RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS
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Expatriate religious workers deported
BELARUS KGB ARRESTS PENTECOSTAL PASTORSPortal-credo.ru, 29 May 2007
On Sunday, 27 May, in the middle of the worship service, KGB agents in civilian clothing broke into one of the protestant churches of Minsk. They demanded that the service be stopped and they arrested two pastors of the church, Yaroslav Lukasik and Antos Bokun, the BKhD [Belarusian Christian Democraacy] press service.
At the time of the service, KGB agents in civilian clothing began photographing with a videocamera people who were in attendance in the room. When the church's security asked them to stop photographing, the KGB workers were joined by a uniformed policeman who also did not produce his credentials. After this they demanded that the worship service cease. Despite this, the pastors of the church still decided to continue the holiday service, although immediately after its conclusion agents of the Committee for State Security detained them.
As BKhD has learned, after interrogations that lasted several hours, KGB officers released one of the pastors, Yaroslav Lukasik. A protocol was prepared for Antos Bokun for "conducting an unsanctioned worship service," and the pastor himself was arrested. According to latest information, on Monday 28 May he will be tried in one of the district courts of Minsk.
It is necessary to note that one of the detained pastors, Yaroslav Lukasik, is a citizen of the republic of Poland, and two weeks ago his permit for residence in Belarus was rescinded. The Department on Immigration required the pastor to leave the territory of the country within a month, that is, by 7 June. The situation is complicated by the fact that his wife and their three minor children are citizens of the republic of Belarus.
The charge on which the pastor's residency permit was rescinded was "threat to the national security of the republic of Belarus." In the past year, more than 25 clergy, both protestant and Catholic, have been deported on a similar charge. (tr. by PDS, posted 29 May 2007)
Religious rights advocates defend beleaguered news
source
DECLARATION OF SLAVIC LEGAL CENTER ON CAMPAIGN AGAINST PORTAL-CREDO.RU
SITE28 May 2007
Freedom of the press, including freedom to express opinions and to disseminate information via religious journalism, is one of the bases of civilized democratic society. The Slavic Legal Center has always spoken in favor of observation of the principle of freedom of speech, because it is this privilege of civil society that gives it pluralism and conduces to the consideration of various points of view and creates a field for discussion and expression of personal views that is so necessary for a mature society.
Without mass news media, which offer to people with diametrically opposed views the opportunity to speak, it is impossible for contemporary Russian society to exist, which has already passed along a difficult path to the beginnings of democracy. Any attempts to make of the independent mass news media "enemies of Russia and the church," and in effect to call dissident thought a manifestation of "an antistate position" etc. violate the basic provisions of the Russian constitution and create an atmosphere of fear and distrust of authority and of the state as such. Finally, persecution of independent publications provokes society into the expression of its opinion in other, more unpredictable, forms of civil disobedience.
The only secular informational and analytical publication regarding religion, which is known both in Russia and abroad, that presents its readers a practically comprehensive treatment of news about religious life in our country is the Internet site "Portal-Credo.Ru." Every day thousands of people visit this portal. Over the course of its existence, since 2002, Portal-Credo.Ru has become a genuine outlet for Orthodox believers, Old Believers, Catholics, protestants, and secular experts who are writing about religious problems and conflicts. No single Internet site or print publication, which offers itself as a source for elucidating religious life, has been so unafraid to print on its pages pointed discussion and even controversial materials and to give voice to such varied movements, denominations, and groups that proclaim one or another religious world view. It is no secret to anybody that only on Portal-Credo.Ru can one place a topical article that discloses the inner essence of some conflict situation or social or cultural phenomenon connected with Orthodoxy (official or unofficial) or with non-Orthodox societies and movement.
