Republics are in Budapest when some of their home churches are facing persecution. The youngsters attend the 24th Young Adult European Meeting till January 1, organized by the France based Taizé community.
"We hope that they will receive a call from God to go out and serve in their own communities," says Brother Emile of Taizé about them and other young Christians attending the gathering. But as 2001 comes to a close, especially Protestant groups are expected to face difficulties in the New Year because of reported intimidation.
The Keston News Service (KNS) of the Keston Institute, which investigates religious persecution, says Christians are persecuted by the secret service and the police in across the former Soviet Union.
"PARAMILITARY FORCE"
In addition foreign missionary workers have been expelled from Russia where The Salvation Army, a Christian charity, has also warned of new arrests. Russian authorities describe The Salvation Army, as a "paramilitary force."
Salvation Army officials have strongly denied the charges, saying that most of their unarmed, uniform wearing workers, do no more than helping the poor and others in need, who face a bitter winter.
KNS believes the situation is especially acute in Turkmenistan, a mainly Moslem republic, where it says Protestant Christians have been threatened with, or already, evicted from their homes. "Just before Christmas, Marina Ismakayeva, a Seventh Day Adventist, was evicted from her flat and made homeless," says KNS reporter Igor Rotar.
UNREGISTERED CHURCHES
The order was apparently issued by the Turkmenabad city court on December 21 because an unregistered Adventists had gathered in Ismakayeva’s flat. Recently an elderly, blind Baptist, was reportedly threatened with eviction for hosting a Baptist service raided by the secret police.
According to KNS sources the raid resulted in "massive fines" for some 40 people, the expulsion of three foreign citizens to Russia and two week imprisonment for several participants. A raid on another Adventist meeting in the town of Turkmenabad, apparently lead to the brief detention of six people while religious publications were confiscated.
Baptists are also facing persecution on several regions, including the break away region of Transdniester in Moldova, where officials have threatened to demolish the Tiraspol Baptist Church. Yet there was some good news from the troubled region:
CONTROL ON BELIEVERS
Earlier this month a Baptist church in the western Azerbaijani town of Gyanja held its first public service after the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organizations in the capital Baku overrode a police ban on the church’s public worship.
However analysts and human rights organizations fear that the authorities across the former Soviet Union are intensifying their controls on believers. They suggest that a decade after the collapse of Communism, Governments once again want to limit the expansion of ‘non-traditional’ groups.
That is why especially non Orthodox young Christians from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet states gathering in Budapest, are said to likely face increased pressure when they return home.
