SMOLNY DENIES EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH TRANSFER OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS
St. Petersburg authorities refused to transfer a historical building on Kirochnaya St. to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria.
As emerges from a document published on the website of the city property committee, the church requested the transfer to it of a building at 8-I Kirochnaya St., a residential and academic building of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Anne that was built in the late 18th century.
The church of Ingria planned to use these premises for religious purposes.
After reviewing the appeal, Smolny refused the transfer of the premises to ownership by the religious organization. Authorities noted that historically the Mariinsky orphanage for girls and an orphanage for boys were located in the building and the rest of the premises "were leased for business sites and apartments."
"The building cannot be assigned as property for religious purposes and, consequently, it cannot be transferred to the ownership of a religious organization within the framework of federal law," the decision of the committee says.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria is a Russian Lutheran church of the Scandinavian tradition. The majority of its parishes are located on the territory of Leningrad oblast and Karelia. It was legally created in 1992, although its history dates from 1611, the year of the establishment of one of the oldest Lutheran parishes on the territory of Ingermanland. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 May 2018)
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/.