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The Department of the Chief Architect of Voronezh required the leadership of the local congregation of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists [SEKhB] to conduct a survey of residents in order to discover whether they agree with the construction of a house of worship.
Over the course of several years the leadership of Voronezh Baptists has frequently sent to various municipal and provincial offices requests to proceed in accordance with the standard of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious association" in granting parcels of land for constructing new worship buildings. After many years of requests the mayor's office of Voronezh allotted an empty space next to garages measuring 15 by 20 meters in the "Videofon" microdistrict for constructing a house of worship. The congregation paid the necessary taxes and fees for drawing up documents that grant the right to construction.
The SEKhB society in Voronezh province, to which approximately 10,000 persons, belong comprises twenty religious organizations with the status of legal entity. Religious groups of the Union of EkhB that are active in accordance with Russian law without juridical registration are represented in all administrative districts of Voronezh province, cities and 32 rural areas.
As a representative of the Voronezh SEKhB society, Gennady Petrov, reported to "Portal-credo.ru," he was told orally at the Department of the Chief Architect of Voronezh, without an explanation of the provisions of the legislation, that before the society receives all the architectural and planning documentation necessary for construction, which the chief architect of the city, Anatoly Borodetsky, will sign, the society must set up and conduct a meeting of citizens living in two-story buildings across from the site of the planned construction. Its participants should express themselves for or against the construction. Also, in the opinion of the architectural department, government workers of the Zheleznodorozhny district of Voronezh and the mayor's office should be present at this meeting.
According to Gennady Petrov, it is not clear what connection exists between the residents of the buildings and the construction of the house of worship if the proposed construction site is across the street from the munti-story buildings.
In April of this year, using a similar argument, the Department of the Chief Architect of Voronezh prevented Pentecostals from improving a parcel of land that the congregation acquired as the result of a commercial transaction and judicial formalization as the property of a religious organization. In 1998 the architectural authorities of Voronezh placed similar conditions on a Catholic parish; as a result the parish was forced to reject further attempts to get a parcel from city authorities by legal means. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 August 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Leaders of Anglican and Lutheran churches in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Russia, Scandinavia and Baltic states at the ecumenical theological conference in the Latvian capital Riga are discussing similarities and differences of Anglicanism and Lutheranism.
Participants of the conference that began in Riga on Wednesday and will continue until the beginning of next week were especially pleased by the rise of the Christian church and faith in Latvia. Anglican bishop John Gladwin from Gilford, the UK, told BNS "it is interesting to attend a conference in Latvia because in this country the church had been suppressed for long but it is still alive and experience a rise of public faith."
Anglican bishop Kenneth Stevenson from Portsmouth, the UK, and other participants of the conference told BNS they had enjoyed praying together and had felt as one, although they recited Our Father in different languages.
"Even though Anglicans and Lutherans have theological differences, this does not prevent us from discussing in detail very important theological matters. This is a great chance for theological pondering in a friendly atmosphere," he said.
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church archbishop Janis Vanags pointed out to BNS theological quality of the lectures delivered at the conference that helped him to develop his theological thinking and change it, "providing answers to practical issues of the modern times."
Vanags said the conference of Anglican and Lutheran churches in Riga was "a major contribution to the ecumenical movement and especially useful for our pastors, who may find out opinions of their foreign colleagues on vital theological issues." (Copyright 2003 Baltic News Service, posted 12 August 2003)
REPRESENTATIVES OF WORLD ETHNIC RELIGIONS GATHERING IN VILNIUS
Baltic News Service, 7 August 2003
The 6th conference of the World Congress of Ethnic Religions is kicking off in Vilnius on Thursday to develop spiritual cooperation between peoples, promote tolerance and mutual understanding. The Aug. 7-9 event will take place at the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Library embracing representatives of ethnic or pagan religions from Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Austria, Sweden, France, Spain, Greece, the U.S., Canada and India, the Seimas press service reports.