It is natural that Portal-Credo.Ru has many times been subjected to often just criticism on the part of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow patriarchate and portions of the Orthodox community. However only in May 2007 has this secular informational resource been placed under threat of closure as the result of a campaign such as that expressed in the content of Aleksei Pushkov's "Postscript" program on TVTs television station. The 12 May 2007 broadcast of this program directly accused Portal-Credo.Ru of disinformation and it was named as one of the chief culprits in spreading rumors about the death of Patriarch Alexis II. Besides this, the broadcast noted that the editorial board of the portal "gives to itself the name" of a "consistent critic of the merger of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia," and that supposedly means that the leaders of Portal-Credo.Ru "are displeased" with the strengthening of Russia.
The announcer on the "Postscript" program, Aleksei Pushkov, ignored the fact that the Internet site reprints almost all substantial news that pertains to the religious life of Russia and of major church figures. It is this Portal-Credo.Ru that is esteemed among specialists, scholars or religion, and simple readers. News about the medical treatment of the primate of RPTsMP did not appear originally on this site. That there are people who agree with and disagree with the already signed Act on Canonical Unity [sic] between RPTsMP and ROCOR has been acknowledged by hierarchs and clergy themselves of these two churches. This fact has been noted in many print and electronic news media, but only on Portal-Credo.Ru may one read just what, specifically, the various sides are arguing about.
Meanwhile, for many, including representatives of such organizations as the Union of Orthodox Citizens, Aleksei Pushkov's accusations have been taken as a virtual guide to action.
The Slavic Legal Center calls all leaders of society, representatives of civil authority, journalists, and supporters and critics of the largest Russian secular informational and analytical Internet site, Portal-Credo.Ru, to tolerance and observation of the elementary rules of Christian ethics in the course of discussion, publication, and dissemination of any materials. Ideas cannot be the occasion for repression of those who are creating genuine tolerance in the consciousness of civil society.
Restriction of this or that form of the work of such an informational resources as Portal-Credo.Ru would mean in the eyes of the Russian and international public the liquidation of freedom of speech in the Russian religious world. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 May 2007)
Russian original posted on site of Slavic Legal Center, 28 May 2007
Related news: Independent news source attacked; defends self
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Church unification Putin's work
HOUSES OF WORSHIP: CHURCH MERGER, PUTIN'S ACQUISITIONby Nadia Kizenko
Wall Street Journal, 25 May 2007
Last week, on the Christian feast of the Ascension, leaders of the emigre Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia agreed to re-establish "canonical communion" with the Russian Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate. Thousands stood in line to attend the celebration at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. But this was clearly an event of more than religious significance. The attendees were a veritable who's who of Russian political life, including Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and President Vladimir Putin, the merger's architect.
News media world-wide described the event as a step in overcoming Russia's tragic history. The New York Times called the merger "the symbolic end of Russia's civil war." But the reality is far more complicated. Not only are there theological and moral issues at stake, but there is also the suspicion among some that Mr. Putin is building new networks of influence by using the church to reach out to Russian emigre communities all over the world.
While lower-ranking clergy at the ceremony stressed the spiritual aspects of the merger, Patriarch Aleksy II emphasized other factors: He gave short shrift to God, but thanked President Putin.
Indeed, it was Mr. Putin who first made overtures to the Church Abroad in September 2003, when he met with its leadership during a visit to New York. The church merger is only the most recent of his successful attempts to appropriate symbols of Russia's prerevolutionary and anticommunist past along with Soviet ones. The "repatriating" of the Danilov monastery bells from Harvard University, and the bodies of the White Russian Gen. Anton Denikin from Jackson, N.J., and the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna from Copenhagen, have gone hand in hand with reintroducing the old Soviet anthem and the Red Army's flag. Mr. Putin is thus the first modern Russian leader to incorporate all aspects of Russia's "usable past" in claiming his legitimacy. The Russian Orthodox Church in all its forms is a key component of that past.
Now the Russian government is being heavily criticized for its authoritarian behavior. Mr. Putin needs friends anywhere he can find them. Having a ready-made network of 323 parishes and 20 monasteries in the U.S. alone, and over a million church members in 30 countries, will offer Russia greater influence abroad. This is particularly true because, according to the terms of the agreement, Moscow regains control over bishops' appointments and the right to open or close all parishes.
