Spirit in Action
Estonian Artists for Peace and Unity
Too few Americans know about Estonia's amazing, non-violent, "Singing Revolution" for independence from the USSR, but it is but one of the characteristics that make the country fertile ground for Leon Miller's work with the International Association for Religious Freedom.
- Broadcast on:
- 05 Jul 2009
- Audio Format:
- other
(upbeat music) ♪ Let us sing this song for the healing of the world ♪ ♪ That we may hear the last one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ ♪ And our lives will feel the echo of our healing ♪ - Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark helps me. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. ♪ Let us sing this song for the dreaming of the world ♪ ♪ That we may dream as one ♪ ♪ With every voice of every song ♪ ♪ We will move this world along ♪ - Today for Spirit in Action, we're going eight time zones east of Wisconsin to the Baltic state of Estonia. Like most Americans, my knowledge of Estonia is very limited, though being a folk dancer, I at least knew one dance from that country. I was contacted by Leon Miller through my Northern spirit radio website about a song he had produced with a group of young Estonian and Russian artists for peace and freedom. The exchange with Leon convinced me that there were untapped riches in the spiritual life Leon was leading and in the cultural experience of these two little known people. So today, I'm taking you on a visit with three teachers from the University of Tallinn, Estonia. Leon Miller is from Pennsylvania, but has been in Estonia for the past seven years now, lecturing on religion and culture and intercultural communication. We'll also talk with Jevgen Spullianka, who's a native of the Ukraine and who's been in Estonia for the past four years, chair of the International Law Department at the University in Tallinn. We'll start out by visiting with Mal Kula Salu. She teaches English at the University and is a born Estonian, raised in the 1950s to the Russian Soviet domination of her country. As I originally spoke with Leon, I began to realize just how completely ignorant I was of the entire region, having only received the incidental coverage, which the US media has granted to the area. I found out that I knew virtually nothing of Estonia's singing revolution. What a concept, independence by song instead of by guns. The variety of religion was new to me too, not only the varieties of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but its association with patriarchs and the historical, earth-based spirituality roots. What drew me to Estonia was Leon Miller and his work with artists for peace and freedom, but I had to get my bearings. So I had to detour by talking with Mal and Jevgen, Estonian and Ukrainian, respectively, before I could understand Leon and his work. Via the miracles and some limitations of the internet and Skype, I spent a couple of hours visiting with Leon, Mal and Jevgen. I started by speaking with Mal Kula Salu, who is native Estonian and who teaches, as I've mentioned, English at the University in Tallinn, their capital city. Thanks to her superb English, we didn't have to operate through a translator, nor did I have to go into Russian, which is the most common non-native language of Estonia. Mal, welcome and thanks for joining me for my program, Spirit in Action. - Thank you for asking me. - You've been born and lived almost all of your life in Estonia? - Yes, I was born in Estonia and I've always lived in Estonia and I have an Estonian. - Mal, I'm speaking to you because Leon said that you could fill me in on an Estonian point of view about the issues we wanna talk about, which include peace, unity, religion, spiritual outlook and basically understanding the culture of the Estonian people. So I just wanna invite you to speak about those things and start where you'd care to start. - As you probably have understood, I am quite a emotional person and I would like to start from this very emotional point of view that Estonia is a very small country and we have our own language and this own piece of land and this is probably a very emotional thing for all Estonians which keep us protecting this our language and our culture and our country. If you know where Estonia is, it's between Finland and Russia, let's say so. Geographically, we are a very good place so it has always been an objective for different countries to conquer us and to have this wonderful piece of land near the sea. - I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about what culturally makes Estonia different from and maybe similar to the people right on your borders. - It seems to me that we are more similar to our Nordic neighbors because we are slower, calmer, less emotional, less energetic, less noisy than our southern neighbors are. So we probably feel closer to Finns. We feel very close to Danes and to Swedes and probably the reason that they have been here and we have learned a lot from their culture. As to Russians, they are, let's say it's a big nation and big nation is always different. Point number one is that they do not know languages. The small nations always have to learn languages to communicate, to make themselves understandable but as there are many Russians and as they have been here as conquerors, as occupants for such a long time, they feel that this part of land also belongs to them, not for us. - Are Estonians distinctively different than Latians or Lithuanians? Are there overlaps in culture and identity there and food? - We are very different from Lithuanians because Lithuanians go more to Polish nation. They are closer to Poland and they are closer to Slavic. I would say they are Catholics already, thanks to the religion, they are closer to Poland. We are a bit similar to Latvia but the language is totally a different group, the Latian group because we belong to fenoyugic group. - Give me some idea of religious and spiritual background of Estonia. You've clearly made the point already that you're not Catholic. - Mostly we are Lutheran, but there is a very big issue. For instance, in my age and all the people who are at my age, they have grown up with any religion at all. My mother never took me to the church. She never told me anything. She totally kept me away from the church. But we have always had Christmas at home. We celebrated it in secret because it was not allowed actually. Even the Christmas trees and Christmas dishes were not sold in the shops, but we kept this tradition as the Lucerian on the 24th of December. But generally most, only in the Anza, Lucerian, they get married in the church. So it is a tradition again. 