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The results of an examination conducted at Stanford University in USA confirm the doubts of the Russian Orthodox church regarding the genuineness of the "Ekaterinburg remains." This was announced to Interfax by an official representative of the Moscow patriarchate, Archpriest Alexander Makarov, who commented upon the results that were published today of the work of American and Russian scholars who conducted an analysis of a biological model of the remains of Grand Duchess Elizabeth, sister of Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. After a comparison of her DNA with analyses of the remains determined by a state commission in 1994 to be "remains of the empress," it turned out that they differ substantially.
"The hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox church has expressed doubt from the very beginning over the reliability of the expert analysis conducted earlier for identification of the so-called 'Ekaterinburg remains,' which were reburied in 1995 in the Peter and Paul fortress. So the results of the studies conducted by American and Russian scholars at Stanford University and the National Laboratory at Los Alamos merely confirm the basis for these doubts," Alexander Makarov said.
He recalled that Emperor Nicholas II and members of his family were canonized as saints, and that means their remains are sacred relics and objects of pious veneration by believers. "Therefore it is completely impossible that there be in the church an absence of consensus regarding their authenticity," the priest explained.
On the other had, he added, "it is completely obvious that the 'Ekaterinburg
remains' belong to victims of the antigod regime since the very place where
they were discovered, Ganina pit, was a place of mass shootings in the
first years of the civil war. Therefore, without intruding into the discussion
of the specific identity of these remains, the church proposed burying
them in a symbolic grave as a memorial. This would have fulfilled the moral
obligation to millions of innocent murder victims, including the royal
family," the agency's informant noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 May 2005)
"EKATERINBURG REMAINS" MAY NOT BELONG TO TSAR'S FAMILY
NEWSru.com,
24 May 2005
A "Russian foreign expert commission for investigation of the fate of remains of members of the Russian imperial house, killed by bolsheviks in Ekaterinburg on 17 July 1918" called in New York for conducting hearings in the State Duma of the problem of identification of the remains of the family of Nicholas II in connection with "newly revealed circumstances."
The occasion for the call was the recent completion by American and Russian scholars at Stanford University and the National Laboratory in Los Alamos of analyses of a biological model which was received from relics of St. Elizabeth, sister of Tsaritsa Alexandra Fedorovna, which were brought from Jerusalem.
"We compared her DNA with the analyses of remains determined by a state commission to be remains of the empress, and it turned out that they differed very much," one of the authors of the study, the chief scientific associate of the Institute of Common Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Lev Zhivotovsky, said, speaking at a bishops' council of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Meanwhile, he said, the DNA of sisters should absolutely coincide. Zhivotovsky cast doubt on the authenticity of the biological models whose analysis in 1994 permitted the state commission to draw the conclusion that the remains found in Sverdlovsk province belonged to members of the family of Nicholas II, RIA Novosti reports.
"Investigations of recent years have shown that after the death of an organism, DNA begins to degrade rapidly, it breaks apart, and the more time passes, the more these pieces are shortened," the scholar declared. "In 80 years without the creation of special conditions, pieces of DNA of length more than 200-300 nucleotides are not preserved. But in the analysis of 1994 whose conclusions were determined by the state commission, a piece 1223 nucleotides long was isolated."
Zhivotovsky noted that Ekaterinburg is not located in a zone of endless permafrost, where these remains might have been preserved without significant harm to the chain of nucleotides. "An analysis of the mistakes of the DNA study in 1994 and substantial violations of forensic medical procedures, inconsistencies in the circumstances of the case and, finally, the failure of a DNA match of the supposed sisters all give evidence against the conclusion that the 'Ekaterinburg remains' belong to members of the Romanov family," one of the directors of the commission, Peter Koltypin-Vallovsky declared.
