Judge Mamvel Simonyan today pronounced Lyova Margaryan innocent of all criminal charges. He added that under Armenian law Margaryan could apply for damages because of the "false charges" brought against him.
Margaryan was accused under Article 244 of the Armenian Criminal Code of "luring young people into attending religious meetings of an unregistered religion" and "influencing members to refuse their civic duties." The judge explained that the purpose of this law is to protect young people whose rights and health are damaged and who are urged to reject civic duties. He reviewed witness testimony that he said demonstrated a lack of evidence to support these charges. He explained: "According to Armenian law every child has the right to worship and parents can educate them according to their beliefs until the age of 16." He added that judging by the evidence presented in court, "children had not been lured to meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but had attended with the permission of their parents."
In his judgement Judge Simonyan reminded the court that various witnesses had testified that their written statements had been dictated by the investigator. He also cited the example of one witness who said that her negative views of Jehovah’s Witnesses had been gleaned from television.
Defence attorney, Rustam Khachatryan, declared: "This a victory for religious freedom in Armenia. The Judge’s brave decision, despite intense pressure from the news media to convict Margaryan, should help to pave the way for Jehovah’s Witnesses to be registered in Armenia."
This prosecution followed calls by law-enforcement officials during an Armenian television programme for a crack-down on unregistered religions, using article 244, a 1960 anti-religious law introduced under then soviet leader Nikita Khruschev. Jehovah’s Witnesses, who number 7,000 in Armenia, have made numerous attempts to secure registration since Armenia gained independence in 1991. Freedom of religion and conscience is guaranteed by the Constitution of Armenia and by the European Convention of Human Rights, which Armenia signed upon its accession to the Council of Europe on January 25, 2001.
The prosecutor immediately announced his intention to appeal Judge Simonyan’s decision.
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Yesterday in the Tagansk intermunicipal court the hearing of the case of the suit from the Russian Ministry of Justice against the Salvation Army (I wrote about the start of the trial yesterday) ended. The Ministry of Justice got what it wanted; the court denied the Salvation Army the right to exist in the capital. The court session lasted twenty minutes.
Everything began with the Salvation Army's attorney, Vladimir Riakhovsky, being late for the session. His assistant, attorney Anatoly Pchelintsev, asked the judge to wait for Mr. Riakhovsky, who, in his words, was held up in a traffic jam. But at 2:10 Judge Svetlana Grigorieva began the session and, hearing only the representative of the Ministry of Justice, Galina Skakun, announced that the court would recess for making the decision. Trying to salvage the situation, Mr. Pchelintsev told the court that he had power of attorney with the right of speaking for the defendant. However Svetlana Grigorieva was unmoved, saying that it was necessary to announce the change in representation for the defendant earlier.
Two minutes after the court recessed Attorney Riakhovsky rushed into the room. He was very surprised that the court had not waited for him. Then at 2:25 Svetlana Grigorieva announced the court's decision: the Moscow chapter of the Salvation Army is henceforth not a legal entity, is excluded from the state register, and is considered liquidated. Vladimir Riakhovsky said that the Salvation Army will appeal this decision to higher judicial instances. He suggested that the decision had been made the day before and the court simply stretched out the time and thereby displayed its prejudicial attitude toward the case, which he had not expected.
Today it cannot be said that the Salvation Army is no longer in Moscow. Juridically its chapter exists until the city court reviews its appeal. If that decision is not in the Salvation Army's favor, then all other Russian chapters have good reason to fear for their fate. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 September 2001)
"ARMY" IS NO MORE
by Vladimir Skosyrev
Vremia MN, 13 September 2001
Yesterday the Tagansk intermunicipal court of Moscow recognized that the Moscow chapter of the "Salvation Army" religious organization was subject to liquidation. The suit was brought by the Chief Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice for Moscow.