Lithuanians, the last pagans in Europe, were baptized in late 14th century. At present about 80 percent of Lithuanians identify themselves as Roman Catholics. (Copyright 2003 Baltic News Service, posted 12 August 2003)
72,000 JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES RALLY IN UKRAINE CAPITAL
by Sylvie Briand
Agence France Presse, 10 August 2003
Tens of thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses from Europe and North America on Sunday wound up a four-day congress under the critical eye of Ukraine's Orthodox church which has denounced them as a pernicious "sect."
In what organiser Roman Yurkevich described as "the largest congress ever organised in a former Soviet republic," more than 72,000 people gathered in Kiev's Olympic stadium, around 60,000 from Ukraine but also thousands from the United States, Canada, Russia, Belarus, Italy, Moldova and elsewhere in Europe.
Similar gatherings took place at Lviv, in western Ukraine, Kharkiv and Donetsk in the east and Simferopol in the south. On Wednesday Ukraine's Orthodox Church described the religious movement as "criminal" and lambasted the government for allowing the congress to go ahead.
Ukraine recognised the Jehovah's Witnesses in Febrary 1991, even before the Soviet Union collapsed, and as early as 1993 hosted one of the movement's world congresses that brought together 64,000 people.
"There were 27,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine" when the republic split from the Soviet Union in December 1991. "Now there are 126,000 of us and our church is continuing to grow, with around 10,000 baptisms a year," Yurkevich said.
The government's religious affairs department confirmed these figures.
The movement has been established in Ukraine for more than a century. Its American founder Charles Russell visited the southern city of Odessa in 1891, and visited Lviv two decades later.
There were around 1,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine before World War II when they were persecuted by the Communist authorities along with other faiths, Yurkevich noted.
"We no longer have any problem with the authorities," he said. "As for those churches that criticise us, they know little about us."
The Ukrainian Orthodox authorities, under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox patriarchate in Moscow, said last week that by allowing the Jehovah's Witnesses to "invade" Kiev, the Ukrainian government was aiding "not only believers but also a global criminal group."
The congress organisers' objective "is to spread disorder in the country and turn our citizens into docile and manipulable beings," they said.
The Orthodox church continues to refer to the Jehovah's Witnesses as a "sect" that exploits the "psychological weaknesses" of its followers.
"These missionaries, rich and well educated, find fertile terrain here among a population that is naive, having received little religious education, and is still seeking its bearings after the collapse of the Soviet Union," said Father Yevstrati of the Kiev patriarchate.
"There is freedom of confession in our country, I'm glad to say, and we didn't want to oppose this congress. But we're telling our citizens to beware of these merchants of paradise," he said.
Worldwide the Jehovah's Witnesses, founded in around 1880, claim around six million followers.
The movement, whose teachings are based on a literal reading of the Bible's Book of Revelation, claims to be part of the Christian family but Christian authorities reject their self-definition on the grounds that they deny the divinity of Christ.
It is organising several congresses around the world this year, and last month 120,000 of its followers gathered in Spain, while tens of thousands met at several venues in Britain. (Copyright 2003 Agence France Presse, posted 12 August 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
"We are ready to appeal the decision of the Zamoskvorechie court that found two of the six the participants in the pogrom at the 'Beware, Religion!' exhibit not guilty if the Tagan prosecutor does not do this," the director of the Sakharov Museum, Yury Samodurov, declared in a broadcast from "Echo of Moscow" radio station.
As "NEWSru.com" reports, on 11 August the Zamoskvorechie district court of Moscow closed the criminal case with respect to two Orthodox believers accused of breaking up the "Beware, Religion!" exhibit, finding the actions of the investigator who initiated the case on the "hooliganism" article illegal.
Yu. Samodurov recalled that the "Beware, Religion!" exhibit ran in the museum from 14 to 18 January 2003. Thirty-nine artists participated in the exhibit. "The idea of the exhibit and the sense of the works were that it is necessary to be on guard, on one hand, with respect to religious institutions when they act aggressively and transform God's name into a brand. And on the other hand, to be attentive and sensitive to the feelings of believers," Yu. Samodurov explained. "Many of the works contained a feeling of protest against religious institutions becoming a trademark. But there was not a single work that would have wanted to offend believers' feelings."