Commenting on a report that an analysis in USA of the DNA of the "Ekaterinburg remains" supposedly showed that they belongs to other persons, the chairman of the Commission on Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, Alexander Yakovlev, stated that he does not doubt that the "Ekaterinburg remains" belong to the family of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II. "When I worked on this question, from the start there was only one conclusion, but then everything took shape so that this is what they were, and now I have no doubt about this," Yakovlev said. "Of course, one will have to look at what comes out there later, but after all we also studied DNA," Yakovlev noted. Clarifying his position, he said that the fact that it was the tsar's family that was shot says literally everything, Interfax reports. "After all, there are detailed accounts of the participants in the shooting and there is the report of Yursky, the commandant of the building where the tsar and his household were held. All of this was documented at the time and there was not any reason for him to lie," Yakovlev said.
We note that the foreign expert commission was created by Russian emigres of the first wave and their descendants in 1989 soon after the announcement by filmmaker Gelii Riabov about the discovery of the remains of Nicholas II and his family by him and several other amateurs. In 1995 members of the foreign commission, Koltypin-Vallovsky, Evgeny Magerovsky, and the late Prince Alexei Shcherbatov, at the invitation of the Russian government, participated in a plenary session of the State Commission for Identification and Burial of Royal Remains. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 May 2005)
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Yesterday a political advisor to the governor of the Kama region, Nikolai Yashin, told Kommersant that provincial authorities have begun negotiations for purchasing the building of the Lenin Palace of Culture from the "Perm diocesan administration of Christians of Evangelical Faith" religious organization. So far the negotiations have been conducted only with the directors of the "Motovilikha" factories holding company, which sold the palace of culture to the evangelicals at the end of April. Provincial authorities decided to draw the upper management of the holding company into the negotiating process as mediators. It is suggested that the building will be bought for approximately fifty million rubles, drawing from the provincial budget. The current owners of the palace of culture told Kommersant that they are prepared to review any suggestions.
Kommersant was told that in the course of restructuring the business, the Motovilikha factories (MZ) holding company has been trying since 2002 to get rid of superfluous units of its manufacturing assets. The first major superfluous unit was the Lenin Palace of Culture, that contains an auditorium accommodating 900 persons and 5,000 square meters, built in the 1950s, which MZ disposed of at the end of April of this year. The palace was bought for fifty million rubles by the "Perm diocesan administration of Christians of Evangelical Faith." The new owners promised not to change the use of the palace as a cultural institution.
The sale of the palace to evangelicals evoked an ambiguous response among the public and politicians of Perm as well as among representatives of the Russian Orthodox church (RPTs). During the paschal holidays Bishop of Perm and Solikamsk Irinarkh commented on the situation, expressing his opinion that "the residents of the Kama area do not approve the sale of the palace to sectarians." The mayor of Perm, Arkady Kamenev, and a number of deputies of the Perm city duma even promised to challenge the deal. Finally, last week a demonstration against the sale of the palace was held; the participants in the event decided to appeal to the prosecutor requesting an examination of the legality of the transaction. As the political advisor to the governor told Kommersant yesterday, provincial authorities have begun negotiations with the evangelicals about the purchase of the Lenin Palace of Culture building. "So far we have turned only to the leadership of the factory requesting that they mediate the negotiations. But in the near future the negotiations will be trilateral," Mr. Yashin said. He said that the palace of culture was sold without consulting the authorities and "if at the start it had been offered, we would have bought it." It is suggested that the building will be obtained at the expense of the provincial budget and agreement in principle regarding amending the budget for this year has already been obtained from deputies of the legislative assembly of the Kama region.
According to Kommersant's information, the authorities are considering changing the Lenin Palace of Culture into a museum of provincial history and an art gallery after its purchase. However Nikolai Yashin himself refuted this information, stating that the palace "is hardly conducive to housing a gallery. Just what kind of cultural institutions will be located there is still difficult to say. It is possible that it would be the Evgeny Panfilov ballet or something else. In any case, the palace of culture will lose its current use," the political advisor explained to Kommersant.
As an assistant to the bishop of Russia for the church of Christians of Evangelical Faith, Eduard Grabovenko, told Kommersant, no one had yet come to him with specific suggestions. "Of course, we are prepared to review this question, if they offer us better conditions," he stated. As the director for external relations of MZ, Igor Vagan, told Kommersant, "we cannot but be pleased that provincial authorities are ready to manifest the political will and to find a resolution to this complicated situation, which would suit all interested parties."
