Christian leaders and missionaries in Belarus to help churches, amid concern about reports of growing persecution of evangelical believers in the former Soviet republic.
"In the coming months 12 trainers implementing [the] ‘School Without Walls’ [program] across Belarus will be teaching 500 Christian leaders," said President Anita Deyneka, the president of Russian Ministries in a message to BosNewsLife News Center in Budapest.
She said the program provides "a greenhouse environment to nurture future leaders to grow without having to leave the church and community in which they live." Russian Ministries added in a statement that the program was timely as Belarus "is a country of political authoritarianism, economic and social decline, and religious intolerance".
Belarus has been described by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as "the last true dictatorship" in Central Europe, charges the government strongly denies. In 2002, the Belarusian government passed a law restricting religious freedom which critics say targets especially non-Orthodox, evangelical churches and individual believers.
DIFFICULT WORSHIP
Human rights watchers say that under the legislation it is impossible for non-Orthodox Belarusians to meet in homes to worship, study the Bible or pray openly, and to evangelize outside of their city or official residence. In addition a religious community or congregation of less than 20 people is banned and the import or distribution of Christian literature is only allowed with government consent, which is difficult to obtain.
US-supported Russian Ministries, which has several projects in the former Soviet Union, said its educational program may help the next generation of Christian leaders "to express their faith and spread the Gospel," even in difficult circumstances. The announcement of the program, which was also implemented in Ukraine and Russia, came as bishops of the Protestant Unions and Denominations of Belarus appealed to the government to end a crackdown on the Full Gospel New Life church in Minsk, one of the largest evangelical congregations in the country.
They made the appeal after New Life church’s administrator Vasily Yurevich, a father of four, was fined the equivalent of $6,000, 60 times the average monthly salary, by Minsk City authorities for allegedly holding illegal religious services and not using the building, a former cowshed, for its "intended purposes," church officials said.
CONFISCATING LAND
Local authorities confiscated the property earlier this year without providing alternative accommodation. In a petition to both the Belarusian government and Minsk authorities, the bishops asked "to revoke the decision of the Minsk City Executive Council of confiscating the land and forceful purchase of the building of the church."
Another option is to "provide the church with an equivalent land to build a religious building. Meanwhile, during the building process" New Life should be allowed "to having temporary religious services at the building located on Kovaleva 72, [in Minsk]" the bishops said in the petition seen by BosNewsLife.
The petition was signed by Bishops Sergei Homitch, of the Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostal), Nicolai Sinkovets, of the Evangelical Christian-Baptists and Alexander Sakovich, of the Religious Union of Full Gospel Christians, BosNewsLife established.
PERSECUTION SYMBOL
Human rights groups have described the pressure on the New Life Church as part of attempts by President Alexander Lukashenko’s government to crack down on non-Orthodox churches and other groups deemed dangerous for his autocratic leadership.
However the government has strongly denied human rights abuses and says local officials only follow the laws of the land.
Yet "not everywhere and not always local authorities – which is seen in the actions of certain officials, are interested in building and keeping good, constructive relationships with evangelical congregations," the bishops stressed.