50 years of occupation was a very big goal of religion. - Are there a lot of churches around and are they all Lutheran churches? - Not all. We also have our Catholic and we have Russian Orthodox church and we have trans-fibration church, I know, and Romanian church is different, but mostly they are Lucerian. Even the new sonagogos just opened a stove here. - So you do have at least Jews and maybe Muslims too? Or do they extend up that far? - Yeah, we do have Muslims. And I don't think there is any problem with all these religious spaces here in Estonia. This is more cultural, although religion is a part of culture, I know. But maybe the people, if you are interested in this issue with Russians at Estonia, the biggest problem is the people without roots, these Russians have traveled here to Estonia to work. They do not have their roots in Russia already and they have somehow avoided this culture we have here. And now the new generations have grown up without any roots, without any religion. So they actually do not believe in nothing. They do not believe in anything. Sometimes it seems to me that's the biggest problem. - Leon's concern, or one of Leon's important concerns, is about peace and unity. And it seems to me that sometimes individual identity is at the cost of unity. So for instance, in the United States, we do have states which each have distinctive culture and identity related to the area. Very seldom is that a problem in terms of also identifying as the national identity. What are the challenges and what are the strengths of Estonia as relates to identity in larger community? Which might include maybe Finland or maybe Germany or Russia or whatever. - It is a very hard question to answer, but Estonia, of course, aims more to the Nordic countries. Estonia considers itself to be a Nordic country and Estonia is part of the European Union and we have always considered us as a part of European culture and as a part of Nordic culture. We are actually Estonians who are not prone to conflicts or I think it's quite possible to live in peace. And we have always, if you have heard about our singing revolution and we are able to solve different conflicts without any violence or anything. But there has been a lot of provoking from Russia recently and probably we have to settle things with Russia first. And to be honest, there is peace in Estonia. When you come here, you will see there is peace. It's just a few nights when the pressure came out, which has been probably in for a very long time. - I would really like it if you could tell me and tell my listeners what your experience of the singing revolution was like because you were alive at the time and you certainly got to see it firsthand. - My experience, unfortunately, it is not to say a very, very direct experience because I had a baby at that time and I had to stay home, but I watched TV, of course, and I did not attend those meetings. But when you speak about singing revolution, Estonia is very much like singing. We have the singing festival tradition and something which makes Estonians cry. And there are songs which were not allowed to sing when we had our Soviet time here in Estonia. And we always try to include these songs in our program of the song festival. And we always try to sing these songs because they were against the Soviet power. And as it was not allowed to sing, you wanted to sing. And as to the singing revolution, then people started singing those songs in public. More than 100,000 people gathered in the song festival grounds and sang the same songs which had been prohibited for such a long time. And singing and flax, this was the own expression of our feelings and our strive for liberty, what Estonians wanted to achieve. There was no violence, there were even not so many speeches. It was just singing those songs which were very dear to our hearts. And that was the singing revolution. - What were the songs about? And could you sing me a little bit of one of those songs at least? - I don't think. - So yes, one of them was B3, Estonian Country and Estonian Sea. (singing in foreign language) So this was a song for instance, which everywhere people wanted to sing. And it was about Estonia. It was about motherland, about fatherland and homeland. - So is Estonia a fatherland or is it a motherland? - It depends what we are speaking about, both. - You said that Estonian people are pretty much peaceful, that peaceful resolution is the way you like to go. Sometimes I think that a fatherland identity is more of a military might idea. Whereas motherland is more about nurture and Leon has made a point when I've spoken to him of mentioning nature, spirituality, connection to nature, connection to land as being part of the spirituality of Estonians. Is that your experience? - When I start thinking about it, we have a native language called motherland, and our land called fatherland. But as to Estonian seems to me that in our culture, fathers are calmer and they can always take things more easily than mothers do. So I don't think that fatherland for Estonia would mean anything military. - There are religions that have been known as nature religions. Are there special features of the Estonian countryside, which especially touched the hearts