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Pentecostal church threatened for educational activity

PROSECUTOR FILES SUIT TO LIQUIDATE SAMARA "LIGHT FOR THE WORLD" CHURCH
Prosecutor's office of Samara province, 11 June 2008

By order of the prosecutor of Samara province, the prosecutor of Kirov region of the city of Samara investigated the activity of the religious organization of Christians of Evangelical Faith, the "Light for the World" Church of God, located at the address Samara, Olimpiiskaia St., Building 57.

It was established that the religious organization is conducting activity associated with the teaching of citizens, which has been confirmed by interrogations of students studying in the "Awakening" institute of the "Light for the World" church, as well as by the lesson plans and other documents.

The prosecutor of the region sent the indicated materials to the Center for Professional Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Samara province for investigation and issuing a conclusion necessary for establishing the fact of the existence of educational activity by the particular organization.

Experts came to the conclusion that the activity of the indicated organization is, in essence, educational and is subject to licensure in accordance with the procedure established by law. However the religious organization of the Christians of Evangelical Faith "Light for the World" Church of God does not have a license for conducting educational activity.

According to article 19 of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations," religious organizations have the exclusive right to create institutions of professional religious education for training ministers and religious personnel, in accordance with their by-laws. Institutions of professional religious education are subject to registration as religious organizations and they receive a state license granting the right of conducting educational activity.

In accordance with article 61 of the Civil Code of RF, a legal entity may be liquidated by decision of a court in the event of conducting activity without appropriate permission (license).

In accordance with the results of the investigation, the prosecutor of the region filed a suit in federal court of the Kirov region of the city of Samara for the liquidation of the organization of Christians of Evangelical Faith "Light for the World" Church of God.  (tr. by PDS, posted 13 June 2008)


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2,000 sects active in Russia

SECTS CAST THEIR NETS
by Svetlana Avdeeva
Karavan + ya (Tver), 11 June 2008

It is difficult to believe, but at the present time on the order of 2,000 different sects are active on the territory of Russia. And the total number of sectarians, by various counts, is from 700,000 to 1,000,000.

From time to time we learn about what kinds of effects upon the souls and psyches of people are caused by the more offensive of these from excerpts of television news and newspapers. It is sufficient to recall the notorious "Aum Sinrikyo" sect, using terrorist methods, or the group of Russian sectarians who are awaiting the end of the world in a cave, taking the lives of two people according to eyewitness accounts. A multitude of examples can be cited of the destructive effect upon the minds and souls, and occasionally the lives of people who put their trust in an ordinary "prophet." But, unfortunately, society begins to sound the alarm only when our legislation governing the religious activity on the territory of the country once again demonstrates its "liberality," confirmed by ever more new victims. However, even after this, no basic changes in this sphere of our life occur. Therefore there are no guarantees that somewhere in the Tver landscape some new messiah has not already appeared, who will lead people into some cave to await the next end of the world.

In a recent issue of "Karavan" material was published under the title "Beware: Mormons!" in the epilogue to which we promised readers to continue the conversation on this topic. Today the interlocutor of our correspondent Svetlana Avdeeva is the head of the Missionary Department of Tver diocese of RPTs, Fr Georgy Belodurov and we call the conversation to your attention.

--Father Georgy, how many sects conduct with impunity their activity of the territory of Tver region?

--We do not have such precise statistics because by no means does every sect, especially at the outset, widely announce its activity. But according to our reckoning, it's on the order of forty. This includes the most well known "Scientology," followers of the teaching of Ron Hubbard, "Jehovah's Witnesses," "Mormons," "The White Brotherhood," "The Mother of God Center," and a number of others. There are many varieties of "satanists" and adherents of several eastern cults. Among the most odious of organizations I would single out the "Jehovah's Witnesses." This is a very strict sect which is rather aggressively spreading its influence among Russians.  You would not believe it, but their representatives have tried somehow to draw even me, an Orthodox priest, into their sect.

--So can the Orthodox church not do anything in order to protect the spiritual landscape of Russians from the pernicious influence of foreign sects that are alien to our culture and mentality?

