Another provision in the new law on religion of concern to
Baptist pastor Viktor Zdanevich is that "the territorial activity of
mission is restricted," he told Forum 18 News Service in the south-western
city of Brest on 16 September. According to Article 14 of the law, a religious
organisation consists of at least 20 adult citizens living in one or several
neighbouring territories and "functions only on this area".
Speaking to Forum 18 in his Pentecostal church in Grodno on 17 September, Naum
Sakhanchuk outlined the implications of this provision. "If my church is
registered in the city of Grodno, for example, I have no right to operate
elsewhere," he said. As assistant bishop, however, Sakhanchuk is able to minister
in the other registered Pentecostal churches in Grodno region, he continued,
since they come under the registered regional Pentecostal association,
"but if there is no church in a particular place, I have no right to
evangelise there". Should church members distribute literature on the
street two or three times, added Sakhanchuk, their organisation is liable to
liquidation by court order.
As an autonomous Baptist congregation, Pastor Zdanevich's church appears worse
off than Sakhanchuk's, since it does not come under the auspices of an umbrella
organisation. Registered in the city of Brest, it cannot function outside the
city limits.
The regional official in charge of religious affairs, Vasili Marchenko,
confirmed this to Forum 18 on 16 September. According to the 2002 religion law,
he maintained, the territory of the activity of an organisation is where it is
registered. "So Brest city if it is registered in Brest city."
Zdanevich's church is also unable to create a mission. Marchenko pointed out
that, according to the new law, missions may be founded only by regional or
republic-wide religious organisations. Asked whether this did not restrict
autonomous communities, Marchenko insisted that "none of our autonomous
ones have a mission".
Zdanevich told Forum 18 that his church has not submitted documents for
reregistration as its elders are currently considering those points in the law
they believe run against Gospel teaching. "For me, the Gospel comes first
and the law comes second," he remarked, "whatever country I am
in." Ultimately, however, Zdanevich said he was not concerned by the
potential affects of the new law: "We have been through the underground
already – they can oppress individuals, but not the church."
Zdanevich also pointed out to Forum 18 that the law's provisions inevitably
"make it difficult to organise new churches". One attendee at meeting
to discuss the 2002 law hosted by the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic
Affairs in Minsk on 12 September maintained that this also proved to be of some
concern to the Belarusian Orthodox Church, whose representatives raised the
issue of how close localities needed to be to constitute neighbouring
territories – could a parish be formed by small groups of believers living in
disparate hamlets? According to this source, the issue was not resolved at the
meeting. Interviewed by Forum 18 on 23 September, however, the Orthodox dean of
the central district of Vitebsk city Fr Aleksandr Rakhunok denied that this
issue posed any problems for his Church. "78 per cent of Belarus is
Orthodox, it never happens that we have fewer than 20 parishioners in one
locality."
Sakhanchuk told Forum 18 that problems organising new churches predate the 2002
law on religion. In Brest region, he said, no new Pentecostal churches have
been registered for two years and in Grodno region for three years. Sakhanchuk
also described a practice in which state pressure was exerted on some of those
listed as founding members in a registration application. "People who have
lived through persecution don't care, but these are all new converts – if one
turns away then the application is rejected."
Speaking to Forum 18 on 19 September in Minsk, head of the charismatic Full
Gospel Association Aleksandr Sakovich said that this phenomenon might take
place in rural areas, but "they don't use those methods in big
cities". However, he did report a practice in which a local authority
sometimes requested details of the premises a newly formed religious community
seeking registration planned to rent. "Then they contact and put pressure
on the organisation offering its premises, and then the community is refused
registration as it has nowhere to meet."
While Zdanevich maintains that the provisions of the new law restricting
mission are aimed particularly at Protestant churches, Forum 18 found that some
Catholic representatives were also concerned about them. The chairman of St
Paraskeva Greek Catholic parish council in Polotsk, Mikola Sharakh, noted that
the law did not allow for development and effectively created a
"reservation" for the church.
"Any Christian church must preach and evangelise, but this law permits it
to preach only to whoever entered the church building, so that the church
becomes a passive organisation," a Roman Catholic source who preferred not
to be named similarly remarked to Forum 18. "People might argue that the
churches are open, but what freedom is that? It is a silhouette."