Yu. Samodurov noted that "now the situation with the courts is very confused. The case against the people who broke up the exhibit was initiated by the Tagan prosecutor, and then two of the pogrom makers filed a complaint against the investigator who conducted this case. Our attorney who participated in the case against the hooligans was told that he should not come to court since it supposedly did not affect us," the director of the museum explained. "I expect that the prosecutor who initiated the case against the hooligans will appeal the decision of the Zamoskvorechie court, since we formally were not a party in this case," Samodurov noted. "If the prosecutor does not do this, then depending on whether we have the right, we will appeal the decision of this court."
He explained that "the administrators of the Sakharov Fund want for the court to recognize the pogrom at the exhibit to be hooliganism and require the pogrom makers to compensate for the material damage, including the repair to the hall and that the exhibit lasted only four days instead of a month. According to Samodurov, "the total damage is valued at 3,000 rubles, that is 500 rubles per pogrom participant."
"This is a matter of principle. Either one can behave that way or one cannot. They could express their attitude in a different way, organize a picket, publish critical articles about the quality of the works, or file a suit, but not organize a pogrom," the director of the museum thinks. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 August 2003)
CRUSADE AT THE COURT
by Olga Roshchina, Nadezhda Kevorkova
Gazeta,
12 August 2003
An unprecedented decision by the Zamoskvorechie court of Moscow: the instigation of a criminal case against Orthodox believers Mikhail Liukshin and Anatoly Ziakin, who wrecked the "Beware, Religion!" exhibit in the winter of this year, was ruled illegal. Around 500 believers came to support Ziakin and Liukshin, filling the whole square around the court building.
On 18 January several believers broke up and spread paint on displays of the exhibit that was going on in the Sakharov Museum. For example, an icon with a slit image and sign "Photo. Cheap" or an icon of the Savior against a "Coca-Cola" advertisement in the background with the inscription "This is my blood" (a direct quote from the Gospel and liturgical text of all Christian churches). There also was an effigy of a naked woman with an icon on her stomach crucified on a cross. The believers considered that the exhibition of these objects for public viewing was a mockery of Christian holy things and they decided to destroy the "tools of crime."
As Ziakin and Liukshin later explained, they considered the exhibit "extremist activity" directed to incitement of religious enmity. And the investigating offices implicitly agreed with the believers' point of view since subsequently the prosecutor's office of the Central Administrative District instigated a case for "incitement of religious enmity" against the organizers of the exhibit.
But then the investigative division of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Central Administrative District also initiated a case against the Orthodox believers on the "hooliganism" article. Of six participants in the "pogrom," the charge accused Liukshin and Ziakin as the most active.
Believers also were not inactive in this matter. They sent to the court a complaint against the actions of the investigative offices requesting that the instigation of the criminal case, presentation of an indictment, and use of preventive measures in the form of signing a statement not to leave the city be found illegal.
During the sessions hearing the complaint the court building was literally besieged by believers. To be sure, the majority of those sympathizing with the accused had to remain outside; if that had not be done the work of justice would simply have been paralyzed. However the people behaved in a quite civilized manner although sometimes what was happening recalled a genuine crusade with church music, icons, crosses, and many representatives of the clergy.
That the judge satisfied the complaint of the believers, reporters were not able to believe for a rather long time, since most often the courts simply issue their decisions mechanically, not wishing to get into the substance of the case and into an argument with investigative agencies. After analyzing the evidence presented the court came to the conclusion that the materials of the investigation, on the basis of which the criminal case was instigated, did not contain elements of the crime specified in the "hooliganism" article. The judge also took account of the existence of a criminal case against the organizers of the exhibit on the "incitement of religious enmity" article.