The Motovilikha prosecutor of Perm has begun a review to determine the legality of the sale of the palace of culture by the MZ holding company to the Perm diocesan administration of Christians of Evangelical Faith. As Kommersant was told at the district prosecutor's office, the basis for beginning the review was an appeal from citizens. "Residents of Motovilikha wrote a declaration demanding the return of the palace to the people," the prosecutor for Motovilikha district, Ivan Loginovskikh said. "The provincial prosecutor took this question under his personal control and instructed us to check the legality of the deal." In 2002 the prosecutor had intended to appeal to arbitration court requesting that MZ turn the palace of culture over to municipal ownership, but this suit was not filed. "Now we getting all the old papers and requesting documents from the factory on the basis of which the palace was included in the factory's assets," the prosecutor's office explained. "It is possible that we can get an explanation from some of the top managers of the company and in the course of thirty days we will draw a conclusion about the legality or illegality of the sale of the palace." MZ stated that there still have been no inquiries at the holding company from the prosecutor. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 May 2005)
Posted on Portal-credo.ru site, 19 May 2005
Russia Religion News Current News Items
The administration of Arkhangelsk province shares the basic ideas of the speech by Bishop of Arkhangelsk and Kholomorsk Tikhon about the "power of change," but it does not plan to take any specific stern actions on its part for now.
"We consider that the bishop's appeal is a qualified sincere concern for the spiritual, religious, and physical health of northerners, and we very much hope that this profound and serious appeal will be heard by many of our countrymen," the head of the information and analytical administration of the government of Arkhangelsk province, Dmitry Nesanelis, told an IA-REGNUM correspondent. In his words, there still is not in the administration of the province a structure that could deal effectively with questions connected to religion. Thus there are no specialists who would be able to predict what would be the outcome of the "power of change" action, say in five years.
However, even without experts Nesanelis thinks that it is clear that no good results should be expected from the "Experience the Power of Change" action. Nesanelis stressed, "I think that the real goals of the organization of the action differ from what they state. As a person, citizen, and Orthodox Christian, I have real affinity to the concern that our bishop expressed. And I shall try to do everything I can to help the diocese in the noble work of moral and spiritual enlightenment." According to D. Nesanelis, some of the news media have given incorrect information about his supposed support for the event. They have written that, in his opinion, "the diocese of RPTsMP has taken an overtly obscurantist position when in a 'not very effective' appeal sent to the governor of the province, Nikolai Kiselev, it demanded the termination of the social and charitable 'Experience the Power of Change' action under the pretense that its initiators and participants are members of protestant churches (Baptists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Adventists)."
As is known, the president of the Arkhangelsk provincial Assembly of
Deputies, Vitaly Fortygin, also has a negative opinion of the "Experience
the Power of Change" event: "I have an extremely negative attitude toward
sects. Any manifestation of sectarianism has a negative character. In our
country we have an official confession, and I am an Orthodox man and I
support the position of Bishop Tikhon. The action being conducted carries
within it a danger, principally for young souls. It is necessary to be
very attentive to such events which on first glance seem contemporary and
attractive, but at the same time bring spiritual destruction. Here it is
very important to conduct educational work among the youth that would help
people to understand the danger of the event," he said. (tr. by PDS, posted
23 May 2005)
RUSSIAN NORTH AGAINST POLICIES OF CENTER
Protestant action arouses Arkhangelsk society
by Roman Lunkin
Portal-credo.ru, 23 May 2005
http://portal-credo.ru/site/print.php?act=news&id=33621
Moscow's methods in religious policy, as practice has shown, are not
always effective and acceptable in the provinces. Residents of Arkhangelsk
province consider themselves to be heirs of the traditions of religious
toleration of the Russian north, and thus any attempt on the part of Moscow
to show "nontraditional" confessions their place meets with a powerful
public reaction. The harsh and uncharacteristic declaration by Bishop of
Arkhangelsk Tikhon Stepanov, in which he demanded of the governor of the
province, Nikolai Kiselev, the prohibition of the conduct of the protestant
social action "Experience the Power of Change," was effectively condemned
by representatives of the provincial administration (it was called "irrational")
and evoked dismay among the evangelical community.