The interests of the "Salvation Army" in Russia are represented by "Colonel" Kenneth Baillie, its leader in eastern Europe. The word "colonel" appears in quotation marks because really it is not at all military. The military terminology of this organization, which operates in more than 100 states, is used in the spirit of ancient Christian traditions when many monastic orders called their members "Christ's warriors" and "soldiers of Christ." These expressions became for them synonyms of allegiance to God.
The Salvation Army calls itself a church; its believers are "soldiers," and its clergy are "officers." However in fact the Salvation Army has never participated in any kind of violence and certainly not military activities. Moreover this was declared last year by the expert council of the Ministry of Justice. The "Army" finds the purpose of its activity in Russia (and besides Moscow it operates in five other cities) primarily in charitable work. In Moscow it opened kitchens for the homeless and a club for the elderly. "Soldiers" visit prisons and hospitals and conduct work with children from destitute families, an "officer" for relations with the public, Galina Drozdovskaia, told us.
Specifically, the Salvation Army is engaged in Russia in the very same things as outside of Russia, where its authority is not doubted by anybody. Everybody who has had occasion to see the Army's parades with orchestra music in London or other cities cannot, even with the wildest imagination, take these far-from-young men and women in antediluvian, dowdy uniforms for real soldiers.
Meanwhile Moscow authorities (in the person of minister Femida) consider the Salvation Army a militarized structure and, in particular, have refused it registration under this pretext. The ordeal has been drawn out more than three years. Now by decision of the Tagansk court the chapter of the Army in the capital will be closed on the basis of article 27 of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations." It provides for the liquidation of the legal entity that did not reregister by the deadline. For the Moscow chapter of the Salvation Army the deadline was 31 December 2000.
The absurdity of the situation includes the fact that the Salvation Army successfully registered and continues to function in Petersburg and several other cities. One should also note that this association had chapters in Russia before the revolution and afterward, but in 1923 the NKVD prohibited it as "an antisoviet organization." Has history really been repeated and have foreigners engaged in philanthropy in our country again fallen into the category of "subversive elements"?
At the end of the court session, defense attorney Vladimir Riakhovsky declared the organization's intention of appealing the court's decision at the highest instance. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
The Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Tatarstan (DUMRT) expressed its outrage and profound condolences over the destruction of an enormous number of innocent civilians and untold material losses from the terrorist acts in USA. A press release from the board that was received Thursday by the Interfax-Eurasia news agency said, "the criminals and terrorists who are guilty of the antihuman activity against all the world do not have a nation and religion."
Those guilty "must answer for what they have done and receive deserved punishment; a double standard is not justified for them and acts of terrorism, wherever they are committed, are unacceptable for humanity," the board noted. "We live in a united and mutually dependent community on one planet and therefore were must be jointly concerned for safety and integrity within it," the press release stressed.
The chairman of DUMRT, Mufti Gusman-khazrat Iskhakov, who is now in Sofia where a session of the expert group of the Organization of Islamic Conference is taking place, also delivered by telephone his condolences to the American people. "The pain from the awareness of human loses and understanding of the danger that threatens everyone should bind humanity together against such violence and barbarism," he stressed. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 September 2001)
SUPREME MUFTI OF RUSSIA: TERRORIST ACTS IN USA ECHO EVENTS IN
"HOT SPOTS"
Mir
religii, 12 September 2001
The supreme mufti of Russia and the European countries of CIS, Talgat Tajuddin, issued a sharp condemnation of the terrorist acts that occurred on Tuesday in USA. In the name of Muslims of the former Soviet Union he expressed condolences to the American people "whom this enormous tragedy has touched."
At the same time, Talgat Tajuddin views what happened as a reverberation of events in the Middle East and Afghanistan or other "hot spots" of the earth. In an Interfax interview the supreme mufti stressed that "when a problem is not resolved at the negotiation table it overflows into tragedy and simple people begin to suffer because the politicians have not managed to agree."