Taking the ruling of the court, the attorney for Liukshin and Ziakin, Mikhail Kuznetsov, went out to the crowd and read it, thanking the believers. "Your support helped us very much; I bow down to you," he said. "Although the court found only the order for opening the criminal case to be illegal, all the subsequent investigative actions and presentation of the indictment and taking of signatures not to leave the city become automatically illegal," the defense attorney later explained to a "Gazeta" reporter. "Liukshin and Ziakin did not commit hooliganism. They came to the Sakharov Museum and painted over the pictures where the Savior and Mother of God were represented in an obscene manner. They sat down and waited for the police. They wanted to get their attention since from 14 to 17 January citizens had been making complaints at the police department in connection with the exhibit. However no actions were taken. The exhibit was not closed down." According to the attorney, the investigator did not have the right to initiate a criminal case. After the initial actions he should have informed the prosecutor about what happened and the prosecutor was supposed to make whatever decision. The attorney is confident that the prosecutor will not appeal the decision of the Zamoskvorechie court. "They do not have any legal bases or arguments," the defense attorney said.
In Kuznetsov's opinion, the one who supervised the investigation of the case for the prosecutor's office, Ivan Bashkov, now should issue an order closing the misguided criminal case, since "the proscription of the court exists." In any case, Orthodox citizens are not ashamed of Liukshin and Ziakin. The director of the "For moral regeneration of the fatherland" public committee, Fr Alexander Shargunov, called all Christians to send to the prosecutor's office a statement acknowledging that they are victims in the criminal case regarding incitement of religious enmity in connection with the "Beware, Religion!" exhibit. "This is the obligation of each Christian. Everybody who thinks that he was caused moral and ethical suffering by the exhibit can do this," the cleric said. Believers greeted his suggestion with approval and then all went together to the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi for a thanksgiving service over the fortunate outcome of the case.
Anti-Christian Actions
In December 1998 an exposition titled "Young Atheist" opened in the Manezh where a stand of icons was set up "for desecration." The listing proclaimed: desecration at home with dispatch of a specialist; first aid in desecration; etc. At the wish of the customer a swastika was drawn on an icon, or abusive words were written, or it would be broken or spit upon. The exhibit was closed and its creator, Avdei Ter-Oganian, was presented with an indictment which he avoided by going abroad.
In 2000, on the eve of Pascha, a group of artists organized the enactment of the crucifixion of Oleg Mavromat at the "Udarnik" movie theater near the church of St. Nicholas, with a sign "I am not the Son of God." The whole enactment was recorded on tape and parishioners observed what was happening in a kind of stupor. A similar action ("Person X") was conducted by them also in the Marat Gelman art gallery several months earlier but it had no public effect. The same Mavromat organized in 2000 a cynical show with three pig heads representing the members of the Holy Trinity. In response to this, the head of Russian protestants, Sergei Riakhovsky, sent a request to the prosecutor general to open a criminal case, which was subsequently turned down.
Who is Alexander Shargunov
The priest Alexander Shargunov is the rector of the church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi and the leaders of an influential society that he created more than twenty years ago. He is a graduate of a language institute and professional translator of poetry who always maintained ties with the church abroad (ROCOR). Back in soviet time Anastasia Tsvetaeva, the flower of the Muscovite intelligentsia, was his regular parishioner. Since 1981 Shargunov supported the canonization of the tsarist family and he collected and published two volumes of evidence concerning their sanctity. His monarchist theme, demands for conciliar democracy, and willingness to participate in communist demonstrations always were cause for dissatisfaction on the part of the church leadership.
In 1997 it was Alexander Shargunov who raised a fuss about the showing of the "Last Temptation of Christ" on NTV on Easter night. In October 2001around 150 billboards in Moscow with nude and seminude models were damaged. Instructions for how to paint over billboards had been posted on the internet site of the "For the moral regeneration of the fatherland" movement, which Fr Alexander heads. Orthodox believers were not convicted of the destruction, but the advertisers changed the promotional style of underwear manufacturers. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 August 2003)
SECULAR COURT SUPPORTS RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS
by Lera Arsenina
Gazeta.ru,
12 August 2003
A Moscow court on Monday threw out a case against two Orthodox believers who in January this year trashed an exhibition entitled ''Beware: Religion!'' organized by an influential human rights group in the capital. The court said criminal persecution of the vandals was unlawful, ruling that there was no indication they had committed a crime. The organizers of the exhibition intend to appeal the ruling, which was hailed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
On Monday the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow dropped the case against two Orthodox believers Mikhail Lyukshin and Anatoly Zyakin, who in January this year severely defaced an exhibition on religion organized by the Sakharov Centre at the museum named after the eminent scientist and human rights activist. The exhibition dealt with the dangers of religious fundamentalism and church-state relations, its organizers said.
