in the seminary as late as 1933 – and the Orthodox on Russian. Language, race and politics all became intertwined in these relationships, with the roots of the conflict between the Estonian-speaking Orthodox, appealing to the ecumenical patriarch and the Russian-speakers, owing obedience to the Moscow patriarch, shown to date back to the 1920s. Similarly the identification of the Lutherans, not simply the churches of the Hanseatic trading communities, as essentially Teutonic in association made for difficulties. Accordingly this account of ecumenical relations also introduces the reader to the religious history and tensions of the Estonian nation.

Ecumenical activity in Estonia reflected what was happening in Europe generally with networking around the three foci of ‘Life and Work’, ‘Faith and Order’ and the International Missionary Council, with ‘World International Friendship through the Churches’ having a particularly high profile. Fruitful conversations between Baltic Lutherans and the Church of England provoked some fears about relations with a Church with a strong Catholic presence at the expense of existing ties with fellow Lutherans in Germany. At the same time the Orthodox also entered into conversations with the Church of England, in part as a means of establishing their independence of the Moscow patriarchate. Such conversations, as also of those seeking to set up a united Baltic Orthodox Church, embracing the Churches in Finland, Estonia and Latvia, came to nothing but in 1923 the Estonian Church was granted extended autonomy by the ecumenical patriarch. Whilst there was both co-operation and conflict between Lutherans and Orthodox, relations with Roman Catholics were compromised by the Vatican promotion of uniatism (Eastern Rite Catholicism) which was perceived as a form of proselytism.

The Free Churches tended to be critical of both Orthodox and Lutherans as offering formal civic religion without deep mission commitment, whilst contrariwise they were often seen as invading canonical territory and as proselytisers, whose congregations did not deserve the title of Churches. In some localities, however, there were good relations. Within their own life the older Free Churches were challenged by the emergence of Adventism and Pentecostalism, which attracted away some of their members. Renewal of Pietism in the Lutheran Church and the development of the European Evangelical Alliance helped to build more positive relations within Estonia as well as linking Estonian Free Churchmen to external intelligence and support. Attempts to bring the Baptists and the Revivalist Church together were unsuccessful notwithstanding much common understanding. In like measure they failed to set up an association of Free Churches even though there were good personal relationships across denominational boundaries, and from time to time it was necessary for the Free Churches to combine in common action such as joint endeavours to defend the legality of marriages in their Churches. Other areas of co-operation included mission, education, work with young people and social work.

Looking at the statistics, it is difficult to compare like with like. Whereas the Lutheran Church, often regarded as the nation's major religious interest (78 per cent of the population), only claims 180,000 members and the autocephalous Orthodox Church in Estonia claims 27,000, the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate claims 200,000 members. Or again, whereas the Roman Catholic Church claims 6,000 members with thirteen clergy in nine congregations, the Baptist/Free Evangelical Churches claim a similar membership but with eighty-eight pastors in eighty-three congregations: birth membership indicated by infant baptisms indicates a different form of membership from that based on an adult commitment. The council also includes Methodist, Pentecostal, Seventh Day Adventist and the Charismatic Episcopal Church.

In the final part of the book, with chapters on such topics as the media, religious education, the sociology of religion, crime prevention, values and ethics and youth work, an analytical approach is more obvious. This is a comprehensive volume full of valuable information but also providing significant exploration of the way in which communities of faith related to one another in a diversity of political contexts.