of almost all Estonians in a way that I would call spiritual? - Yeah, we have our old forests, for instance, where people go, we have a special word, which I don't know, there is a translation in this very old forest, which is called Heez in Estonia, and it's the oak tree, which is very close, and you get your energy for the oak tree, for instance, and Estonia and this oldest religion before we get Christian. So it was, we had our Torah, and it was totally based on the nature. So we had our stones, which were sacred to Estonians, and they still are there. This is something which means more to Estonians, maybe even than church sometimes. - Talk to me about ideas about peace and unity, because at the same time having a strong identity, a cultural identity like Estonian, at the same time that that is a good thing for the heart, when that leads one to say, okay, I'm like this, therefore I'm not with you, working with you is difficult. Sometimes that happens with an identity. How does that interplay with the peaceful nature of Estonians? - Estonians like to do their own thing. You know, they don't want to be interfered, and they don't like to interfere with the others. This is the best way which Estonians would like, but actually the world globalizing, and I would say that it is impossible to do your own thing only, but you always have to consider the others. And I think this is the only way we can just have peace in this world. We have to work together and collaborate. - I think you know that Leon has a special concern for peace and unity, and so he focuses on it not only in his teaching, but in his work outside the university. What do you think of his work and its value and its need in your society? - I do think that we need this kind of thing in our study very much because it provides the same peace and balance, and when we speak about Leon, so he's the nicest, the comest man I have ever met, and I can never imagine anybody who he could have conflict with, so I think this is what we would really need in this country, but I don't think our people could have this inner balance or this inner peace which he has achieved in his mind, so it's incredible. - What is the outlook in Estonia? And you said that Estonian people are relatively peaceful. What do they think about military might do people look up to someone who goes in the military to protect the fatherland or the motherland, if that's the case? - Actually, Estonian boys do not want to go to the army, and they do whatever they can to avoid the army. And as it was, Russian army for two years, and it was really hot, so I think this kind of tradition of avoiding going to the army dates back to this Russian time. It's only eight months here in Estonia, but most of the young men do not want to go. They say that it will spoil their career and they will draw the work, but of course, after what happened in April, this kind of patriotism has increased, and I have heard that many young men are ready to fight for the land, and they would like to join the army now. - That was Mal Kula Salu, an Estonian native, speaking about her country, and some of the issues of peace and freedom of the Estonian people. Mal teaches English at the University in Estonia's capital, Talan, I'm Mark Helpsmeet, and I'm your host for this Northern Spirit Radio Production called Spirit in Action. The spirit that drew me to learn about Estonia is that involved in the work of Leon Miller. Leon's been in Estonia for 12 years now, teaches religion and culture, and intercultural communications at the University in Talan, and does additional work in the community related with the International Association for Religious Freedom. Mal was very helpful to give me some sense of the people and culture of Estonia, but it also seemed helpful to visit with someone more involved with the overarching legal issues, which influenced peace and justice issues so powerfully. So before I actually talk to Leon, I'm going to take one more detour and visit with Yevgenz Bolianka. Yevgen is a chair of the International Law Department at the University where both Mal and Leon teach, and he's native of Ukraine. He's been in Estonia for the past four years, and brings an international understanding, also from the former partner of the Soviet Union to the situation on Russia's fringe. Via the internet in Skype, I asked Yevgen about what he's witnessed personally, and drawing on his international law expertise as the Soviet Union dissolved with the re-emergence of the individual nations. - I'm 34 years old, and actually a time of collapse of Soviet Union. I was studying Moscow, so basically I was involved in all these processes and tried out as a collapse of the Soviet Union. I come back to the Ukraine. So actually, as I remember that events quite good, I also remember the Soviet Union quite well. - Do you think of yourself primarily as a Ukrainian, as opposed to something else? Some people, their main identity would not necessarily be their nation. It might be their religion. It might be their social class. It might be the color of their skin. So for you, what are your important identities? - Well, I think that the fact that I'm Ukrainian is definitely important for my identity. I could not say that it's only one point of my identity, but nationality is important, of course, because nationality is always related to the culture, to the perception of the world, to the religion and certain meaning also. Well, I could not say it, and we're a religious person, but still any religion has certain relation to the nation history. Especially in Ukraine, where we have a lot of different religions. It's Christianity, but we have Russian Orthodox of Moscow, Paterhates, Orthodox of Kipaterhates. We have Orthodox who are affiliated to Constantinople when we have Greece Catholics, wrong Catholics. Finally, we also have one big Tatar minority in Crimea, home Muslims. So Ukraine, actually, it's quite multicultural and multi-religious