Recalling that the United States "has interfered very much in the affairs of various countries," one of the leaders of Russian Muslims compared the terrorist acts that occurred with the eruption of a volcano in which "deadly lava has been contained for too long."
"America," the mufti added, "has tried to instil order everywhere, but it cannot establish it in its own home." Talgat Tajuddin thinks "USA has the same problem the pharoah had--conceit and pride and the desire to be ruler of the world, while only the Almighty Creator can aspire to this place." "Placing one's self above him and thinking that one can decide the fate of the world is the highest degree of pride," the spiritual leader of Muslims thinks.
At the same time the mufti expressed disagreement with those who see an Islamic factor in what has happened. In Talgat Tajuddin's opinion, "there is no Islamic factor here, but there may be people who act in the name of Islam."
In conclusion the supreme mufti declared that "all great states, regardless whether they are 'super' or not, are very vulnerable, as today's tragedy has shown." Therefore, expressing condolences, he called the government of USA "to unite its efforts with Russia and other countries to prevent such things in every corner of the terrestrial sphere." (tr. by PDS, posted 15 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Today in the Tagansk court of the capital the drawn-out conflict between the Moscow chapter of the famous religious organization, the Salvation Army, and the Chief Department of the Ministry of Justice of RF for Moscow should be resolved.
The conflict began two years ago when the capital department refused reregistration to the Salvation Army and the organization considered this decision illegal and filed a complaint, first in the district and then in the city court. Both courts denied the complaint and today a suit for the liquidation of the Moscow chapter will be heard. As ministers of the Salvation Army themselves say, their main task besides spreading the Christian faith is to help their neighbors. They go to a home and help elderly and sick people and they set up free soup kitchens.
I went to the Paveletsky station before two in the afternoon. It is at that time, I had learned, that the distribution of food to the homeless is held in the station's yard. But much earlier than this time the needy had begun crowding the designated place. Exactly at two they began unloading cans of food off a blue minivan with the inscription "Salvation Army." "Lord, Lord, don't push; everybody will get some!" shouted the distributor. The homeless obediently lined up. Everybody received an opened plastic bottle or package of milk in which hot soup had been poured. I conversed with one of the women. Liudmila is a native of Tiumen where she lived almost all her life. Then in her advanced years, she says with regret, she wanted the good life. She sold her apartment and moved to Moscow. But she could not buy a place to live in the capital. So she is on the street. She has been coming to Paveletsky to get food for six years now. "A bowl of hot soup is my only real food and it is saving me," Liudmila says. Every day 50-60 persons are fed at the Paveletsky station. A second distribution point operates at Kursk station.
So why has an organization engaged in such good deeds been refused reregistration? In the words of Kenneth Baillie, the head of the Russian Salvation Army, it is considered a "militarized organization," and it is not permitted to create such organizations in Russia.
In the opinion of Vladimir Zhbankov, deputy head of the Chief Department of the Ministry of Justice for Moscow, they intend to liquidate the capital chapter of the Salvation Army not so much because of its "militarization" as because after the denial of reregistration the organization did not submit its documents in proper order and thereby demonstrated disrespect for Russian laws. "They were not even able to decide whether they are a religious or a charitable organization and it is unclear what religious confession they have. If they had taken account of our comments and corrected their charter, which is full of contradictions, and had not gone to court, there would not have been any problem."
Why do the sides not understand one another? Would it really be so difficult to correct a charter that conflicts with legislation? Representatives of the Salvation Army really do not understand how one can separate religious activity from charitable activity since one cannot exist without the other in principle. Incidentally, even if the Moscow affiliate is liquidated, this does not at all mean the liquidation of the whole Russian chapter of the "Army," which was registered long ago in the Russian Ministry of Justice. But this raises yet another question: if the Moscow department of the Ministry of Justice is right in refusing registration to the capital chapter of the Salvation Army, then how can the all-Russian organization be registered since it has precisely the same charter? (tr. by PDS, posted 13 September 2001)
SALVATION ARMY TRIES TO PRESERVE LEGAL ENTITY
by Ekaterina Fomenko
Kommersant Daily, 12 September 2001
Yesterday in the Tagansk intermunicipal court a review of the suit by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian federation against the Moscow chapter of the "Salvation Army" religious organization was held. The occasion for filing the suit was that the Salvation Army had not undergone reregistration with the offices of justice and thereby was in violation of the legislation of the Russian federation. The Ministry of Justice seeks the liquidation of the chapter.