Less clear-cut are the moral issues the merger raises, particularly for the American-based Church Abroad. From the time when Russia became communist and atheist after 1917, the Church Abroad had sought to be the free voice of Russian Orthodoxy world-wide. Its independence was authorized by the courageous Patriarch Tikhon in 1920, who resisted Communist domination.
But in 1927, the Soviet government imprisoned the independent bishops and transferred leadership of the Russian Church to Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodsky), who infamously declared that the Soviet Union's "joys and successes are our joys and successes, and [its] sorrows are our sorrows." From that moment, the official bishops inside of Russia did not utter a word of public protest to anything the state did, even though the country was drenched in the blood of tens of millions of people, many of whom were believers, and thousands of whom were clergy.
Instead, the leadership took to referring to Stalin as "the wise, God-appointed leader of our Great Union." In 1930, when the ruthless extermination of the faithful was at a fever pitch, Sergii announced, "There never has been religious persecution in the U.S.S.R., nor is there now."
Today's Moscow Patriarchate is the as-yet-unrepentant inheritor of this legacy. Rather than distancing himself from Sergii's appeasement, Patriarch Aleksy wrote a lengthy foreword to a 2003 biography, praising the "heroic path" taken by Sergii and viciously castigating the critics of this appeasement (including dissenting Orthodox groups in Russia and abroad). He has blessed the construction of a memorial complex in honor of Sergii, complete with a square, a museum and a monument. In 2005, Alexy wrote a congratulatory epistle to the president of Vietnam on the occasion of 30 years since the communist victory in the Vietnam War, calling it a "glorious anniversary." Similar letters were sent to the leaders of North Korea and Cuba.
As long as the Church Abroad existed as an independent entity, it implicitly challenged the authority of Moscow to speak for the Russian Church. It consistently denounced the collaboration of the church with the Communist Party, called for a more positive valuation of Russia's prerevolutionary and anticommunist past and served as a hopeful beacon to Orthodox Christians in Russia seeking an alternative.
Many in the Church Abroad wonder how this merger went through at all. The process was secretive, and there has even been speculation that some American businessmen with Russian ties helped to push it along. But now having accepted Moscow's authority, the former Church Abroad faces many questions. Can its leaders press Moscow to reject the church's tradition of collaborating with both the Kremlin and the KGB? Can they hold on to the church properties they have maintained for the past 80 years? Will the Moscow Church dispatch pro-Kremlin clergy to promote political aims? And, above all, can the leaders of the Church Abroad stem the tide of defection from the disappointed faithful that has already begun?
These problems may be averted if the Russian Church Abroad uses its new status to actively engage Moscow. But last week's glad-handing suggests that it is the Kremlin, rather than heaven, that is smiling on this union.
---
Ms. Kizenko is an associate professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany. (posted 25 May 2007)
STATE HAD DUTY TO PARTICIPATE IN UNIFICATION OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH - METROPOLITAN KIRILL
Interfax, 28 May 2007
The Moscow Patriarchate has marked the importance of the authorities' participation in the unification of the Russian Orthodox Church.
"Sometimes our liberal compatriots are perplexed by the participation of the authorities in the unification process," head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad on the air of the First Channel.
"They should understand that the Church was separated because of the authorities and politicians," he said.
"It was the moral duty of the authorities to take part in curing the disease, because the separation of churches is the separation of people. Having overcome the separation, we proved that all terrible separations caused by the revolution and the civil war are now things of the past," he said. (posted 28 May 2007)
Local arrangements provide for teaching Orthodoxy
in public schools
VORONEZH SCHOOLS TO INTRODUCE REQUIRED STUDY OF ORTHODOX CULTUREBlagovest-info, 25 May 2007
Supplementary provisions have appeared in the text of an agreement on cooperation in the sphere of spiritual and moral education and training, signed by the Directorate of Education of Voronezh province, the Institute of Continuing Education for Teachers, and the Voronezh diocese. This ws announced on 24 May by the director of provincial educational administration, Yakov Lvovich, at an annual round table on problems of spiritual and moral education and training, conducted at the Voronozh provincial Institute for Continuing Education for education workers, on the Day of Slavonic Literature and Culture.