Lyukshin and Zyakin, along with four other young men, smeared artworks with paint, destroyed several exhibits and wrote obscenities on the walls. The accused said the exhibits were blasphemous and offended their religious feelings.
A criminal probe into vandalism was launched by the prosecutor_s office of the Tagansky district of Moscow. The inquiry was carried out by investigators of the Tagansky police station in the capital_s central administrative district.
In February Lyukshin and Zyakin were charged with hooliganism under Article 213 Part I of the penal code. At the same time, criminal proceedings were launched against the organizers of the exhibition under Article 282 Part 11, envisaging punishment for inspiring religious enmity.
Lyukshin and Zyakin considered the investigators_ action against them unlawful and filed a complaint to the Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow. Last week the court began examination of the complaint, which attracted some 500 believers who thronged outside the court building expressing their support for the two men. Lawyer Mikhail Kuznetsov, representing Lyukshin and Zyakin in court, said that the investigators had made a mistake by qualifying their actions as hooliganism.
According to the lawyer, in truth the accused had sought to prevent the kindling of inter-religious enmity, which they believed the scandalous exhibition was doing.
Kuznetsov persuaded the court to attach a request by Lyukshin addressed to the prosecutor of the central administrative district of Moscow to the case-file in which the claimant contested the impartiality of the investigators. Lyukshin alleged he had been subjected to pressure and threatened by them.
The lawyer also said that the case against his clients was unlawful, and on Monday the court upheld that claim. The judge ruled that there was no indication that the defendants had committed any crime. Moreover, the court supported the criminal case against the organizers of the controversial exhibition.
Director of the Sakharov Centre Yuri Samodurov called the ruling ''amazing''. He told Gazeta.Ru that he intends to discuss with the centre_s management an appeal against Monday_s ruling. The administration of the centre and the artists whose works were damaged by the Orthodox vandals were the plaintiffs in the case.
They demanded compensation for material damages from the six men to the amount of 2,500 roubles for defacing the premises of the Sakharov Museum where the exhibition was held and 3,000 roubles for disrupting the exhibition that that was to be open for a month, but instead was forced to close after only 4 days.
Representatives of the centre and participants of the exhibition, who face the prospect of a criminal case for kindling religious enmity, have still not been officially charged. According to the director, investigators plan to carry out an expert examination first; his colleagues were summoned to the prosecutor_s office merely as witnesses.
A spokesman for the Za Prava Cheloveka (For Human Rights) group Yevgeny Ikhlov believes that the court has passed an ''ignominious decision'', by ruling an act of vandalism lawful and thus giving its ''blessing for defacing everything that that fails to conform to the ideas of Orthodoxy and nationalism''.
''And the prosecutor_s office is carrying on proceedings against the organizers of the exhibition, who may face graver charges of kindling inter-religious enmity,'' the human rights activist told Gazeta.Ru.
Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) hailed the Monday ruling by the Zamoskvoretsky court, though at the same time they maintain that the believers could have expressed their protest in a different way.
In the opinion of an ROC spokesman Rev. Mikhail (Dudkov), the court has ruled that what the young men did was not an act of hooliganism; it was a move to cut short a breach of public order, which is the duty of every citizen.
''Commenting on the action itself, we have already expressed great indignation, and defacing is not the word to describe it. Most of the Orthodox believers understand those people, for the exhibition was plainly aimed at hurting religious feelings. And this falls within the purview of Russian law, in particular, the law on the freedom of conscience and religious liberty,'' said Rev. Mikhail.