The Moscow chapter of the Salvation Army, headed by Kenneth Baillie, was registered in 1992. Five years later the law on freedom of religious associations was adopted in Russia, according to which all religious organizations were supposed to be reregistered. The Salvation Army submitted the appropriate application but was turned down.
According to Kenneth Baillie, this was the first time in the whole history of the "Army" when it was denied registration as a religious organization, and it was even accused of having a military nature. In their turn, representatives of the Ministry of Justice insist that their refusal does not have a religious undertone but merely a technical basis, to wit, proper procedures were not followed in submitting the documents for registration.
An attorney for the Salvation Army, Vladimir Riakovsky, has defended it as much as he can. In the trial he submitted a petition for delaying the case until after an inquiry in the Constitutional Court to which he had just submitted a complaint. However Judge Svetlana Grigorieva refused to delay the case just as she denied all other requests.
In the event of the liquidation of the Moscow chapter of the Salvation Army it will lose the status of legal entity, will be removed from the state register, and will not be able to function on a legal basis. Vladimir Riakovsky is concerned that this could lead to serious consequences for all other Russian chapters of the Salvation Army, including even their complete liquidation.
The court session is supposed to continue today and its outcome is difficult to predict. However it is quite clear that both the plaintiff and the judge are confused that a religious organization can be denied registration as a public organization, although this suggestion has been made to it. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
A Moscow court shut down the Russian capital's chapter of the Salvation Army Wednesday, to the dismay of the British-based church that runs soup kitchens for poor and elderly Muscovites.
The city charged that the church had failed to re-register on time or prove its continued existence, as required under a law on religious organizations.
A source at the church said the Salvation Army would appeal the decision.
"This is nonsense! The tax authorities in Moscow know we exist because they process the salaries of the Salvation Army," the source said.
Russian authorities in the past have accused the religious group, which uses military style uniforms and ranks, of being a paramilitary organization bent on toppling the government.
"The charges are ridiculous and false. We just want to be left alone to do our Christian ministry, and we want to do it properly under Russian law," Col. Kenneth Baille, commanding officer of the Salvation Army in Russia, said in July.
Judge Svetlana Grigoreva at Tagansky Region People's Court had postponed the hearing from Tuesday to Wednesday so she could contact tax authorities to find proof of the organization's activities.
But the Salvation Army source said the court did not inspect the documents before it ruled.
In a statement before the ruling, the church accused Moscow authorities of ignoring the Russian central government's decision to register the church nationwide in February 2001.
The Salvation Army has already appealed to Russia's Constitutional Court, Russia's Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights in relation to an earlier refusal to allow it to re-register.
The problems relate to Russia's 1997 law on freedom of conscience and religion, which forced faiths without long activity in Russia to undergo a complex registration process.
The law is supported by Russia's Orthodox Church, which says it is needed to keep out dangerous cults that flourished after the fall of Soviet Communism, but human rights groups say it interferes with religious freedom.
MOSCOW COURT CLOSES CHARITY; SALVATION ARMY TO APPEAL RULING
Newsday, 13 September 2001
A district court yesterday ordered the Salvation Army to shut down its operations in the Russian capital in the latest fallout from a strict 1997 law that has raised concerns about religious freedom in Russia.
After two years of legal wrangling, Judge Svetlana Grigoryeva reached a ruling quickly in the proceedings in the Tagansky district court, the Salvation Army's headquarters for Eastern Europe said in a statement.
