It is the aim of this paper to outline some basic characteristics of
the process of conversion from Lutheranism to Orthodox Christianity
and the rediscovery and reinvention of Orthodox Christianity in
Estonia after the end of socialism. The restoration of the
(Estonian-speaking) autonomous Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church
(under jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople),
beginning in the 1990s, is due to the historic presence of Orthodoxy
in Estonia, but also has the particularities of a new project that
seeks contemporary horizons and copes with specific post-socialist
problems. The paper takes a closer look at the dimensions of these
processes through a study of a small Orthodox community: the parish of
St. Alexander Nevsky church in Tartu –Estonia. The author strives to
demonstrate the living process of reinvention of Orthodox Christianity
in Estonia and more generally the ‘making’, creation, of religion. The
small religious community in Tartu dealt with in the paper, shares a
number of features of the transforming religiosity of Europe: emphasis
on spirituality, openness to the impacts of globalization, the hybrid
character of certain religious practices. It is likewise an example of
the fact that Orthodox Christianity may also be the free choice of
people looking for moral perfection.