--The main instrument of the Orthodox church is preaching, and our priests always will help people who get into trouble. And to become a member of a sect, especially a totalitarian one, is a great trouble, not only for the "new convert" himself but also for all members of his family. After all, no sect simply lets its adepts go and they sometimes take recourse to threats and violence, depriving a person of property and completely subjugating his will. A central place in the ideology of any sect is occupied by the cult of worship of the personality of the leader; recall the morality ruling in Aum Sinrikyo. In order to achieve their goals, within the large sects there is created a strict hierarchical structure enforcing iron discipline. If one speaks about the principal differences of sects and official religious confessions, then the distinctive "litmus paper" is relationship to freedom of the will. For Orthodoxy this is one of the fundamental spiritual values. Sects, on the contrary, are interested in enslaving the spirit, after which their leaders have the possibility of manipulation of people. They cripple a person's soul, turning it into a cog in their religious machine.

--What do you think is the reason normal young people, who grew up in the traditions of Orthodoxy, are attracted by western and eastern philosophical tendencies that are alien to our mentality and to the ideologies on which various sects conduct their work?

--Youth is, primarily, a time of seeking for truth. I dare to call attention to my own example. Before the age of 27 I was engaged in such a search; I studied many philosophical systems, including eastern ones; to be sure, on Paskha I went to the Orthodox church. In a time of spiritual searching, people peer into the distance, beyond the horizon, without noticing what is alongside them. To a great extent the ideology of our schools facilitates this, which up to the present has so secular a character that it is frankly atheistic. Today many spiritual values, for which the Orthodox church has stood many centuries, seem to be forgotten and people treat them as some kind of ethereal matter without any practical value in our pragmatic time.

--But still, it seems, one needs to look for the basic causes of the growth of numerous sects in our country in the legislative sphere.

--It is difficult not to agree with that assertion. The federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" is called to guarantee the religious security of citizens of Russia.  Without any doubt, in its time it was an essential step in the direction of improvement of legal regulation of religious processes. But it does not have a clearly defined form of cooperation of the state with the traditional, formative religions, including the very important matter of combating totalitarian sects. But the main shortcoming of this law is, in our view, the very definition of a religious association. According to this legislative act, religious activities are things done by religious associations. But if some group does not use the term "religion" and does not register as a religious group, then its activity will be viewed as secular even in those cases where it is occultic or mystical. Thus many sects, using loopholes in the law, declared that they are spreading not religious doctrine but "cosmic" or "logically informed" knowledge. And all of their activity cannot be viewed in the category of religious. Therefore many destructive associations, clearly religious in their essence, are deliberately not registered as religious in order to achieve access to educational institutions and public structures. One should distinguish between such concepts as "sect" and "destructive totalitarian sect." Because you can call a sect any religious movement departing from some traditional religion. A clear example is protestantism, which over the years has been transformed into a powerful religious movement.

--Nevertheless how does the law combat the activity of destructive sects?

--A religious organization can be liquidated or prohibited by decision of a court on a number of bases. Such, for example, as propaganda of war, incitement of social, racial, national, or religious strife, and hatred of humanity. But even in the event of the adoption of the corresponding judicial decision, such a religious organization that even has received the status of "forbidden," as a rule, continues its activity. I am not referring to the fact that such judicial practice is rare.

But I think one should not place one's hopes only on law; it is necessary to join the efforts of the state, RPTs, and our entire society. The forms of such cooperation can be very diverse.  The present leaders of the Russian government enjoy great authority among the people, and when citizens of the country see them at the time of great holidays in an Orthodox church, however much representatives of the Russian intelligentsia may ridicule this, it serves the welfare of all of society. Recall how the baptism of Rus happened and the words of Prince Vladimir:  "Whoever considers himself my friend, let him come and be baptized." The Russian Orthodox church can actively cooperate with the state structures in the sphere of culture and education, and conduct independent expert analysis of the ideology of sects and parareligious association at an early stage, when they just want to register their activity legally. In my view, law enforcement agencies should demonstrate great activity; after all it is no secret that many sects are financed by foreign intelligence services with a completely definite purpose and they serve as a kind of agents for influence upon the souls and minds of Russian. I repeat again: in order to protect Russians from the damaging influence of destructive totalitarian sects there must be great, diligent work by all healthy forces of society, but the most important is the work of the mind and soul of each particular person.  (tr. by PDS, posted 12 June 2008)

Russian original posted on Interfax site, 12 June 2008

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Teacher training for Orthodoxy in schools prejudicial

TIUMEN UNIVERSITY COURSE "FOUNDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS CULTURE" INSULTS CATHOLICS, PROTESTANTS, MUSLIMS AND JEWS
Slavic Legal Center, 11 June 2008

The course "Foundations of Religious Culture" of the Tiumen Oil and Gas University for future teachers of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" [OPK] in general education schools evoked indignation among non-Orthodox believers who were offended by its contents, the press service of Slavic Legal Center reports.