The Moscow government has sought to shut down the Salvation Army, accusing it of not registering on time and failing to regularly report its activities to authorities. The missionary group, which operates soup kitchens and does other charity work, says the government unfairly denied it registration based on the 1997 law. The group said it would appeal the ruling. It was unclear what immediate effect the ruling would have on the Salvation Army's religious services and aid work with the homeless, elderly and prison inmates in Moscow.
The 1997 law, championed by the influential Russian Orthodox Church, requires all religious groups to register with Russian authorities. Several groups, particularly foreign-based, have had legal troubles since it was passed and say it limits religious freedoms won with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Salvation Army is also active in other Russian regions where it has not had serious registration troubles.
On Tuesday, Grigoryeva refused the Salvation Army's request to postpone the case. Russian lawyers for the religious charity had argued that the case in Moscow should be postponed pending decisions on appeals filed in higher Russian courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
Col. Kenneth Baillie, who heads the Salvation Army's operations in Russia and four other former communist countries, said the group has faced worse problems in Russia than in any other country under his supervision.
The Russian Orthodox Church has denied it is behind the attempts to shut down the Salvation Army but has said it regards humanitarian activities by the Salvation Army as an attempt to win over believers.
Next month, the Salvation Army will mark its 10th anniversary of operating in post-Soviet Russia. It also operated briefly in czarist Russia before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. (Copyright 2001 Newsday, Inc, posted 13 September 2001)
MOSCOW COURT TO GO AHEAD WITH SUIT VS. SALVATION ARMY BRANCH
Interfax, 11 September 2001
A Moscow court on Tuesday rejected an appeal to suspend hearing a suit by the Justice Ministry to close down the Moscow branch of the Salvation Army. The reasons for the appeal, filed by the branch's lawyer, were current consideration of its case by the Russian Supreme Court and an inquiry the organization has sent to the Constitutional Court.
The Tagansky Intermunicipal Court said those were "not sufficient reasons" to suspend the hearing.
The lawyer said the European Court of Human Rights is also currently considering the case.
The Justice Ministry argues that the branch must be closed because it had not been re-registered before 2001 under the 1997 law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations."
The ministry says the branch has been involved in activities running against objectives stated in documents it has submitted for re- registration. The ministry has refused to re-register the organization until the alleged discrepancies are eliminated.
The Moscow Justice Administration registered the branch in 1992. (Copyright 2001 Interfax News Agency, posted 13 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Yesterday in the United States of America a horrible tragedy occurred. People throughout the world witnessed on television screens an amazing picture, while they refused to believe the truth of what was happening. We saw burning and destroyed buildings, the bloody bodies of the wounded, and tears in the eyes of ordinary Americans, and we cried along with them.
Our people know what war, terror, and violence are. Russian cities also have been shaken by explosions in residential buildings that took the lives of many of our countrymen. In Chechnia, hundreds of innocent people were tortured and brutally killed, including Orthodox and Muslim clerics. In Kosovo and Macedonia, Orthodox shrines are still being destroyed and the civilian population is being subjected to terror.
We mourn for the innocent people murdered and we pray for rest for them. Our special prayer is for those who were wounded, who lost relatives and neighbors, and who are in fear and despair. May the Lord help our American brothers and sisters to comprehend their horrible experience.
The Russian Orthodox church decisively condemns the perpetrators of this barbarian crime. No matter how those who plotted it try blasphemously to justify it, it always will remain sin against God and people and the violation of the commandments of any religion. What happened in America again reminds the whole world that terrorism cannot remain within the boundaries of one country or one region alone. This evil is a disaster for all humanity and the struggle against it must be conducted in common. The tragedy that occurred must sober the world. Governments and nations need to learn once and for all the most important lesson: it is wrong to turn to terror and lawlessness in order to achieve political goals and it is wrong to justify and support criminal efforts with discussions of the human rights of those who not only do not respect the rights and freedoms of others but strew around themselves death and destruction. The execution of criminal intent must be suppressed or punished in the severest manner.