country. That's why Ukrainians probably always were a very tolerant nation and very hospitable nation. - You are the chair, actually, of the International Law Department there at the university. Your perspective is an international perspective as opposed to a single nation perspective. What would make for better peace opportunities to coexist peacefully Ukraine, Estonia, Russia? What would make that possible? And what are the difficulties in having that peace preserved? - I believe that there are no such problems between democratic states. I believe that Estonia and Ukraine are democratic states, as well as all European Union countries. That's why usually we do not have any problems with Europe or between Ukraine and Estonia. The main problem still is actually our big neighbor from the East, Russian Federation. Problem is that despite certain hopes that after the collapse of Soviet Union, Russia will come democratic states. Now we can see that, unfortunately, it's not a case. During the Yeltsin period, there was a lot of features of democratic state in Russia. Still, it was not fully democratic, but at least it was some hope and desire, let's say, of Russian politicians to make Russia a real democratic state. But now then Putin took power, basically. Now we can see that Russia became a authoritarian, if not a totalitarian state again. And as I know, Russia almost perfectly can follow Russian news. I can see that. War rhetoric is absolutely came back to the Russian media. Sometimes I hear such a deja vu feeling, you know. If you read Russian newspapers, you know, you can find there that NATO in general in the United States, in particular, the main enemies. They only dream in Tokyo by Russia because Russia have big oil resources, which are much bigger than in Iraq. And the only one aim in Iraq was to get oil. Of course, according to Russian medias, you know, only one chance to Russia not to be occupied by Americans to have a strong and good army and all that stuff. And, oh, and it's really scary. And all Russian politicians have the sole school of Soviet Union, and they believe that finding of external enemy is the best way to consolidate the nation inside. And because of that, if you check the history of last three or four years, you will see that Russia, the whole relation almost with all their neighbors. So we had crisis with Ukraine, with Georgia, with Latvia, this very recent one, with Estonia. So basically, only authoritarian regimes in foreign Soviet Union states who clearly follow Russian policy and join Russia in totalitarianism, like Kazakhstan, for example, only that countries are considered as true friends of Russia. So actually, I think it's quite alarming signals for everybody. And I think that international communities should be a little bit more tough regarding Russian Federation nowadays, because developments are really, really bad. We can see that almost every day, Russian skinheads kill somebody on the streets. And another part of Russian society is the members of the jury in the court very often believe that these people are not guilty and just liberate them. - Yevgen filled in some more of the background to the conflicts in the region. In particular, he highlighted the disastrous impact of Russia on the satellite states in terms of deportations and an almost unthinkable scale of political killings. Many, many millions, exceeding even the number killed by Germany in World War II. One of the fears of the satellite states, like Estonia and Ukraine, is that while Germany was repentant of the war afterwards, Russia has never apologized for the widespread devastation it carried out on its neighbors. I asked Yevgen what was blocking reconciliation between Russia and its neighbors. - Ukrainians and Estonians are ready to forgive Russians, but to get, if they're given as Russians should ask for that. We could not forgive somebody who never asked for forgiveness, I believe. That's the main problem. - As a professor of international law, I assume you think your profession can help make things better. What is the solution to keep things peaceful and to make for a more harmonious relationship in that area of the world? - As an international law, of course I could say that the best wages to fall international law in all affairs, but as you can see, it's probably toward the least. - Yevgen is, it was obvious, deeply concerned about the current situation surrounding Russia. His was clearly not an optimistic assessment. I asked him about his views about religion and the role that it played in peace and war in the Ukraine and the region. - Definitely the religion has a great potential to promote peace and understanding between people, even if it's different religions. What is much more dangerous if religion uses a political tool, which we can clearly see with sort of the U.S. Church of Moscow Patriarchate, which was actually, it was a Stalin idea who started to use Russian Orthodox Church as a tool during the Second World War. We know that before the Second World War, church was almost destroyed in Russia. But during the Second World War then situation was critical, Stalin decided to reinstall church. Of course, it was only Russian Orthodox Church. All other confessions were severely suppressed, but Russian Orthodox Church under the full control of Soviet Union was re-established and it has very close ties to KGB. And actually, I know it was always in traditions of Russia, even before Soviet Union, the Russian Empire that Russian Church was considered not as a separate institution, but as a part of Russian state. And we can see nowadays with nothing really changed in Russia. So now, Russian Church is still used by Russian state as an instrument of influence, including in the neighboring states. In a stonium situation, maybe a little bit different because in a stonium majority population, Lutherans, that's the main problems. I believe that if church will not be used as element of state