He noted that what happened at the Sakharov Museum can be compared with an incident on the roadside of the Kiev-Moscow motorway, when a young woman was badly wounded by a hand-made explosive device as she tried to dismantle an anti-Semitic poster. ''This was an outrage against national feelings, even if it was expressed on someone else_s property or in a work of art. And that woman was right to destroy it,'' the ROC official said.
The ''Beware: Religion!'' exhibition was opened on January 14 this year at the Sakharov Museum in Moscow. As the Sakharov Centre director Yury Samodurov said, the exhibition dealt with issues such as religious fundamentalism and church-state relations, and the title reflected the need to be cautious and respectful in matters of faith. The exhibits were a mixture of religious and atheist themes. The exhibition displayed icons with fretwork in the shape of a hammer and a sickle and even Nazi symbols, as well as icons with holes instead of saints' images. Any visitor could put his face in the hole and feel like a saint. Over 40 artists from Russia, Cuba, the US, Japan, Georgia and Armenia had their work exhibited.
Russia Religion News Current News Items
The visit by Pope John Paul II to Mongolia, which had been planned for the end of August of this year, has not been cancelled but only postponed to approximately the spring or beginning of the fall of 2004. That was announced on 18 July 2003 at the Vatican, the Communications Service of OVTsSMP reports.
Mongolian President Natsagiin Bagabandi expressed his regret in connection with the postponement of the papal visit. The first Catholic church had been built for the planned arrival of the pontiff in Ulan Bator and access roads to it had been prepared along with a special lift which is supposed to give John Paul II easier access to the church.
The number of Catholic believers in Mongolia stands at 177 persons. As a highly placed prelate in the Roman curia stated, "it is easier to bring them to Rome in one plane than to send the pope on such a long trip." (tr. by PDS, posted 11 August 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
On 10 August on the "State and Religion in Russia" site the conclusion of the chief specialist of the Department of Education of the city of Moscow, A. Yu. Soloviev, about the "Religions of the World, grades 10-11" resource for pupils of general education educational institutions by the writers' group led by N.V. Shaburov was published.
In the conclusion it is noted that despite that the resource is recommended for use by the Ministry of Education of the Russian federation, "in its structure and contents it does not meet the standards required of a school resource." It is noted also that the book is unsuccessful both on a scholarly and on a religious studies plane and contains numerous imprecisions and mistakes. The conclusions that A.Yu. Soloviev draws after an analysis of the textbook under the editorship of N.V. Shaburov come down to the following:
First, the textbook "is deficient with regard to scientific precision, accuracy, quality, and extent of information about religion that it presents to pupils."
Second, it "is unsuccessful from a pedagogical point of view and does not meet the standards required of a textual resource for secondary general education schools." It is noted that the curriculum and the text do not correspond to each other and also "in psychological and pedagogical respects the text does not meet the standards set down for information about religion that have been adopted in state and municipal educational general educational institutions of secular schools."
Third, it is concluded that the resource contains expressions that facilitate the incitement of religious strife.
It is interesting that the text of the conclusion about this resource contains an abstract excursus into the debate over the "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" textbook by Alla Borodina with a clearly expressed support for the latter: "N.V. Shaburov's text is as illiterate as his conclusions about A.V. Borodina's text are." It is possible that this is connected with the author's service to political interests. Aleksei Soloviev has long cooperated with RPTs and regularly represents the Department of Education of the Moscow government in events devoted to cooperation between RPTs and the secular schools in the area of Orthodox enlightenment, the Glinsky readings and Rachinsky pedagogical readings, organized by the Fund for Slavic Literature and Culture (the president is the sculptor V. Klykov). (tr. by PDS, posted 11 August 2003)
Russian text of the review at "State and Religion in Russia" site.
Related article: "Supporters of Orthodox culture text attack expert analyst"
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Deputies of the Sakhalin provincial duma Sergei Ponomarev and Svetlana Ivanova are continuing judicial litigation with the "Jehovah's Witnesses" organization. We recall that residents of the building at 67 Pobeda Street of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk issued a protest against construction next to their building of a "Jehovist" house of worship. In the petition of their suit the residents requested that the decision of the city authorities granting a parcel of land for this construction, which originally had been granted for construction of a division of a savings bank, be found illegal. On 3 December 2002 the city court satisfied the suit of the citizens.