After yesterday's catastrophe the world has changed. We saw in all its horrific clarity the nature of war in the twenty-first century because we encountered another especially audacious attempt to impose on others by violence one's own vision of world order on the basis of one's own world view or religious convictions, absolutizing one's culture and one's own way of life. May these tragic days awaken us to rethink the contemporary world system and begin creating it such that the people of the world can live in conformity with their own traditions and aspirations, without exploitation and pressure but in harmony with one another. Only in this way can we avoid the development of world history in accordance with the pessimistic scenarios that are being talked about today.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of America. We wish for them the healing of the wounds inflicted as quickly as possible and a return to a peaceful and prosperous life. May yesterday's tragedy never be repeated anywhere. May God grant that all nations of the world triumph over the evil of terror and instead work for the common good in trust and mutual support. We believe that this will happen for holy scripture says: "Those who do evil will be destroyed and those who trust in the Lord will inherit the earth" (Ps 36.9). (tr. by PDS, posted 12 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
--Today we have a special broadcast and there is a special occasion for this. The shepherd's staff became the symbol of archepiscopal ministry from the very moment that the founder of the Christian church said to his disciples: "Tend my sheep." For forty years now the archpastoral staff has been in the hands of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus. In 1961 Archbishop (later Metropolitan) Nikodim ordained Archimandrite Alexis bishop of Tallin and Estonia. In these years much has changed. People changed, government changed, the country changed. Today we are guests of Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus in the patriarchal residence on Chisty Lane.
Hello, Your Holiness; I greet you on your jubilee personally and from our program and our television company.
--Thank you.
--You have seen much during your archpastoral life. Tells us, please, what experience do you especially recall that made the strongest impression on you?
--In the forty years much has changed in relations between state and church and much has changed in the life of the church itself in these years. My episcopal ordination was held in Tallin's Alexander Nevsky cathedral on 3 September 1961. The first years of my episcopal ministry coincided with the administration of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, who began a new wave of persecutions against the church. Immediately after my ordination I was informed that by 1 October I would be required to close 36 "unprofitable" Orthodox parishes and the Puhtitsa Dormition convent, since it was planned to use its premises for building a vacation home for miners. It took great efforts for me to show that I was not about to begin my episcopal activity with the closing of a monastery and parishes.
--Nevertheless, during Khrushchev's time very many parishes were closed.
--They were all closed by administrative methods.
--As one of the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox church you had to conduct negotiations with the authorities somehow and communicate with state leaders. You had to meet with Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Chernenko and Andropov, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. Tell us, who of the leaders of the country was, in your view, closest to the church and understood its problems and who, on the contrary, caused it the greatest harm?
--I think that the most harm was done by Khrushchev. As regards communication with state leaders, I must say that we usually saw the leaders of the Soviet Union only on television, if we leave out occasions when on the regular anniversary of the October revolution church hierarchs were invited to receptions in the Kremlin, where we were supposed to give holiday greetings to General Secretary Brezhnev and Chairman of the Council of Ministers Kosygin.
I became chief of staff of the Moscow patriarchate in 1964. By this time a change in leadership of the country had occurred and open persecutions ceased. However all the way to the end of the eighties I felt the coldness with which the authorities treated the church. When in 1986 I was named metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, I raised the question of paying a visit to the chairman of the Leningrad city council. I was sternly told that such a thing never had happened in Leningrad and it could not. The general rebirth of church life in Russia began with the nineties, and Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin treated our opinion with understanding.
--If one can say of Boris Nikolaevich that he treated the Russian Orthodox church respectfully, then Naina Iosifovna, as far I understand, is a truly believing person.
--Yes, that's really so. And Boris Nikolaevich's successor, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, also understands the problems and tasks of the church. Moreover in the past decade for the first time in the history of Russia we have tried to create completely new relations between the church and state, proposing mutually respectful cooperation along with noninterference in the internal affairs of one another.
