THE HELLENIC ETHNIC RELIGION SUPPORTS THE REQUEST OF ROMUVA RELIGION TO BE IDENTIFIED BY LITHUANIAN PARLIAMENT AS TRADITIONAL

 Source

To:

The Parliament of Lithuanian Republic
Gedimino ave. 53,
LT-01109 Vilnius,
Lithuania

The Ministry of Justice
Gedimino ave. 30,
LT-01104 Vilnius,
Lithuania

Athens, Greece, May the 20th, 2017

Dear Sirs,

We, the legal body of the Hellenic Ethnic Religion, herewith express our full support to the appeal of Romuva, the legal body of the Ancient Baltic Religion for state recognition by the Parliament (Seimas) of the Lithuanian Republic, as part of the Lithuanian historical, spiritual and social heritage.

The fundamental principles of Romuva faith are fostering the high moral principles of respect to ancestors and ancestral values, peaceful social life, harmony between the nature and the humanity, the protection of all forms of life, and, as all the ethnic religions of Old Europe do, a life of what, us the Hellenes, call Arete (Virtue).

Just as the Hellenic Ethnic Religion, Romuva is by no means a “neo-pagan movement” or a “new religious movement”. It belongs to the category of religions that the Religious Studies of the last 150 years name “ethnic” and “indigenous”, as it consistently refers to the recorded in the historical sources ancient Lithuanian traditions and, most importantly, to the living tradition of the indigenous religion, values and symbols, carried forward from generation to generation through the customs, songs, folklore and polyphonic ritual singing – sutartines. Romuva promotes the ancient Baltic Religion, cherishing in our days the traditional culture of the ancient Baltic ethnii as a spiritual, cultural and social heritage.

Sincerely yours,

Vlassis G. Rassias
General Secretary – The Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE)