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Jehovah's Witnesses driven out of meeting place

PROSECUTOR GAINS CANCELLATION OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' SERVICES IN TRANSBAIKAL VILLAGE MOVIE THEATRE
Portal-credo.ru, 15 April 2010

The prosecutor of Karym region of Transbaikal territory has achieved the quashing of the conduct of religious events by Jehovah's Witnesses in the premises of a village movie theatre, which had been conducted there twice weekly. This was reported on 14 April to "Taige.info" by the prosecutor of Karym region of the territory, Denis Kurochkin.

The incidence of the conduct of these events was established by the regional prosecutor in the course of an investigation of the implementation on the territory of Karym village of legislation "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" and on combating extremist activity.

The director of the "Ekran" theatre, Sergei Chrniakov, did not deny the fact of providing the premises to the Jehovah's Witnesses. The meetings of the religious group were attended by about 30 persons, including young people. According to Prosecutor Kurochkin, there were instances when scheduled film showings were postponed because of the conduct of religious events.

"According to article 16 of the law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations," conduct of religious rites and ceremonies is permitted only in premises especially designated for these goals. The premises of the "Ekran" theatre are territorial property assigned to the operational administration of the Chita State Cinema Company, and may be used only for showing movie and video films," Denis Kurochkin said.

The presentation made by the regional prosecutor's office to the general director of "Chita State Cinema Company, Nikolai Privalov, has been reviewed and approved. The director of "Ekran" movie theatre has been reprimanded and the activity of the Jehovah's Witnesses on its territory has ceased.

"Portal-credo.ru" cites for your information part 2 of article 16, Religious rites and ceremonies, of the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations."

2. Religious services and other religious rites and ceremonies are conducted without impediment within cult buildings and premises and territories attached to them, and in other places assigned to religious organizations for their purposes, in places of pilgrimage, in institutions and enterprises of religious organizations, in cemeteries and crematoria, and in living quarters.

Rental of clubs, houses of culture, movie theatres, athletic facilities, and so forth, for conduct of religious events, is a widely spread practice and does not contradict part 2, article 16, of the law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations." Not so long ago, a meeting of Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus Kirill with young people was held in a stadium in Moscow.  (tr. by PDS, posted 16 April 2010)

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Court rules in Jehovah's Witness' favor

TAMBOV PROVINCIAL COURT RULES SEARCH IN JEHOVAH'S WITNESS' HOME ILLEGAL
Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, 15 April 2010

A Tambov prvincial court found the order for a search in the apartment of a Jehovah's Witness to be illegal. On 15 April 2010 the Judicial College for Criminal Cases of the Tambov provincial court satisfied an appeal from the Cheprunov family, who are Jehovah's Witnesses.

Early in the morning of 17 March 2010, police arrived at the Cheprunov home and conducted a search, during which personal items and literature were confiscated. The search was conducted on the basis of an order of a woman judge who illegally held that religious confession was "sufficient basis" for such actions.

Mikhail and Larisa Cheprunov appealed the order, pointing out that criminal prosecution of citizens on the basis of their religious affiliation is forbidden (article 19 of the constitution of RF). All of the things that were seized during the search are to be returned to their owners.

Attorney Sergei Palagin, who represented the interests of the Cheprunov family, said after the court session: "I consider that the decision of the court has importance in principle not only for this family, but also for other believers of this confession. I think that now searches will not be conducted merely on the basis that someone is a Jehovah's Witness. At least, the Tambov provincial court has issued a decision condemning such actions as illegal and as in violation of the right of a believing person." (tr. by PDS, posted 16 April 2010)

Russian original posted on Religiia v svetskom obshchestve site, 16 April 2010

Related article:  Court orders searches of Jehovah's Witnesses' homes , March 17, 2010

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Killing fields of Smolensk

KATYNÑGOLGOTHA OF ORTHODOX MARTYRS
by Liubov Balakireva
Religare, 15 April 2010

On 7 April, on the day of the Annunciation, the prime ministers of Russia and Poland participated in memorial events at the site in Katyn of mass repressions in memory of the victims of mass shootings. Here outside Smolensk at the end of the 1930s a great number of soviet citizens perished as the result of political repressions. Polish officers were shot there and later Nazis shot soldiers of the Red Army. Concerning the role of the church in the recovery of historical memory and about the construction of a memorial church of the Resurrection of Christ we talked with Bishop of Smolensk and Viazemka Feofilakt.

--Today everybody knows what Butovo is. It is a place outside Moscow where in the 30s and 40s mass shootings were conducted. The people of Smolensk have their own Butovo.

--There is such a Golgotha in Smolensk, too. People of Smolensk call this place Goat Hills. Its modern name is Katyn Forest, from the name of the village of Katyn that is located a kilometer from Goat Hills. In 1943 it first became known that at this spot there was a multitude of unmarked graves of soviet citizens who were repressed in prewar years and of Polish prisoners of war who were destroyed by organs of NKVD in 1940. Now people mistakenly put the accent on the Polish aspect of the name Katyn, on the second syllable; the right way is on the first.

During the bleak years thousands upon thousands of our compatriots were shot in Katyn; among them were priests and monastics and simply believing folk, who defended the churches and insisted on their right to faith. For people of Smolensk this place really is sacred.

In 1918 the "red terror" began, and some of the first to fall under the blade were priests. The cycle of repressions continued in 1922, and then in 1929 and the beginning of 1930 and reached its peak in 1937 and 1938, which today are called the years of the "great terror," when people perished simply according to quota.

On 5 July 1937 Yezhov signed an order in which specific numbers were sent to all regions of the Soviet Union regarding shooting, exile, imprisonment, labor camps, etc. In accordance with this order, Smolensk province received in the first category, that is, shooting, 1,000 persons, and in the other categories (exile, concentration camps, prison, extra judicial punishment), 5,000 persons.

--With Katyn is connected the name of the last Smolensk bishop who suffered a martyr's death, Archbishop Serafim, a holy martyr glorified by the Russian church. In his memoirs, Archimandrite Ioann called him a man "most intelligent, kind, and loving."

--Archbishop of Smolensk and Dorogobuzh Serafim, the last of the prewar ruling bishops of the Smolensk diocese received the martyr's crown in Katyn. He was shot 8 December 1937. The church established this date as the day of his commemoration. On that day, along with Archbishop Serafim, 77 persons were shot, including 8 priests.

--What is the scale of this tragedy?

--In order to assess the scale of that tragedy, I will cite figures:  9 December of that same year, 1937, 101 persons were eliminated, of whom 20 were priests. In the list of those shot are many peasants, individual farmers, and also people from practically every stratum of society. By 5 January 1938, the number of daily shootings had reached 180 persons, that is, in the 24 hours of 5 January the shootings reached their maximum, 180 persons. Shootings went on day and night. Today the search goes on, and with each year we learn more and more new names of those who perished in Katyn.

This year, with the blessing and at the initiative of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill there has begun the construction of a memorial church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in which the prayerful memory of the deceased will be immortalized. It is planned to create a museum devoted to the memory of those people, especially believers, who were repressed in those horrible years.

--What was the geography of the repressions?

--Today this topic is under investigation. But there can be no doubt that people from various regions, people of various nationalities, were repressed. I think that investigators will answer the question not only by the names but also by the geography of those people buried here. Such work is being conducted by both church and secular researchers. Our diocese suggested that this question be studied by secular educational institutions, especially history faculties, so that we will be able to restore the entire canvass of the events that occurred. Of course, there are certain problems. The main thing here is the presence of the cases themselves, the existence of evidence that directly or indirectly indicates one or another circumstance. The work is laborious but it is quite possible. Archives are open, we have access, although each specific case depends on the article of the charges made. Usually priests were accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and agitation; accusations of underground activity were fabricated. The memorial of the Polish officers who were shot is here. Every year relatives of those who perished from Poland have the possibility of coming and conducting memorials, memorial liturgies. A memorial sacred cross was set up on Polish territory where memorial liturgies are performed.

--The church builds temples on the relics of its martyrs. The church of the Resurrection of Christ will be built on the spot of a national tragedy, where not only believing people lost their lives.

--The appearance of the memorial church in Katyn is the possibility not only to honor the feats of martyrs but also is testimony that we fully understand the entire national tragedy of what happened. Realizing this tragedy, experiencing it within ourselves and prayerfully honoring the Russian new martyrs and confessors, we will strive to preserve our cultural and spiritual values, because they were given to us at great cost. . . .

