RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


African students accused of illegal evangelism

THREE STUDENTS FROM AFRICA SUSPECTED OF "ILLEGAL MISSIONARY ACTIVITY" IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD

Portal-Credo.ru, 28 April 2018

 

The directorate of the F.S.B. for Nizhny Novgorod oblast suspects three students of higher education institutions of Nizhny Novgorod from Namibia, Malawi, and Ivory Coast of "illegal missionary activity" because of a publication with an invitation to a local protestant church "Embassy of Jesus." This is described in a document about the results of an F.S.B. inspection sent to the local directorate of the Ministry of Justice, which was quoted by Dozhd on 27 April.

 

The document says that in 2016, the "Embassy of Jesus" published on Facebook a video with an invitation to a religious event called Encounter. ("This is a time when we discuss such topics as love, faith, and dreams based on the Bible," the press secretary of the church, Yulia Ermoshina, explained for Dozhd.

 

There are four students in the video: 34-year-old Devid Debora Kangenge and 20-year-old Mzengereza Tingavena from the Novgorod State Medical Academy, 22-year-old Kpata Evilafo Adel Olivia Romuald from the Kozma Minin Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University, and also a former student of the medical academy, Chileshe Maurin from Zambia, who graduated in 2017 and has left Russia. They describe how they were influenced by participating in previous Encounters. The church has already removed the video.

 

The F.S.B. document says that the young people came to the country on student visas and "they were not invited for purposes of engaging in professional religious activity." The intelligence service came to the conclusion that "missionary activity in the name of the religious organization" was conducted without documents confirming the pertinent authorization. The document is dated 20 February 2018.

 

In March the regional directorate of the Ministry of Justice composed two protocols on  administrative violations of law on the basis of parts 3 and 4 of article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law of the RF ("Violation of legislation on freedom of conscience and freedom of religious confession and on religious associations") against the Embassy of Jesus, Vladimir Malinin, the attorney who represents the church's interests, explained. In the opinion of the ministry, it is conducting missionary activity without documents of permission and it also has not indicated its name in the video. Malinin says that the defense insists that the mere participation of young people in events cannot be considered missionary activity. The court has been considering the case since 16 April; the third session was held on 28 April.

 

Devid Debora Kangengi told Dozhd that "she attended the church, but had not heard about the inspection and has not engaged in evangelism." Mzengereza Tingavena explained that he did not know about the F.S.B. inspection. "I heard about what happened from another student, but I did not know that my name is figuring somewhere," he explained. Phone calls to the other two young people were not successful.

 

The Embassy of Jesus church explained that it decided not to tell the students about the inspection until their status is clear. An inquiry by journalists was not answered in the directorate of the Ministry of Justice for Nizhny Novgorod.

 

On 26 April it was learned that the Nizhny Novgorod oblast court decided to deport from Russia another Nizhny Novgorod student from Africa, Kudzai Nyamareba, for "illegal missionary activity;" she also attended the Embassy of Jesus. The reason was the reposting of two videos; one of them showed a concert of a choir of foreign students and in the other Nyamareba talks about God. The court permitted her to remain in Russia until the end of June, in order to finish her studies. (tr. by PDS, posted 30 April 2018)


Related article:
African student found guilty of illegal evangelism
April 24, 2018

Russia Religion News Current News Items

Editorial disclaimer: RRN does not intend to certify the accuracy of information presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the articles as they appeared in news media of countries of the former USSR.

If material is quoted, please give credit to the publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please include reference to the URL, http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.