In accordance with the supplements to the agreement, the subject of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture (OPK)" (it is precisely this designation that is approved for the academic subject in all official documents of the region) will be introduced into the regional curriculum as a required component of the list of electives. Similar decisions were made in 2006-2007 by the regional administrations of education of several provinces of the federation, including Smolensk, Briansk, Kaluga, and Tver. Study of OPK will be conducted in all grades between the second and eleventh. However, according to the director of education of Voronezh province, Ya. Lvovich, the main emphasis in the study of this discipline will be in the eighth grade. Introduction of the subject is planned to begin with the 2007-2008 academic year, and in the eight grades in 2008-2009. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 May 2007)
FOUNDATIONS OF ORTHODOX CULTURE TO BE STUDIED IN SOCHI SCHOOLS
Interfax, 24 May 2007
A new academic subject, "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" is scheduled to be introduced in the schools of the city of Sochi in the new academic year.
"At the Sochi Center for the Development of Education, at the present time a program for introducing courses on Orthodox Culture is being developed for the retraining and professional development of teachers of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture," which is planned for June 2007, Tatiana Starodub, the chief pedagogue of the center for continuing education, told the Interfax-Yug news agency.
She said that in the context of the Day of Slavonic Literature in Sochi, a meeting was held of representatives of the Russian Orthodox church at which an agreement was signed between the [Orthodox] deans and the Directorate of Education and Science, along with a plan for joint efforts in the province for the spiritual education of the younger generation and for combating extremist actions among youth. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 May 2007)
MUSLIM BOARD SUPPORTS ELECTIVE TEACHING OF ORTHODOX CULTURE
Islam.ru, 17 May 2007
The Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the Volga (DUMP) has supported the idea of teaching the Foundations of Orthodox Culture on a voluntary basis in the schools of the Volga region. This was announced in the course of a session of the Council on Religious Affairs of the governor of Saratov province, Pavel Ipatov, last Friday in Balakovo.
The head of the delegation from the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the Volga, "Sheikh Said" madrassa director Rasim Kuziakhmetov, noted the importance of acquainting school children with the basics of the traditional confessions of the country. "The main thing is for observing the law and that the classes beconducted on a voluntary basis," he emphasized.
According to Islam.ru, the head of the press service of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the Volga, Akhmen Makhmetov, participants in the session included the minister of education of Saratov province, Igor Pleva, vice deputy of the government of the province Natalia Starshova, and representatives of all confessions. The Muslim delegation included in addition the heads of the Muslim community in Balakovo, Farit Tumarov, and the imam from the city of Marx, Arslan Timerbulatov. (tr. by PDS, posted 25 May 2007)
Russia Religion News Current News Items
Federal government to eliminate local authority for
teaching religion in schools
RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE IN COURTS OPPOSES TEACHING RELIGION
IN SCHOOLSPortal-credo.ru, 24 May 2007
The introduction of the academic subject of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture," which is already being taught in the schools of a number of provinces, will lead to division in society, according to a representative of the Russian government in the higher courts, the chairman of the supreme council of the "Civil Power" party, Mikhail Barshchevsky, Interfax-Religiia reports.
"The teaching in the schools of any given religionÑI stress, anyÑobjectively disunites people. Any such academic subject always teaches that there are Orthodox persons and 'the others,' there are Jews and 'the others,' etc. It is in the multinational and multiconfessional Russia, and especially today, where it is impossible to play with such things," Barshchevsky said in a statement distributed Thursday.
In his opinion, "the very name of the subject 'Foundations of Orthodox Culture,' however unintended, creates tension in our multiconfessional society, and the analogous response like "Foundations of Islamic Culture" in Tatarstan or "Foundations of Buddhist Culture" in Kalmykia would do the same."