The protestants are increasingly providing surprises to government workers and Orthodox hierarchs and secular activists. Evangelical churches are trying to carry out their own social and evangelistic projects on as grand a scale as possible and at the expense of their own resources. Whereas at the beginning of the 1990s, western missions sponsored the venues of stadiums and houses of culture, now the Russian congregations are living to a substantial degree at the expense of the tithe that every believer is obliged to donate to "God and church." After 2000 the protestant movement presented to the Orthodox-oriented community evidence of its own growing influence. The "Train to the Future" anti-drug project acquired fame throughout Russia as it was included in the federal state drug control program. The event which started at the beginning of May in Arkhangelsk is actually more likely regional, although it aspires soon to become country-wide.
The initiator of the "Experience the Power of Change" project was the Moscow-based "Power of Change" Center for Social Relief, which formally is a secular social institution, although its director, Yury Ananiev, belongs to the protestant Wesleyan church of the Nazarene. The idea for the action is that in a certain city the Christian churches will conclude among themselves an agreement for cooperation in the social sphere. At the beginning stage, the action conducts seminars and concerts against drugs, places public advertisements in the news media, and produces corresponding television programs. The churches discuss the possibilities of social ministry and test themselves in this field, developing already existing relations with social institutions and the like. In Arkhangelsk the entire month of May 2005 was designated for this first stage. After this beginning, each congregation experiences for itself, in its own way, the "power of change" and develops its own strategy of public ministry.
In effect, after its active phase the project ceases to exist, but in practice the action of the project is experienced for a rather long period of time; the churches that had thought they did not have the possibilities and resources to be involved in social work are delivered from their "disbelief" and they begin their own small projects while the larger congregations spread to the regional level, and so forth. Such a scheme of the development of church ministry with its own kind of strategizing and liberation from various complexes was already tried in Petrozavodsk, Ufa, and Volgograd.
At the very beginning of May, Baptists, Pentecostals and Adventists in Arkhangelsk, Novodvinsk, and Severodvinsk took action as if they were living in one of the respectable western European states. In April the "Experience the Power of Change" project was presented to the provincial administration and was approved by the head of the Information and Analysis Directorate within the administration of Arkhangelsk province, Dmitry Nesanelis.
During a meeting with Bishop Tikhon in April the protestants received support and blessing for the resolution of the social problems of youth. As one participant in the meeting, the bishop of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith for Arkhangelsk province, Sergei Latyshev, told Portal-credo.ru in an interview, "Bishop Tikhon is no dummy and he sees the benefit which this project could bring, raising the rating of RPTs at the same time." With regard to this meeting at the beginning of May, the head of the press service of the Arkhangelsk diocese, Fr Valery Suvorov, told a Portal-credo.ru correspondent that Bishop Tikhon responded sympathetically to the project since it actually is being conducted without any particular confessional framework, despite that its organizers belong to another Christian tradition. The diocese will participate, as it can, in carrying out the protestant project. In the opinion of Fr Valery Suvorov, "this possibility speaks of the problems of youth and also about the existence of a way out of complex situations which our Orthodox faith gives to sacred things."
After a whole series of consultations the organizers of the project published a book which also is called "Experience the Power of Change" (this publication also was blessed by the diocese). It contained real stories about people, residents of the Russian north, who were delivered from drug and alcohol dependence and from difficult life situations. Evangelical believers began working in hospitals and preaching in hang outs and literature was published and distributed devoted to the struggle with abortions, drug addiction, and alcoholism. Those who were active in the "Experience the Power of Change" project, which was suspended during the days of celebration of the jubilee of Victory, developed a special program for "veterans and widows of the war," that is, for single elderly people.