policy, and if church will be run by people who really believe and who really follow the values of religion, in that case, it will be purely a peaceful tool which will help to solve problems between people through relieving that. But in any religion in Christianity, in Islam, you can find a lot of things which can't predict one to another. The problem is that different people can find provisions which will support their own ideology. And of course, there are always people like that who will use this controversies to support probably the most horrible acts which we can commit. Actually, it's regardless of kind of religion and then you can find such a possibility. The question is that I think in every religion, there are common core that you should give and such a way that you expect others who will behave regarding you. I think if everybody will follow this idea, probably a world will be a much better place now. - Is there some hope that your profession, international law, is actually going to bring about peace? I'm trying to understand if you see of yourself as some kind of a peace worker or maybe more as a justice worker or maybe you're just trying to make money and have a living. I don't know. Do you see yourself as doing peace work as an international law expert? - That's a good question, of course. Well, first of all, I should say that my academic career was working for the Red Cross for almost seven and a half years. Well, definitely, I believe that humanitarian values for me are very important. So I could definitely believe that I'm a humanitarian worker, even if a teach now I still have very good relations with the Red Cross very often and why it is an external expert as a lecturer for different Red Cross events. So definitely one part of my life, another part of my life, justice. Well, peace justice, many people mistakenly believe that international law is only regarding the establishment of peace. It's one of the most important tasks of the international law but the task of only one branch of international law which is slow of international security. But international law is much broader. International law is diplomatic law, it's law fair, law of the sea, law of telecommunications and so on, so for even space for nowadays. And all that hears effectively work and help people. Unfortunately, I can only include a small portion of what Jevgen had to share with me about the political and legal situation as he observes it. I asked Jevgen about the Estonian singing revolution and whether in the Ukraine, his birthplace, it seemed likely that they could find it in themselves to respond non-violently to aggression like that coming sometimes from Russia. - Well, we also have orange revolution. Just a few years ago, if you remember, it was also a absolutely peaceful one and it was also a lot of singing there. So I think in that sense, the Ukrainians and the Estonians are quite similar and they last events when we have this horrible parliamentary crisis to remember that in Russian, for example, in 1993, then was more or less similar events. It was finished by tanks in Moscow who were firing to the parliament building. And while in Ukraine, we basically achieved all of the same result without any blood shaking. So I think that such a peaceful approach has absolutely fit to Ukrainian mentality. Ukrainian is a very peaceful and hospital nation in general. And in that respect, very similar to the Estonians, I think. - I think you are aware of some of the work that Leon's doing, not only as a teacher there, but in his work in the community. He's very concerned for peace and unity and finding ways to connect people culturally and with mutual regard. What have you seen of that work and what do you think of it? Is it helpful? What do you see of that work? - I should say that Leon probably absolutely an amazing person and definitely what he's doing here. It's absolutely outstanding job because indeed he's involved in such different activities which you can hardly imagine that. You know, he's involved in teaching of Tai Shui and the yoga and he's playing different instruments and he can actually go to the old city and playing right there on the street. You know, it's absolutely amazing because when I meet some people, my friends, just any people I've met and then I'm saying that I'm from Odentos University. They say, "Oh, you have this nice guy who plays like the one on a teach stage here." You know, it's amazing, but it seems that everybody entirely knows here, you know. Indeed, I think that such people with such, you know, sincere communication skills, they can help to improve our world definitely. But what is important that these communications skills would be sincere and it's exactly the case with Leon because when you talk to him, you can feel this, his soul which is rich and you can see that all these ideas about peace and environment that goes from the bottom of his heart and people can feel that. - That was Yevgen Spullianka, Chair of the Department of International Law at the University in Tallinn, Estonia. I'm Mark Helpsmeet and this is Spirit in Action, a Northern spirit radio production. We were speaking with Yevgen and before that with Mall, Gulassalu, both teachers at the same university in Tallinn where Leon Miller teaches religion and culture and international communications. It's really a peace and justice ministry which has kept Leon working in Estonia the past 11 years including his work outside the university with some Estonian and Russian artists for peace and justice. Leon contacted me some months ago to share a song that he created with these young artists and that's how I started learning about what Leon had been doing with Estonia and for the world. The main vocals are Leon, the song is Come to Paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go on paradise. Love can take you to those highest heights where you'll know nothing but what feel right where all you're feeling, purity, light. Every single day and through each and every night. If you let true love become our guiding light then you'll see the true love is what becomes our plight. So baby, come on, baby trust and love then you'll see our paradises and our sights. You'll feel like springtime every day. Boy, you'll feel like springtime every night. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. You're really living like the person you always want to be. You're really seeing those things you always want to see. You're waking up every morning just feeling carefree. So you know you'll be hoping this here will always be. So come and take a step and let our joy begin. You'll find a paradise that will never ever end. If you put your trust in love and let it be our guiding light, you'll find that we are destined to be in paradise. You'll feel like springtime every day. Boy, you'll feel like springtime every night. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. You'll know nothing about what feels good. You'll know nothing about what feels right. Come along with me, up. Come along with me, up. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. Come along with me, up to this place, go paradise. That was "Come to Paradise" with Leon Miller and an assortment of young Estonian and Russian artists. While I've kept you waiting long enough, it's time to meet Leon Miller and learn from him firsthand and via Skype and Internet about the work that he's been doing in Estonia. Leon, I'm so glad that you contacted me here, all the way from Estonia, and I thank you for introducing me to your friends, Mal and Jevgen there from the university. Would you tell our listeners how you got to Estonia? It's a little bit off the beaten track from Pennsylvania where you started. How did you end up there and why are you there? I was studying at the University of Chicago cluster of theological seminary, attempting to get established in ministry, peace and social concerns ministries. A friend of mine at the seminary from Estonia, a great after independence, decided to study in ministry and get established in the church here in Estonia. That friend and I talked about Estonia, the passion that Estonia has for peace and freedom, and that passion is very deep historically, thousands of years deep. Accompanied with that is an artistic approach to a struggle for peace and so a completely peaceful approach. My friend talked about the singing revolution, people holding hands hand to hand and singing about their desire to be free. I found all of this very attractive and maybe the final straw for me was when I heard the president of Estonia was an artist that all really impressed me. When you headed there, what did you want to do and what are you doing in fact? That's another side of the story because in Chicago, I was working to get established in ministry, but clearly my path was public ministry or peace and social concerns ministry. Also at the time, the primary path into ministry was parish ministry, congregational ministry, and so much of the advice I was getting at the time was the whole organizational structure of ministry was through congregational ministry and once you're established as a congregational minister, then you could do a specialized ministry. When I heard about the opportunity of coming to Estonia, I thought that this would be frontier, so to speak, and that I would have a chance to develop a ministry here without the organizational restraints I would have to face in America. And so this was another part of my coming. I wanted to work on behalf of the International Association for Religious Freedom to explore using faith as ways to further explore and develop concerns about peace and freedom. This discussion of the history between Estonians and Russians knowing that there are parts of that history that needed to be reconciled. So I saw the potential for very significant ministry, public ministry being done here in Estonia. What are you specifically doing as work? I mean, you've got a position at the university, so that's one thing Leon, but what about the work that you're doing outside of the university? How are you promoting peace and unity in the kind of concrete ways that you live your life? Well, my work at the university is the primary source of what sustains my lifestyle. But in addition to that, over the entire time I've been here, I do volunteer work for the International Association for Religious Freedom. Much of what that has involved the entire time is bringing youth together, especially young people, Russian and Estonian young people together into a human relations dialogue. And we've also done numbers of artistic type projects, performing arts type projects, just showing a model of unity and presenting a statement of the benefits of cooperating together and creating an improved art product and improved benefits for society. In addition to that, I've been able to reach people on concepts of holistic approaches to grow by teaching Tai Chi and yoga here in Estonia, and that has played an important part in balancing my life, what I do at the university intellectually, and what I do teaching Tai Chi and yoga to balance that with some physical activity. Could you tell me about some of the specific art projects that you've done? Well, you might be surprised to hear me say that we've done a type of, not exactly folk dance, but something on the basis of folk dance, and inviting people from the different faith traditions to participate in this, kind of dances, making a statement of peace and unity, racial unity, putting it into ethnic strife. Then very recently, we've put together a film project with dance again, musicians, vocalists, dancers, film artists, all working together to create a very visible model of working together as artists collaborating to create a model of unity. But aside from that, I should have mentioned that we've been very active in the past in World Religions Day, doing very creative artistic