In particular, the Slavic Legal Center received from representatives of non-Orthodox churches a transcript of an audio tape of a lecture by Svetlana Yurevna Shestakova, a kandidat of sociology and docent of the department of social work of the Institute of Humanitarian Sciences of Tiumen State Oil and Gas University and a teacher of "Sect Studies."

The lecture, devoted to various religious traditions, was delivered in April 2008 within the framework of the course "Foundations of Religious Culture" of the Department of Religious Studies of the Institute of Humanitarian Sciences of Tiumen Oil and Gas University for persons desiring to teach OPK in the schools. Upon completion of the course an appropriate certificate of state design is issued. The teaching of this course is conducted in cooperation with the Tobolsk and Tiumen diocese of the Moscow patriarchate. The Tiumen State Oil and Gas University has already cooperated for many years both with the Orthodox diocese and with the Tobolsk Ecclesiastical Seminary of RPTsMP.

Lecturer Svetlana Shestakova delivered categorical condemnations with regard to the most diverse non-Orthodox churches. In her opinion, Catholics "are heretics; the Catholic church does not have grace within it, and there is no salvation in it." The teacher dogmatically declared:  "We all know that Catholics sell indulgencesÑforgiveness of sins." Svetlana Shestakova explained the distinctives of the Catholic faith in the language of the common people:  "There is a tale about a devil who was sitting with the Catholics, heretics, and he sits there and he shakes his hooves, but in the Orthodox church he crawls up to everybody and for one he closes his eyes and for another he opens his mouth in order to speak nonsense."

In the course of the lecture protestant churches are called "peudochristian sects." The most "destructive" church is the Pentecostal, according to Shestakova. Svetlana Shestakova also simply explained the distinctive of the Lutheran faith:  "The cause of the errors of Lutheranism is that in its scholastic education it has already from the start represented Christianity in a distorted form. That is, it is extremely Catholic. And from the first centuries, the first hundreds of years of Christianity it carved out much, much, really, time and it did not have vital spiritual experience."

The Tiumen Oil and Gas University docent expressed herself no less definitively with regard to Islam:  "What happened with this poor man, Muhammed? What kind of pressure, what kind of obsession was he under? It was simply some kind of occult influences of an evil spirit that happened to him, by all standards in general." With regard to one Orthodox theologian who was not able to answer simply the question whether Christians and Muslims believe in the same god, Svetlana Shestakova suggested:  "A Muslim, you understand, is a person who will respect someone who stands in his own faith. After all it could be said: Yes, I think that a Muslim, there, Muhammed was a false prophet and Islam is false doctrine. But that does not rule out that each person, including you Christians, experiences human kindness and God's love. That is, it does not mean that I will stand over you and spit on you and not help you when you are in trouble. But if you are going to talk about truth, then truth is in Orthodoxy. I am an Orthodox person."  "Well, Muslims have a good faith and justice. But if I should say soÑoy, God forbid that I ever say that. That would be apostasy from Christ, betrayal of Christ."

One of the most unique and surprising moments in the training of teachers of "Foundations of Orthodox Culture" was Svetlana Shestakova's repetition of the most erroneous antisemitic myths which have passed as historical truth and led to action with regard to Jews in general. Here is an excerpt from the transcript of the tape of the lecture in its entirety:

"Neopentecostals can say to you that they take communion. But they take communion with matzos.  But matzo is JewishÑin quotation marksÑcommunion. There they say explicitly that they take communion with matzos. But Jewish communion is nothing else than a little bit of blood from Orthodox persons whom they martyred. So there, its your business; choose.

Reply:  Matzos, yes?

S. Sh:  Matzos, yes, Jewish matzos. There is a bit of blood there, the rabbis know it. They kill an Orthodox child in a certain way, or a saint, just as, actually, the tsar's family was killed; they were not killed (undecipherable). . . According to the latest information they were stabbed because it is necessary to stab a living person, before he dies, while he is suffering, and all the blood flows out. That's how they tormented Tsarevich Alexis, before his parents' eyes, and then they killed the tsar and tsaritsa. That's how they (undecipherable) . . . That's how sometimes children disappear, it's the Jews; then they collect the blood in rags and they set fire to these rags, and they sprinkle the ashes on a dying person or mix them with the matzos for communion. And they think that they will be saved by the blood of Christian martyrs."