By the middle of May the broad scope of the project, with advertisements in the streets and on television and the support of provincial authorities, became obvious. On 16 May Bishop Tikhon made his noisy statement to the effect that the protestants' "Experience the Power of Change" project was aimed at proselytizing activity by neopentecostals among residents of the province. In addition, Bishop Tikhon acknowledged: "This grand project is unprecedented for the Russian north." The head of the press service of the diocese, Deacon Valery Suvorov, commented on the phrase "sacrilegious action" for Portal-credo.ru: the point is that the activity of neopentecostals was labeled sacrilegious in one of the documents of the antisect conference that was once held in Novosibirsk, from which the press service took this designation. According to Valery Suvorov, Orthodox persons are alarmed that protestants "are converting children," giving out their pamphlets, inviting them to come to their services, and using prayers as a part of public activities. However, in the city where reformed evangelicals have worshiped freely since 1649, Calvinists since 1674, and Lutherans since 1686, an accusation that protestants pray and fellowship with people sounds, to say the least, strange.
The reason for Bishop Tikhon's episcopal strictures has to do with internal church politics. It was not meaningless that the head of the Information and Analysis Directorate in the administration of Arkhangelsk province, Dmitry Nesanelis, stressed in a conversation with a Portal-credo.ru correspondent that Bishop Tikhon is above all a diplomatic person and "it is impossible to say that he is strictly orthodox." Moreover, immediately after publication of his antiprotestant declaration Bishop Tikhon went on an assignment as head of a delegation of RPTs for conversations with protestant churches in Scandinavia. In accordance with the line of the Department for External Church Relations [OVTsS], Bishop Tikhon cochairs a joint working group for cooperation between the Russian Orthodox church and the Evangelical Lutheran church of Norway, and he participates in theological dialogue with representatives of various Lutheran churches. The position of the head of OVTsS, Metropolitan of Kaliningrad and Smolensk Kirill Gundiaev, with regard to protestants was expressed specifically in his address to last year's bishops' council. It is that fruitful dialogue will be conducted by the Moscow patriarchate only with Lutherans. A large part of Russia's protestants, and particularly Pentecostals, in Metropolitan Kirill's opinion, are engaged in "proselytism." In Bishop Tikhon's absence, his secretary, Fr Valery Suvorov, explained to Portal-credo.ru the position of the diocese in the spirit of the xenophobic Moscow policy of Metropolitan Kirill, which is historically alien to the Russian north. As Fr Valery Suvorov declared, for us Orthodoxy and Catholicism are the Christian tradition, and only Lutheranism is genuine protestantism.
The necessity of following the policy of the center, that is of the Moscow patriarchate, in this part of Russia, which traditionally tends toward European values of tolerance and love of freedom, has been turned into a kind of smoke screen that has nothing to do with reality. Sooner or later the Arkhangelsk diocese, like the Petrozavodsk and Murmansk dioceses, will cooperate with protestants without restriction, unlike the present time when the diocese considers Russia's evangelical believers as second class citizens.
The diocese willingly entrusts social work in the province to the western fellow believers of the Arkhangelsk Lutherans, Baptists, and Pentecostals. Bishop Tikhon regularly fellowships with protestant leaders in the Association of Churches of the Barents Commonwealth (Norway, Sweden, and other Scandinavian countries), which has organized humanitarian activities in Arkhangelsk, particularly to help children's homes in the province. A medical, social, and charitable service operates in the diocesan administration on a permanent basis, supported by Scandinavian churches of the Barents region. With support from Scandinavian protestant churches, nurses training and an Orthodox class have been created in one of the Arkhangelsk schools.