performance type celebration of world religions every year when there is the UN World Religions Day. So this has been another aspect of trying to create an interfaith, ecumenical dialogue and interactions. This International Association for Religious Freedom is the idea that people should be able to choose their religions or that they should coexist. What is the purpose of the organization which you're working for then? If I talk about religious freedom from the perspective of, let's say, an Estonian sentiment, is that when I first came to Estonia, when I first began to interact with Estonians, I would make some type of ideological statement. And then right away, an Estonian would say, have you considered the other point of view or the opposite point of view or another way of looking at things? And sometimes, I would even see them playing the devil's advocate, whether or not they believe in an alternative point of view. So I think the role of religious freedom or promoting religious freedom in Estonia means making available the opportunity to be familiar with the different perspectives on looking at how to enrich your spiritual life or your inner life. But in addition to that, I think there's a clearly cultural type that's Estonian, a cultural heritage that's Estonian. And because Indian culture has been interfered with for maybe at least a thousand years or more, this cultural integrity has been overshadowed by outside interference. And when freedom came some 11, 12, 15 years ago, one of the first interests that Estonians had was to be able to develop, explore and express the cultural heritage, the integrity of the culture. But what came along with that immediately was also the need to integrate with Western Europe. So this is then again another union that they're faced with having to join. There was actually a clear split in the sentiments of the population here that some people thought that the very best thing for Estonia would be just to be left alone and to do some soul searching, so to speak, for Estonians to come to grips with their own identity. Then there was another segment of the population that recognized the need to integrate with Eastern Europe. So my claim is that these two things have to coincide, that if Estonia is going to progress as a society, it has to do that based on some clear sense of spiritual identity. My religious training says that the development of any society, it's based on its power of spirituality. This is what gives vitality to the culture. I might add, Mark, that I think what's important when I understand this heritage of the Estonian cultural identity, that part of it is based on nature, so a very deep and sincere ecological consciousness or concern for protection under the environment, but then coupled with that are certain for peace, that are extremely deep, passionate, and concerns for freedom. So my dream is that if we continue to develop these things as a statement of religious freedom, protection of religious freedom, and share these things with Western Europe in the rest of the world, and share these things through performing arts and cultural arts, Estonia itself will discover that it has a rich heritage that has a lot of elements that can make very important contributions to the rest of the world. I understand from all that there's universal conscription there of young men, I guess not of young women, but it's not a militaristic society? No, I would say not in the least. There is not the least bit of evidence of what I would say resistance to these foreign occupations. There are some historical records of some resistance movements and some resistance efforts, but recalling a film that I saw a popular film was maybe a holiday when Estonian television broadcast a popular film about the Estonian resistance movements, you have to imagine that there was a crusade pronounced against Estonia, one of the few crusades undertaken in Europe, and the intention of that crusade was to convert the pagans. And so then you have these order of knights coming representing the cross, the church, to conquer, to convert the pagans, and here the Estonians standing as a opposition movement, and when they were confronted with each other face to face, the Estonians began to sing. This might be just a very contemporary way of making a statement about Estonian resistance, Estonian peace movements, but when the Estonians then in this film recognized that the conquerors were not impressed with their music and their singing approach to independence, they all dispersed and ran to hit the height of the woods. I'd like to hear a little bit more about your background, Leon, because it seems you bring both a wonderful world view, but an amazing diversity of gifts there. Your friends have already spoken about your teaching Tai Chi and yoga and singing music around the city, and here you're teaching religion and culture at the university. So who are you and how did you get there? Do you have a specific religious identity? You didn't evidently go to Estonia to try and convert everybody to be whatever your particular brand of religion is. My affiliation right now is with the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the International Association for Religious Freedom is an affiliate of the Unitarian Universalist Association. So actually part of my intentions for coming here to work on behalf of that organization was to gain ministry credentials through the Unitarian Universalist Association. When I was in seminary in Chicago, the Unitarian Universalist Seminary, I wrote a graduate thesis on performing arts as a way of doing ministry, and I addressed this theme as a way of doing prophetic ministry, a way of gaining a voice that could be heard publicly, and performing arts, I thought, was a very contemporary way of doing that. But I think for Estonia, especially, it's fitting because it's not a kind of an automatic approach to sharing ideas or belief claims. What people are impressed