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Experiment in teaching religion not going according to plan

C-MINUS IN ETHICS
by Irina Ivoilova
Rossiiskaia gazeta, 15 April 2010

The Public Council within the Ministry of Education and Science discussed the training of teachers for the new subject "Foundations of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics." And so, around 15,000 teachers in the provinces have begun conducting classes in the new subject. They were trained by 1,000 tutors who were prepared in the Academy of Advanced Qualification and Professional Retraining of Education Workers.

"We expected methodologists, but the regions sent to Moscow mainly school teachers," the rector of the academy, Eduard Nikitin, complained.

Unfortunately, not all of them passed the "exit exam" and received a certificate giving them the right to teach. The presence among the tutors of failures did not surprise the famous television and radio anchor, a member of the Public Council, Svetlana Sorokina. At her request, telejournalists attended the courses and found among the future mentors were teachers of music and technology and even administrators. "They sent people whom the schools could do without," Sorokina commented. She recalled that subjects connected with religious topics are taught on an optional basis in many regions.

"The ideal would be to find a school where all three courses are selected and to see how the teaching is organized there," suggested Petr Polozhevets, editor in chief of "Uchitelskaia gazeta."  "But judging from information from the provinces, this will not be easy."

In order to avoid rescheduling and problems of personnel and facilities, in places sometimes instructions were given to the parents about who should choose what. For example, in Tomsk province, in two neighboring regions, in schools with the same nationality composition, two different courses were chosen. One school is studying secular ethics only, while the other, only "Foundations of Orthodox Culture." In one of the regions of Izhevsk, bureaucrats ordered that everyone should teach "Foundations of Secular Ethics." And schools almost without exception have chosen this module.

So far it is not clear how teachers will evaluate the pupils' knowledge. The main thing is that by autumn there not circulate from the regions such reports as tolerance increased by 40% and religious toleration by 50%. The experiment has begun, but the questions have not become fewer. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 April 2010)

Russian original posted on Religiopolis site, 15 April 2010

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Roundtable on "sects" in Russia

ATTORNEYS: CALLING ORDINARY PROTESTANTS "SECTS" UNACCEPTABLE
Rosbalt Moskva, 14 April 2010

It is unacceptable to use the labels "sects" and "sectarian activity" and to make accusations when talking about religious organizations, however untraditional they are, as long as they are peaceful and law-abiding. This was said on Wednesday by participants in a round table in the Moscow office of "Rosbalt," on the topic:  "Life in a sect, a search for happiness, escape from reality, or protest?" According to Anatoly Pchelintsev, a famous attorney, senior partner in the advocacy group "Slavic Legal Center," and expert of the State Duma, in contemporary Russia considering protestant churches to be "sects" has sometimes caused major complications in their life. Meanwhile, according to Pchelintsev, the greater part of protestants are peaceful, law-abiding citizens of Russia who cause no harm either to their country or their fellow believers.

A special discussion ensued over the Russian Associated Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (ROSKhVE), who are often labeled "neo-Pentecostals." The director of the St. Ireneus of Lyons Center of Religious Studies Research, Alexander Dvorkin, thinks this organization to be a typical sect, in whose congregations crimes against individuals are committedÑfor example, in Moscow a mother and grandmother who were Pentecostals conducted a ritual murder of a small girl.

Objecting to Dvorkin, Pchelintsev emphasized that in the case of the Moscow murder, and in several other cases (for example, the murder of a minor by sectarians in Yakutiia in 1999), the murderers were ruled by expert analysis to be psychologically ill and it is wrong to indict entire Christian churches on the basis of these tragedies. On the other hand, according to Pchelintsev, all the indicators of sectarianism are manifested in the activity of rather many Orthodox religious folk, for example, calling for people to reject the new passports and individual identification numbers. However nobody dares to accuse the Russian Orthodox church of something on this basis.

According to Anatoly Pchelintsev's data, today there are in RF about 2,000 organizations of Christians of evangelical faith, more than 1,200 Baptist and 400 Adventist Organizations, and also more than 200 organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses. At the same time, the religious environment in Russia remains quite calm and none of the tragedies connected with the truly totalitarian sects of past years, like Aum Sinrikyo or the White Brotherhood, are now being observed. (tr. by PDS, posted 15 April 2010)

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