On the other hand, the approximately sixty protestant congregations and groups of all sorts in the Arkhangelsk province (RPTsMP has around 130 parishes in the province) also view Orthodoxy with great respect. Thus, the executive director of the "Experience the Power of Change" project, Viacheslav Korneev, stressed for Portal-credo.ru in an interview that those who are guilty in this conflict are people "who are unable to deal with social problems and who enflame interethnic strife." The most emotional position is occupied by Pentecostals, against whom, in the main, Bishop Tikhon's declaration was directed. The Pentecostal bishop, Sergei Latyshev, is convinced that "now Bishop Tikhon has shown his true face, since previously he also had called for restriction of the activity of protestants." In the social service of evangelical churches, not only in Arkhangelsk, respect for the Orthodox tradition is easily combined with a desire to change it and make it "alive." The evident evangelistic direction of protestant actions forces Orthodox believers to protect themselves. However people of the Russian north recognize the asiatic approaches of the "Moscow tsardom," which are unworthy of the honest and open personality of the maritime territory. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 May 2005)
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The Moscow Bureau on Human Rights and the Moscow Antifascist Center issued a call for increasing the severity of measures of punishment for incitement of ethnic, racial, and religious enmity. The immediate occasion for the statement was the murder of three Armenian residents in the city of Verkhniaia Pyshma of Sverdlovsk province.
"Conditions in Russia demand an intensification of the struggle with extremists who incite racial, ethnic, and religious hatred. This is what the tragic events in Verkhniaia Pyshma tell us," the statement says, a text of which was delivered to Interfax on Monday.
The authors of the document recall that back in January the Antifascist Center called attention of the leadership of the country to the way the law should provide for stricter punishments for such crimes. In the opinion of rights advocates, current legislation permits those guilty of committing such crimes to escape responsibility.
"Since December 2003, arousal of national, racial, and religious enmity has been considered in Russia 'a crime of little gravity,' and punishment for it has now become less than for petty theft! The statute of limitations has been reduced to two years and it often expires before the investigation is completed," the authors of the declaration testify.
Along with increasing the severity of punishment the rights advocates also call for conducting cultural educational measures for advancing tolerance and overcoming nationalistic prejudices. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 May 2005)
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Interest among the Belorussian population in nontraditional religious teachings is declining, the KGB of the republic told Interfax. According to the news agency's informant, "in the past three to four years a significant decline in interest in nontraditional religious teachings has been observed. Investigation has shown that the number of different kinds of sectarian associations has decreased and the total number of person being drawn into their activity has lessened," the source noted.
At the KGB Center for Information and Public Communications it was explained that the main spurt in the manifestation of activity of nontraditional movements in Belorussia came in 1992-1996 "when objective preconditions for the establishment of their principles within the mass consciousness of youth and elderly persons were created. It is these two categories of people that constituted the main contingent of converts of the new movements attempting to get established in the new geographical space, to form organized structures, and to attract new adherents," one of the informants of the agency explained.
According to agents of the special services, offices of the government in cooperation with law enforcement agencies have taken preventive measures for prohibiting negative effects of destructive cults upon the population of Belorussia.
"The most substantial countermeasures with regard to destructive cults were taken in 1998-2000. In that time agencies of justice denied registration to over two dozen destructive religious organizations active on the territory of Belorussia in the guise of public structures ('Student Association,' 'Belorussian Pedagogical League,' 'Federation of the Family for Unity and Peace in the Whole World,' 'Federation of Women for Peace in the Whole World,' 'Republican Center,' 'Dianetics,' 'Belorussian Humanitarian Association,' 'Society of Vedic Culture,')," the KGB source reported.
In addition, it is thought at the Center for Public Communications that despite the creation of a regime of the least propitious conditions, the presence of several nontraditional movements has been maintained to the present. Among the most typical neo-cults in Belorussia today are such denominations as "Movement of Unification" (the Moon sect) and the "New Age" movement of Scientology and Dianetics.
In particular, the cult of Scientology in Belorussia is under intense surveillance by responsible agencies of government and administration in connection with the use by followers of this teaching of little-studied means of manipulation of a person through methods of psychotherapy and psychiatric medication, the center noted. The agency's informants suggested that at the present time there are on the order of 100 active adherents of the teachings of Dianetics-Scientology in the republic. The greatest activity is manifested in Minsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk, and Slonim. In the current year the "Church of Scientology" has been unsuccessful in obtaining registration in Minsk. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 May 2005)
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Around 200 persons gathered on Sunday in Novopushkin Square in Moscow for a protest demonstration "against discrimination against protestant Christians." The event was organized by the central Moscow "Emmanuel" church of Christians of Evangelical Faith Pentecostals.