with is the art, not the ideas, and the art is intended to awaken something of the exceptional in the person, and most times are often when a person responds to good art. They're able to interpret the value of that art for themselves. But what the artist intends to do is just awaken a sentiment within the person. I would call this something that lies deep within the subconscious of all of us, something that goes back through our religious traditions. Two, the initial stages of human exists, what Carl Jung calls the type of species consciousness. My intention with art, I believe what good art intends to do, is to awaken that universal consciousness, that deep subconscious impulse, that's within all humans, and bring that to a level where a person can experience that on a conscious level. And that was my thesis at Chicago. But if I jump back from Chicago back to my early, impressionable years, I think there are two things that dominate what our primary influence is on me. One was the church. The church was kind of a sheltering organization for me during the earliest parts of my life. In some respects, it was sheltered from the harsh, outer reality. And sometimes when I think about my background in the church, I think about a realization that I had at that early stage in my life, that some people were going to the nightclubs, some people were going to music concerts, some people were going to the discos, to find a certain type of emotion or spiritual expression that these places could provide. I was convinced that religious people could find that same type of emotional satisfaction in the church. So it's just another way of finding what the New Testament describes as the moving of the waters, and there's something special that happens when the spirit comes down, and there's a movement of the waters. And if you happen to be there at that right time and right place, that you feel this experience, that for me was what the church represented in my life. But an equally balanced part of that for me was another aspect of the church training, and that took place with American friends, with Quakers. At a very early stage in my life, I got involved in peace and social justice activities with Quakers. Part of that meant performing, but a part of it also learning how to use music as a tool for addressing social issues. So what's sometimes called is Pennsylvania trilogy, from the Quakers through the Pennsylvania Dutch. This was a very important part of which shaped my early impressions, the simplicity, the inner search, the reliance on your inner voice. These were all important things that shaped my early impressions of spirituality. When you say the church growing up, were you raised Unitarian Universalists? No, actually the complete opposite extreme. I was raised Seventh-day Adventist, and the Seventh-day Adventist church gave to me very important things that I think play a part of my life today. One was nature. I understood that an appropriate worship activity would be either to be in the congregation with fellow believers or to go out in nature and to commune with nature. So we spent a significant time as a religious community in nature as well as worshiping in congregations. Connected with that also, another aspect of that training was the belief that there is no conflict between science and religion. Truth cannot be in conflict with truth. So I always saw these as compatible, but also this need to develop yourself or this encouragement to develop yourself spiritually and intellectually and to keep a balance there. So all of these were important aspects of what I grew up with as a youth also. Is there a UU congregation somewhere back in the U.S., which is keeping you as kind of a soul-journing member abroad? No. My last UU membership at home was at the university. It's a community church, but it's called the university church. I was active in that church, had friends and some mentoring. But there is no UU fellowship here. This was actually one of the opportunities that attracted me to Estonia, the chance to establish one of the first UU presence here in Estonia. The arts that you've helped put together, you've shared with us one song that you produced as part of the group. Are there other songs or media that you could share with me that I can pass on as part of this program? We're working on a second piece of music right now. This is actually more of a pop flavor with the teenagers. But then right after this, I'd like to produce a piece of music called Nation That's On the Rise. This will be much more of a folk flavor. My ultimate commitment is to try to take elements of Estonian folk music and present them in a way of trying to popularize them a little bit and present or share elements of Estonian culture with a wider audience. Well, I know you've got to run off to an appointment. It's getting late-ish for you, isn't it? Thanks for speaking to us across the eight or so time zones. And 11 years of dedication there already and more coming up. It's so neat that you can be at that crossroads at that important place. I pray that your life is safe and that the seeds that you're planting and help nurture bear great fruit. Thank you. Peace of God be with you. Thanks so much, Leon. That was my main guest for today's Spirit in Action program, Leon Miller, who's been doing peace and religious freedom work in Estonia these past 11 years. And he was preceded by two co-workers at the University in Tallinn, Estonia. Mal Kula Salu in English, and Yevken Spullianka in International Law. The theme music for this program is Turning of the World, performed by Sarah Thompson. This Spirit in Action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host, Mark Helpsmeet, and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is Spirit in Action. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world alone. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world alone. And our lives will feel the echo of our healing.