BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

26/08/2009

EU Ambassadors Meet Belarusian Pastor Facing Church Destruction

By Gretta Curtis

CP Europe Correspondent

European Ambassadors to Belarus met with Pastor of one of the largest protestant churches in the country to discuss recent threats by the government to confiscate and destroy the church.

According to New Life Church representatives, EU officials from 15 member states and from the European Commission Delegation met with Pastor Slava Goncharenko of New Life Church in the French Embassy, who informed them that the community continues to resist government efforts to force them to sell their church building, despite an official notice ordering them to turn it over to the city government by last weekend, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported Wednesday.

The report said the Protestant church has been in a long-running struggle with the government to keep its doors open. Church leaders have repeatedly attempted to register in compliance with Belarusian law, but have been refused on each occasion, it said.

On 25 August, the pastor and the church lawyer, Sergey Lukanin, were invited to the French embassy in Belarus. Ambassadors from Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, and also the representative of Euro commission in Belarus were present in the meeting with the pastor to discuss the situation.

A few days earlier, on 22 August they had received official documentation from Belarusian authorities outlining details of the forced sale and confiscation of New Life Church.

Pastor Goncharenko noted that the Church signature section on the sale and transfer of property documents completed by the Minsk City Executive Committee had been crossed out, and that funds have been transferred to the church, despite the fact that no agreement has been made.

New Life Church in Minsk said it has over one thousand members and has been the target of repeated government fines and shut down attempts since it's foundation in 2001.

CSW, a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all has strongly condemned the action of the Belarusian authorities.

Rev Stuart Windsor, CSW's National Director said: "This sad case represents the sorry state of religious freedom in Belarus. We urgently call on the European Union, having launched its Eastern Partnership initiative, to intervene on behalf of New Life Church Community and compel the Belarusian authorities to retract their decision, and to respect the religious liberty of all Belarusians throughout the country".

Belarus is ranked at No. 44 at Open Doors' 2009 World Watch List of the 50 worst persecutor of Christians around he world; it is a country where intolerance towards minority Christians and other religions is rampant. The Orthodox accounts for about 80 percent of nearly 10 million populations, according to CIA World Factbook estimate in 2007, while the rest 20 percent is made up of Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims.

Belarus, which is a republic by name but in fact a dictatorship, abides to a law that makes it nearly impossible for Protestant fellowships to obtain registration. One of the requirements is that the group must have at least 10 separate registered groups, of which one must have existed in 1982 - at the height of Soviet repression. If a denomination is not registered then it cannot train clergy, invite foreigners to work as staff, or run schools or media.

Source:

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090826/eu-ambassadors-meet-belarusian-pastor-facing-church-destruction/index.html

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