"The idea of combining the scientific bases of knowledge and religious doctrines cannot lead to anything good. In our country, they say that there already are those schoolchildren who are 'victims' of the teaching of Darwin and it is suggested in all seriousness to include the specialty of "theology" in the list of academic specialties for the Supreme Accreditation Commission. And this is to say nothing of the legal aspect of the matterÑthe constitutional provision about the secular nature of our state and of the separation of the church from the school," Barshchevsky notes.
He stressed that "studying this or that religion as one wishes, whether its foundations or its details, is beyond the bounds of the secular academic institutionÑreally! For our schools it is sufficient to have a course of the 'History of Religions" with a qualitative outline and textbooks and good specialists," Barshchevsky thinks.
According to his information, amendments to the law "On Education," replacing the regional and local school authority, within which framework the teaching of the foundations of given religions is now being conducted, have already been drawn up by the government and soon will be introduced to the State Duma. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 May 2007)
PATRIARCHATE DISAGREES WITH BARSHCHEVSKY
Mir religii, 24 May 2007
The Moscow patriarchate considers juridically baseless the position of the representative of the government for the higher courts of the Russian federation, Mikhail Barshchevsky, who spoke out against the teaching of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture," appealing to the secular character of education in the country.
"There is no provision in the Russian constitution to the effect that the school is separated from the church,"an attorney of the Moscow patriarchate, Ksenia Chernega, told the Interfax news agency today.
She said that the January 1918 decree of the Soviet of People's Commissars regarding the separation of the church from the state and the school from the church actually did contain such a provision.
"However back in 1990 this decree, along with many other decrees of the Sovnarkom, became ineffective. This is directly stated in the law of RSFSR on freedom of religious confession which was adopted in 1990. It is a shame that Mr. Barshchevsky is using the legislation of the period of the 1980s, affirming that we have a firm principle of the separation of the schools from the church," K. Chernega said.
She also recalled that article 2 of the law "On Education" and article 4 of the law "On Freedom of Conscience" enunciated not the separation of the schools from the church but the secular character of education in state and municipal schools.
"I emphasize that the Russian constitution speaks of the secular state, but there is no word about secularity of education, that is, in the fundamental law there is not a single standard which would speak of the secular nature of education in a state school," she added. According to Chernega, the legal essence of the secularity of education is not developed in the law and under such circumstances people interpret the concept of secularity in various ways.
"However, according to the explanation of the Ministry of Education, which was issued in a special letter of 4 July 1999, the term 'secular' as applied to the state system of education is not synonymous with the words atheist or antireligious and should be interpreted as 'nonclerical' and 'civil.'"
"And thus the 'Foundations of Orthodox Culture' course is secular and not an ecclesiastical academic subject, as is explicitly stated in the documents of the Ministry of Education. I am talking about two letters from the Ministry of Education according to which this course was introduced, in a letter of 22 October 2002 and a letter of 13 February 2003," the patriarchate's attorney noted.
She said that the secular nature of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" is manifested in that it is not taught by representatives of religious societies but by professional pedagogues who have state teaching certificates.
The contents of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" are not recommended by the church but by the Ministry of Education. The academic and pedagogical literature is subjected to expert analysis in accordance with the procedure established by law, Chernega added.
At the same time she emphasized that M. Barshchevsky "completely invalidly" draws an equal sign between "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" and the "Law of God."
"The Law of God is a purely ecclesiastical academic subject that incidentally may be taught not only outside the bounds of the secular school, that is, in Sunday schools or church parish schools, but also in the state schools by priests and other representatives of religious societies who do not have state teaching certificates. However, it must be outside of the school curriculum. And this is stated explicitly in article 5 of the law 'On Freedom of Conscience,' of whose contents Barshchevsky either does not know or maintains silence," K. Chernega declared. (tr. by PDS, posted 24 May 2007)
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