According
to the organizers, the basic goal of the demonstration is to call attention
to violations of human rights and arbitrariness by bureaucrats as well
as to put an end to propaganda and incitement of interreligious strife.
"Our task is to teach people how to fight for their rights," the senior pastor of the "Emmanuel" church, Alexander Purshaga, declared at the demonstration.
The immediate occasion for the action was the recent refusal by city authorities to allocate two parcels of land, in Solntsevo and on Vernadsky prospect, for construction of protestant houses of worship.
"We have been deprived of the possibility of gathering in buildings designated for worship services. Our children have been deprived of Sunday schools," a leaflet that was distributed among those who came to the demonstration said. (tr. by PDS, posted 23 May 2005)
[Photograph" Pentecostal demontrators; sign contains quotation from Ec 3.16: "And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment, iniquity was there, in the place of justice, injustice was there."]
RESOLUTION OF PROTEST DEMONSTRATION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RIGHTS OF CHRISTIAN PROTESTANTS
We, Christians of Evangelical Faith, protestants, participants in a demonstration of protest on 22 May 2005 have gathered in this previously announced action in order to call the attention of the mayor and government of the city of Moscow to systematic violations by workers of the Moscow government of the laws with regard to the Christian protestant churches.
Today we declare that we are not acting against the authorities. We support the authorities in their attempts and care for the welfare of our country and city. We believe in a great future for Russia. But we understand that our country can only become great when, along with economic and political might, it is strong spiritually. And this is possible if freedom of conscience and religious confession are accomplished in full measure, reflecting the interconfessional and multinational treasure of our country. However forces have been set in motion in our country which are trying to plunge modern, enlightened Russia back into the middle ages.
But today is a day of dialogue, not dictatorial action. Today is a day of joint labor and not of casting others out. On this day we demand of the government that it return to us our civil rights to be able to worship God in houses of worship, as the Holy Bible teaches.
However, barriers to exercising our rights have been erected by the efforts of workers of the Moscow government, who have ignored the constitution and the laws regulating relations between the state and religious organizations. Thus, government workers perfidiously seized a parcel of land intended for construction of a church building from the "Emmanuel" central church of Christians of Evangelical Faith of Moscow, despite the personal assurances of Moscow Mayor Yu.M. Luzhkov, as of result of which the church has suffered multimillion rubles of losses and incalculable moral harm. And when the church bought the building of a club in the outskirts of Moscow, in Solntsevo, in this case local bureaucrats, by their efforts, refused to issue permission for work necessary for the functioning of the building. We are upset by the tyranny of local bureaucrats and demand an investigation and the timely adoption of measures.
Expressing our concern for freedom of religious confession in the city of Moscow, we adopt the present resolution with the following demands:
1. We call the mayor of the city to enter into a dialogue with the leadership of the "Emmanuel" central church of Moscow for a joint search for solutions as a way out of the conflict situation that has been created.
2. We demand the return of the land of the "Emmanuel" Christian church of Moscow, which was illegally confiscated by workers of the Moscow government.
3. We demand that legal arrangements be put in order to permit normal functioning of the Assembly of God building in the Solntsevo district.
4. We demand of the mayor of the city of Moscow that he put an end to the tyranny of bureaucrats with respect to protestant Christian churches.
5. We demand of the bureaucrats that they not erect impediments to the construction of houses of worship for protestant churches.
6. We demand of city authorities that they cease discriminating against the rights of believers who do not belong to the Russian Orthodox church.
We intend to defend our rights by all possible means and we will continue actions of protest until such time as our demands have been fulfilled by city authorities.
City of Moscow
Pushkin Square
22 May 2005
Posted on Portal-credo.ru site, 24 May 2005
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