In the opinion of attorneys Anatoly Pchelintsev and Vladimir Riakhovsky, the contents of the lectures of the "Foundations of Religious Culture" course of Tiumen Oil and Gas University incite inter-religious strife. Many scholars and public figures have warned about the danger of the growth of tensions in relations among believers of various confessions, of intolerance, and of hypocrisy in the event of the introduction of the "Foundations Of Orthodox Culture" course into the mandatory curriculum of general education schools. The Tiumen lecture is an example of how this subject may be taught and in what musical key the foundations of doctrine and the distinctives of other Christian confessions and other religions can be rendered. In the opinion of the chief editor of the "Religiia and Pravo" [Religion and Law] journal, Attorney Anatoly Pchelintsev, it is the easiest thing to sow hatred around one's self, but in a multiconfessional and multinational Russia it is necessary to remember: one should not live in a glass house and throw stones.  (tr. by PDS, posted 12 June 2008)


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Methodists win judicial appeal

RUSSIAN SUPREME COURT REVERSES DECISION TO LIQUIDATE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF SMOLENSK
Slavic Legal Center, 10 June 2008

The Supreme Court of Russia reversed the decision of the Smolensk provincial court calling for the liquidation of the United Methodist Church of Smolensk and it issued a new decision rejecting the suit of the prosecutor's office of Smolensk province for the liquidation of the Methodist church, the press service of the Slavic Legal Center reports. The interests of the Methodist church were represented by lawyers of the Slavic Legal Center.

The session of the Judicial College for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of Russia was held on 10 June. During the session the civil case on the judicial appeal of the United Methodist church of Smolensk against the decision of the Smolensk provincial court of 24 March 2008 on the suit of Smolensk provincial prosecutor Yu.V. Verkhovtsev was reviewed. The representative of the Prosecutor General of RF, A.V. Fedotova, insisted on the legality of the decision by the Smolensk prosecutor on the basis that the church conducted educational activity without a license, which violated legislation. The pastor of the Methodist church of Smolensk, Alexander Vtorov, who attended the session of the judicial college, noted that his congregation really did conduct educational activity, but it did so within the limits of the law since it was teaching the foundations of the confession to its own adherents. In addition, such educational activity for teaching religion to their adherents is conducted by practically all parishes of the Russian Orthodox church, and nobody tries to liquidate these parishes.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Russia is not a victory for the church, Attorneys Vladimir Riakhovsky and Anatoly Pchelintsev noted, but it is first of all a victory for common sense and genuine justice. In the event that the Supreme Court had issued a different decision, then the Russian federation would have had yet another lost case in the European Court for Human Rights.

We recall that on 24 March 2008 the religious organization United Methodist church of Smolensk was liquidated on the basis of a suit by the Smolensk provincial prosecutor, based, inter alia, on an appeal from Bishop of Viazemsk Ignaty sent to all organs of authority regarding the educational activity of the Christian church of Methodists. The Methodist church was accused of organizing a Sunday school, "Our Little Hearts," which did not have legal status and a license. As Vladimir Riakhovsky emphasized, one must realize just what the Sunday school of this Methodist congregation really represented. The congregation meets in a small, wooden building; there are no more than 30 parishioners and there usually are around 4 or 5 children. During that part of the service when a sermon for adult parishioners is delivered, for about 45 minutes classes are conducted in the neighboring room with the smallest children. The classes are conducted by a retired woman or one of the parents. They read to the children a chapter from "The Bible in Pictures," and then they answer questions; the children draw and model clay on the topic of the biblical story. The children are awarded pictures of sea animals: the highest grade is a whale or a starfish; next is a dolphin or octopus; the third level is a fish, and the lowest is a shark. According to Vladimir Riakhovsky, this is what the prosecutor took as an educational process, a curriculum, and educational activity.