However representatives of the religious organization appealed it to the judicial college for civil cases of the Sakhalin provincial court and on 8 April the college satisfied their appeal.
Then the deputies presented to city Mayor Fedor Sidorenko a list with citizens' signature protesting against locating such an object in the center of the city near educational institutions (there were around 8,000 signatures in all). After this on 15 April the mayor signed several orders revoking his previous decisions regarding the grant and lease of the parcel of land for construction of the house of worship that by that time already had been built.
As Sergei Ponomarev reported on 8 August at a press conference, the presidium of the provincial court did not grant a supervisory complaint by Ponomarev and S. Ivanova with regard to the decision of the judicial college for civil cases of the Sakhalin provincial court of 8 April of this year. "In the response of the presidium it is said that there are no differences between a store and a house of worship. These are public buildings and thus there is no necessity of consent from the population whether to build a store, savings bank, or house of worship," S. Ponomarev said. According to his information, at the present time deputies are engaged simultaneously in four trials with the Jehovists in provincial and arbitration courts of Sakhalin province. "Jehovah's Witnesses" won in arbitration court at the end of July, where the orders of the mayor rescinding decisions of the city administration for granting and leasing the land for construction of a house of worship were contested, TIA-Ostrova reports.
According to Ponomarev, Mayor Sidorenko intends to appeal the decision of the arbitration court. The Jehovists also were fined for having used the house of worship they built without an official decision on putting it into use. Now the religious organization is trying to dispute this in arbitration court. At the same time, Ponomarev notes, there is pressure on the Sakhalin courts from two duma deputies, S. Kovalev and V. Igrunov, in the form of their telegrams and letters in support of the rights of the Jehovists. S. Ponomarev also reported that on 6 August a resident of a settlement in the "Teplichnyi" state farm district contacted him. He said that construction of a house of worship of the Seventh-Day Adventist religious organization had begun next to his home. Residents of neighboring buildings also protested against this construction. "I reported this matter on 7 August to the college under the city mayor's office and noted that before making a decision about construction city authorities should conduct public hearings in order to receive the consent of the population living in the district of the intended construction. People should have the opportunity to express their point of view, whether they want to live in the neighborhood of houses of worship of one or another religious organization," S. Ponomarev said. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 August 2003)
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BISHOP DANIIL OF SOUTH SAKHALIN AND THE KURILES SAYS RUSSIA TURNED INTO
"DUMP" FOR RELIGIOUS GARBAGE
Religiia
v svetskom obshchestve, 11 April 2003
"When I came to Sakhalin a year ago, I was struck by one thing, an enormous dump near Troitskoe settlement with which the local population had to reconcile itself. But it turned out that this was not the most horrible thing. This beautiful island also has been turned into a 'dump' of religious surrogates. All totalitarian sects, that are forbidden or denied the right of registration as religious organizations in other civilized countries, are registered in our country as Christian organizations. But for them Christianity is nothing more than 'camouflage.' They know that 82% of Russians belong to a Christian church." This statement was made by Bishop Daniil Dorovskikh of South Sakhalin and the Kuriles on 10 April in a session of the provincial duma at which the results of a session of the college on civil cases of the Sakhalin provincial court of 8 April 2003 were reviewed.
Deputies S. Ponomarev and S. Ivanova told how the college vacated the decision of the city court that satisfied the suit of residents of the building at 67 Pobeda Street requesting that the decision of the city authorities granting a parcel of land for construction of a house of worship of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" be found illegal. The city court satisfied the citizens' suit. However representatives of the religious organization appealed it to the judicial college on civil cases of the Sakhalin provincial court and won.
The deputies reported also that the number of such organizations on Sakhalin is growing steadily, while in USA these same "Jehovah's Witnesses" are registered not as a religious organization but as a publishing corporation. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 August 2003)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Russia Religion News Current News Items