--Your Holiness, a state leader is not just a person endowed with power but is also a private individual. Much depends on his world view and faith and on his view on life. The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Solovki was called in the Novgorod province mass news media a vacation and get-acquainted trip. However for a believing person, a trip about sacred places is a pilgrimage. . . .
--Yes, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin devoted his vacation to pilgrimage. I welcomed Vladimir Vladimirovich at Solovki monastery and we flew together by helicopter to the Solovki islands. I described for him the history of these places and the tragedy which the monastery had endured when it became a camp of special purpose. Many thousands of our fellow countrymen perished on the Solovki islands.
At the present time the monastic life in the cloister is being revived under very difficult conditions. The president agreed with me that the Solovki monastery must be revived, since this cloister is not only a spiritual bulwark of Orthodoxy in the Russian north but also Russia's outpost on the White Sea.
--The president even gave a special commission to the governor. However the question remains on what means the monastery will be existing. In a special declaration in this regard you expressed the hope that the issue can be resolved with monastery land ownership. Did you raise this question in conversations with the Russian president? What was his reaction?
--This question is being resolved in accordance with procedures. The news media have somewhat distorted my position. I did not pose the question of the return of all land that had belonged to the church. Monasteries today simply cannot work the lands they once owned and therefore they are receiving a portion of land which they can work in order to feed themselves and pilgrims. In my opinion, there is no need to raise the question of restitution because it evokes a multitude of problems and conflicts. We do not demand the return of all church property, although I consider that to the extent possible it is necessary to return to the church some of the buildings that belonged to it that are needed for conducting normal parish activity as well as land parcels which monasteries can work.
--At the beginning of our conversation you said that forty years ago the chief problem of the church was the condition of parishes that were continually threatened with closure. Have the problems that face the Russian Orthodox church changed today?
--Now the question of education is most acute. We understand that after 70 years of atheistic education it is impossible today to raise the question of introducing the subject of the "Law of God" into the school or university curriculum. But we propose that the discipline of the "History of Orthodox culture" be introduced into the curriculum, because our culture is based on Orthodoxy and all educated persons must know the bases of their culture.
--Thank you, Your Holiness. Allow me once again the congratulate you on your jubilee. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Estonia has created the preconditions for registration of the Estonian Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate (EPTsMP) Prime Minister Mart Laar stated in an answer sent Wednesday to the letter from Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Russia.
As reported to "Interfax" at the government press service, the head of the government emphasized that "the government of Estonia has supported in every way the registration of the activity of structures of the Russian Orthodox church on the basis of Estonian legislation." Freedom of religious confession is fully guaranteed in Estonia by the laws and "the government suggests that all religious societies and parishes operate on the basis of laws," the letters states.
Along with the letter Mart Laar send to Alexis II a draft of a charter for EPTsMP, corresponding to the laws of Estonia, a representative of the press service noted. The prime minister reported that he agreed with the patriarch's suggestion to register EPTs as the "Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate." He noted that this denomination could be used only in its entirety since only then would it be distinguished from the already existing Estonian Apostolic Orthodox church which is within the jurisdiction of the Constantinople patriarchate.
Mart Laar also expressed the hope that now Alexis II also will do everything necessary on his part for the registration of EPTsMP. The Estonian government is prepared for registration as quickly as possible and believes that the dispute over taking this action that has been drawn out for years has ended, the premier stressed. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Orthodoxy is the most widespread religion in Russia, with 73.6% of Russians identifying themselves with it. Four percent of Russian citizens declare their adherence to Islam. Fewer than 2% profess other branches of Christianity or belong to other confessions. Eighteen and a half percent of Russian consider themselves atheists and only 2.3% have difficulty giving their religious self-identification.
This information was presented to "Interfax" on Friday by the independent research center Russian Public Opinion and Market Research (ROMIR--Gallup International). It was collected in the course of a survey of 2000 Russians conducted at the end of August.