In the opinion of Pastor Alexander Vtorov, the suit for liquidation of the Methodist church was the prosecutor's response to the appeal of a vicar bishop of the Smolensk and Kaliningrad diocese of RPTsMP, Bishop Ignaty Punin, regarding the need to examine the Methodist church. In his turn, on 22 February the pastor filed a suit in court against Bishop Ignaty. Alexander Vtorov accused Bishop of Viazemsk Ignaty of inciting interreligious strife and he demanded compensation for moral damages. On 5 June the Promyshleny regional court of Smolensk rejected the suit of the Methodist church against Bishop Ignaty. The reason for the suit was a whole series of investigations on the part of law enforcement agencies, initiated by the complaint of Bishop Ignaty sent to a number of organs of authority-- the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, the Inspection for Affairs of Minors, police precinct, the Department of Education, the provincial Division of Internal Affairs, and the prosecutor's officeÑwhich demanded that "measures be taken for protecting residents of our city and especially youth from this pseudoreligious organization." Bishop affirmed in the appeal:  "It is completely obvious that the activity of a Methodist college would lead not to the regeneration of the spiritual and moral foundations of the life of our people but to its spiritual destruction."  After the bishop's appeal, the Methodist church was visited by the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, employees of the prosecutor's office, precinct police officers, etc. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 June 2008)

Related article:  Russian Methodist congregation clashes with Orthodox bishop

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Alternative Orthodoxy persecuted

BRIANSK GOVERNOR'S ADVISOR ACCUSES RPATs OF SPYING FOR USA
Portal-credo.ru, 10 June 2008

An advisor to the governor of Briansk province for relations with religious organizations, S.A. Gavrikov (a former soviet ideology employee), has again launched efforts for discrediting the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (RPATs), summoning up any means for eliminating parishes existing in the region of this Orthodox church that does not recognize the jurisdiction of RPTsMP over it. This is reported in the "Suzdal Diocesan Vedomosti" quoting Archpriest Mikhail Dudarev, rector of several parishes of RPATs in the territory of Briansk province.

In a meeting recently of librarians of Briansk province in Briansk S.A. Gavrikov revived vulgar accusations against RPATs and warned the audience of their responsibility before the motherland in the event of their having any contacts with "schismatics." The governor's advisor declared that RPATs fulfills "subversive" assignments of USA and is "an American sect," spreading "pedophilia" in Russia.

In the opinion of clergy and laity of RPATs in Briansk province, the official has violated the law crudely by inciting religious strife and hatred and offending the feelings of believers. Such activity coexists in Gavrikov with his public profession of his adherence to RPTsMP and the official coordinates his propagandistic plans with the leader of the Briansk diocese of RPTsMP.

At the same time, the stern administrative methods of the Briansk bishop of RPTsMP, Feofilakt, has led to a substantial growth in the region of the number of "alternative" Orthodox parishes of quite diverse jurisdictions which are being filled up with "white" clergy and laity of the Briansk diocese of RPTsMP. Thus, in Brasov region of the province, a former cleric of RPTsMP created a parish of the Romanian patriarchate, in Pogarsk region a parish transferred to the Russian True Orthodox Church along with its building, in Klimov region a parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev patriarchate appeared, and the cathedral church of the bishop of the Apostolic Church is located in Lokt, etc.

RPATs has been represented in Briansk province more than 15 years. In the city of Trubchevsk the local Saint Elijah's parish, led by the popular Archpriest Vladimir Kovtun, joined the Suzdal diocese back in 1992. A new flame of "schism" flared up rather recently in Trubchevsk in Surazh region of Briansk province that borders Belarus. Local authorities turned serious attention to the Surazh adherents of RPATs when at the beginning of 2005 the priest Mikhail Dudarev submitted to the provincial department of the Ministry of Justice documents for the registration of the parish of the Holy Presentation in the village of Dalisitsa. Previously, at the end of 2004, he, along with the priest Viktor Zemliakov, announced his departure from RPTsMP. "Portal-credo.ru" has frequently reported on the situation with "alternative Orthodoxy" in Briansk territory. "Moskovsie novosti" also has written about this.

Representatives of RPATs think that the person who inspires a policy of persecution of "alternative Orthodoxy" is the ruling bishop of Briansk diocese of RPTsMP, Feofilakt Moiseev, to whom the governor's advisor Gavrikov is "obedient." As Gavrikov stated in one of the diocesan meetings, "schism is a purposeful action of forces whom we know."

In all, in Briansk province there are six active registered parishes and religious groups of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, which meet in clubs and the buildings of former stores that have been remodeled for purposes of worship. However after the parishes arose in Surazh region, the provincial department of justice did not reregister the RPATs Briansk and Tula diocese, which had been previously registered in Briansk. At the present time the authorities are not able to explain the closing of the RPATs diocese, since a court has not found any violations in its activity or reasons for its closure. But the authorities refuse to reregister the RPATs diocese anyway.  (tr. by PDS, posted 11 June 2008).


