OREL PENTECOSTALS ACCUSED OF SEIZING CITY LAND
Orlovskie Novosti, 28 May 2018
The Orel administration filed in arbitrage court a lawsuit against the local religious organization of the Resurrection Orel Evangelical Christians Church (so-called Pentecostals). The plaintiff's declaration of the city of Orel demands that the organization evacuate a parcel of land on Zheleznodorozhnaia Street that is being occupied without authorization.
The lawsuit states (the editors have it at their disposal) that the fact of the seizure of the land by the Pentecostals was discovered in January 2018 by the Department of Municipal Property and Land Use. The document notes that the religious organization owns a parcel on Zheleznodorozhnaia of 1,228 square meters (18 Zheleznodorozhnaia Street). Another 267.6 square meters have been occupied without permission. Of these, the greater part is occupied by a fence which was built and 8.4 square meters are occupied by a building. In its lawsuit, the government of Orel demands of the religious organization that it evacuate the parcel by demolishing a part of the building and also that it bring the vacated parcel into usable condition. At the present time the lawsuit has been accepted for review.
Pentecostals appeared in Orel in the 1990s. Today they are led by Pavel Abashin. In 1999, under Mayor Efim Velkovsky, he bought the parcel of land on Zheleznodorozhnaia Street for construction of a two-story residence. However instead a home, an evangelical church was erected on this site, where Pentecostals meet to the present.
Abashin himself received some time back the status of a so-called "national pastor." He is a member of ROSKhVE, the Russian Associated Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith. The union is headed by Sergei Riakhovsky. His brother, Vladimir Riakhovsky, defended the American Baptist missionary Donald Ossewaard in 2016, who fell under the sanctions of the Yarovaya Package in Orel and subsequently left Russia.
According to information of Orlovskie Novosti, besides the property department's lawsuit, the prosecutor's office has also filed its own suit in the Zheleznodorozhny district court. The supervisory agency asks the court to suspend the use of the building at 18 Zheleznodorozhnaia St. until the owner presents documents for putting the building to use. The final session on the lawsuit should be held today, 28 May.
Pentecostals in Orel number several hundred persons. Pentecostalism is one of the later protestant movements of Christianity, arising in the early 20th century in the U.S.A. Pentecostals assign special significance to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, understanding it as a special spiritual experience often accompanied by various emotions, at which moment the power of the Holy Spirit descends on the regenerated believer. Pentecostals consider that this experience is identical to the experience of the apostles on the day of Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ. And since that day is called Pentecost, the name Pentecostals comes from it.
Several sources note that Pentecostalism is the third largest religious group in the U.S.A. numerically. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 May 2018)
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