The survey revealed the following particulars: among Orthodox, women predominate significantly (60.4%) while among atheists it is men (66.5%). Also among atheists somewhat more of the respondents have higher or incomplete higher education than the average of the sample.
However, further investigation of the religious sphere of life of Russian citizens points to the vagueness and erosion of religious definitions in mass consciousness. Thus, among respondents who declared their own adherence to Orthodoxy, only 51.3% of those questioned believe the existence of God and another 26.1% of Orthodox respondents reported that they believe the existence of a higher power or spirit, while 5.2% of those question stated that they did not believe God's existence and 17.4% of Orthodox participants in the survey had difficulty answering.
On the other hand, 27% of respondents who consider themselves atheists believe the existence of God, or a higher power or spirit or reason; only 43.5% of atheists are firmly convinced that God does not exist while 29.4% had difficulty answering this question.
The situation among Muslims is somewhat different; 75.6% of respondents who affiliate themselves with Islam believe in God, while 16.7% believe in a higher power, spirit, or reason. In this group, 7.7% of respondents had difficulty answering.
Thus, experts consider that among respondents who declare their adherence to one or another religion there is not a precise understanding even of the basic provisions of their religious doctrine. This is confirmed also by answers to the question: "Do you think that only one true religion exists or that truth is contained in many religions or that the truth is not in one religion?" Only 29.6% of respondents who consider themselves Orthodox are convinced that truth is contained in one religion only and a plurality (43.9%) think that there is truth in many religions, and 5.4% think that the truth is not in one religion. And 21.2% of respondents of this group had difficulty answering.
It is also impossible to say that Russians live an active religious life. Only 3.6% of respondents attend church once a week or more often, while 5,8% attend divine worship once a month. On major religious holidays, a fifth of those questioned (20.3%) attend church and almost the same proportion (23.3%) do so once a year or less often. A plurality of participants in the survey (46.3%) admitted that they almost never attend church.
It was shown that women are more inclined to regular attendance at divine services than men. Among those who attend church once a month or more are more than twice as many women as men. Elderly people attend church more often than the average of the sample.
Among Muslims surveyed, the number of those frequently attending a mosque is greater than the average of representatives of other confessions; 10.3% of respondents of this group attend services more than once a week. On the other hand, the number of those who almost never go to a mosque is higher among the Muslims (43.6%).
Thus, the number of those surveyed who not only declare their adherence to a certain religion but really live a religious life (which presupposes regular attendance at church and divine worship) is relatively small, 9.4% of the number of respondents. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Comments on the refusal by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MID) to issue to the leader of Buddhists, Dalai-Lama XIV, a transit visa for his trip through Russia to Mongolia were made by Ngavang Gelek, the authorized representative of the Dalai-Lama in Russia, the countries of CIS, and Mongolia, "Blagovest-info" reports. He said that the Russian authorities had not explained the official reasons for the refusal, but for the Tibetan side it was obvious that the most important reason was Russia' attempt to maintain warm relations with China, which in 1959 occupied Tibet and does not recognize the Tibetan government in exile headed by the dalai-lama. Inasmuch as from India, where the dalai-lama lives, there are no direct air flights to Mongolia, the head of the Buddhists can get there only through Russia, Ngavang Gelek explained.
He also reported that leaders of Russian Buddhists, who earlier had invited the dalai-lama to visit Buriatia, Tuva, and Kalmykia, also refused to confirm their invitation under pressure from the Russian MID. Ngavang Gelek said, "At MID they were given to understand that the dalai-lama's visit was undesirable this year inasmuch as representatives of the highest leadership of PRC had come to Russia and important documents had been signed."
In addition the representative of the dalai-lama expressed the hope that the visit of the spiritual leader of Buddhists could be held next year. "In the final analysis, he is the supreme hierarch of Buddhism as well as a Nobel Prize laureate," Ngavang Gelek stressed. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 September 2001)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
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