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Jehovah's Witnesses threatened with court action

PROSECUTOR OF CITY OF ASBEST FINDS "SIGNS OF EXTREMISM" IN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES LITERATURE
Portal-credo.ru, 9 June 2008

The prosecutor of the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk province, discovered signs of extremism in literature being distributed by the "Jehovah's Witnesses" organization, "Lenta-ru" reports.

The Interfax news agency quotes a report by the Prosecutor General of the Russian federation:  "In this literature there is published information directed toward the incitement of hostility and the disrespect of human dignity based on identification of religious affiliation, that is, containing signs of extremism."

The leadership of the Jehovah's Witnesses was issued a warning about the impermissibility of extremist activity. In addition, the prosecutor intends to send to the court a request to find materials distributed by the organization extremist. Materials of the investigation were sent to the regional department of the investigation committee for resolving the question of holding members of Jehovah's Witnesses criminally liable.

Among the materials in which the prosecutor discovered signs of extremism are the periodicals "Watchtower" and "Awake," as well as a book "Drawing Near to Jehovah," describing in detail the separate attributes of the god whom members of the organization worship.

Jehovah's Witnesses got their current name in 1931. Throughout the world they number about seven million members of this organization. Specialists consider Jehovah's Witnesses either a variant of protestantism or a Christian "sect."

The doctrines that the members of the organizations profess are based on the Bible, although they deny the doctrine of the Trinity and call the one god Jehovah.  One characteristic is the denial of the cross as a Christian symbol. "Jehovah's Witnesses" affirm on the basis of their own translation of the Bible that Christ was not crucified on a cross but was nailed to a torture column.

On the basis of a petition by the prosecutor of the northern district of Moscow in 2004, a court banned the activity of the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in the capital on the basis of the proposition that its members "incite religious strife, disrupt the family, and persuade seriously ill persons to refuse medical aid on the basis of religious motives." (tr. by PDS, posted 9 June 2008)

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Church of Alternate Orthodoxy opened near Moscow

DESPITE INTENSIFICATION OF PERSECUTION, RPATs MANAGED TO CONSECRATE NEW CHURCH IN MOSCOW SUBURB
Portal-credo.ru, 9 June 2008

The ritual of consecration of a newly constructed church building to St. Kseniia of Petersburg in the Moscow suburban settlement of Novaia Kupavna (Nogin region), a procession of the cross, and the divine liturgy within it were performed on 7 June by the chancellor of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (RPATs), Archbishop of Borisov and Otradna Feodor Gineevsky. As a "Portal-credo.ru" correspondent reports, special attention to this event on the part of the clergy and laity of RPATs is connected to the fact that construction and consecration of the church occurred under circumstances of the intensification of discrimination against the adherents of RPATs, while the authorities of Vladimir province went to court with a demand to strip the church of all of its 14 "historic" church buildings in Suzdal, where the ecclesiastical administrative center of RPATs is located.

The parish of St. Kseniia of Peterburg in the village of Novaia Kupavna was registered by the Department of Justice of Moscow province on 14July 2002. Its rector Priest Andrei Valevsky conducted the construction of the church and other church buildings on a private plot, although the authorities of Nogin region tried, by administrative and judicial means, to prevent him, charging first that the paperwork for the parcel of land was illegal and then that construction violated architectural regulations (in the opinion of a number of Russian bureaucrats, citizens of RF do not have the right to build on their own personal plots structures that are equipped for worship). Because of numerous inspections and foot-dragging construction lasted for six years.

The church is made of white stone in an ancient Russian architectural style. The churchyard contains the church building and a chapel. Inside the church the premises are rather roomy; the interior is decorated with multi-tiered iconostasis in baroque style with gold leaf; the choir is located on the sides; and the church has good acoustics.

Among the clergy concelebrating with Archbishop Feodor were the dean of the Moscow district of RPATs Archpriest Mikhail Ardov, and clergy from Moscow, Volgograd, and Suzdal. Bishop of Tula and Briansk Irinarkh was among the worshippers. After greeting the clergy and laity, many of whom came from Moscow, Archbishop Feodor relayed to them the blessing of first hierarch of RPATs Metropolitan Valentin, and he encouraged them, despite the persecution, not to weaken in their efforts to decorate the church well.

After a service of more than four hours, all attenders were invited to a feast under the open sky.  (tr. by PDS, posted 9 June 2008)


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