15.07.2009
FOREIGN PASTOR BANNED FROM PREACHING, CHURCH WARNED IT MAY BE


Belarus has warned a church in the capital Minsk that it could be closed
after a foreign pastor preached at a worship service, Forum 18 News Service
has learned. Pastor Boris Grisenko, a Ukrainian, was also fined. Alla
Ryabitseva, head of the city's Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs,
claimed to Forum 18 that "I have been to the United States. Visitors to the
country can't just go and speak at a religious service without permission."
District police chief Viktor Pravilo refused to say how he had found out
that a foreigner was preaching in the New Testament Pentecostal Church,
religious communities having long complained to Forum 18 of KGB secret
police surveillance. Asked whether the police did not have more important
matters to deal with than a foreigner preaching at a religious service,
Pravilo put the phone down. Foreigners engaged in religious activity have
long been a target of state hostility, along with their Belarusian
co-religionists. Catholic priests and nuns have regularly been expelled,
but the authorities today (15 July) announced that they had completed the
draft text of a Concordat. It is unknown whether this will address
violations of freedom of religion or belief.

BELARUS: FOREIGN PASTOR BANNED FROM PREACHING, CHURCH WARNED IT MAY BE
CLOSED

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

Officials in Belarus' capital Minsk have warned a church in the city, the
New Testament Pentecostal Church, that it could be closed down, Forum 18
News Service has learned. The warning by religious affairs officials was
given after a visiting pastor from neighbouring Ukraine, Boris Grisenko,
came to preach. Grisenko was fined for religious activity without state
permission. Foreigners engaged in religious activity - however brief it is
- have long been a target of state hostility, along with their Belarusian
co-religionists.

Bishop Sergei Tsvor, deputy head of the Pentecostal Union to which the
Minsk congregation belongs, condemned the authorities' latest attack on
freedom of religion or belief. "I don't need permission from the
authorities to speak at a service or a conference in Russia, Ukraine,
Poland or Germany - I've done so many times," he told Forum 18 from Minsk
on 15 July. "But here we have a law that bans foreigners from such
participation. I regret that the law exists - it is a violation of our
rights."

Alla Ryabitseva, head of the Minsk city Department of Religious and Ethnic
Affairs, defended the moves to punish the Minsk church, including the
threat to ban it if it conducts the same "violation" again. "I have been to
the United States. Visitors to the country can't just go and speak at a
religious service without permission," she claimed to Forum 18 from Minsk
on 15 July.

Minsk warning

The New Testament Church in Minsk's Zavodsky District received an official
warning after Pastor Grisenko, who leads a Messianic Jewish Congregation in
the Ukrainian capital Kiev, spoke at one of the Minsk church's services on
the evening of 21 May. Grisenko, as a Ukrainian citizen, does not need a
visa to visit Belarus. However, officials insisted in their written warning
to the church that Grisenko did not have "the appropriate permission for
the aim of engaging in religious activity".

Grisenko was summoned and accused of violating Article 23.55 Part 1 Point
1 of the Code of Administrative Violations for participating as a foreigner
in religious activity without permission. He was fined 105,000 Belarusian
Roubles (236 Norwegian Kroner, 26 Euros or 37 US Dollars).

"Pastor Grisenko was due to speak at a Messianic Jewish congregation that
Saturday [23 May], but because he was banned from preaching was unable to
do so," Bishop Tsvor of the Pentecostal Union told Forum 18.

The official warning, of which Forum 18 has send a copy, was prepared by
Ryabitseva of the Minsk city Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs,
and signed by the deputy head of Minsk City Executive Committee responsible
for the Department, Mikhail Titenkov.

The official warning cited information from Zavodsky District police chief
Viktor Pravilo that the church had violated the law by allowing a foreign
citizen to preach without permission. The warning said this meant the
church was violating its own statute, which notes that it abides by the
law.

The City Executive Committee, which had registered the church, warned the
New Testament church that "if the given violation is committed again within
a year, the registering body would have the right to go to court with an
application to liquidate the religious organisation. The registering body
would also have the right to decide on the halting of the activity of the
religious organisation until the court issues a decision."

Police chief Pravilo insisted that Grisenko needed a visa and needed to be
registered, but refused to discuss the case. "I don't know who you are," he
told Forum 18 from Minsk on 15 July. Asked how the police had learnt that a
foreign citizen was preaching in the church, he responded: "It's a secret."
Asked whether the police did not have more important matters to deal with
than a foreign citizen preaching during a religious service, Pravilo put
the phone down.

Religious communities have often complained about police and KGB secret
police surveillance of religious worship and activity. The KGB maintains
very strict surveillance of religious communities, as in the case of a
Catholic priest prosecuted for saying one mass outside his parish (see
F18News 3 October 2006
).

Asked by Forum 18 whether the fine on the visiting pastor and the threat
to liquidate the New Testament Church did not violate the rights of church
members, Ryabitseva of the Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs
responded: "All the reasons are given in the official warning. We as state
officials merely carry out the law. They violated the law." Asked who might
have suffered from a sermon by a foreign citizen in a religious community's
service, she responded: "We don't evaluate who suffers from the law."

Tight restrictions on foreigners

Forum 18 knows of 31 foreign religious workers - Catholics, Protestants
and Jews -banned from working with local religious communities since 2004.
The most recent were two Danish citizens, Erling Laursen and Rolf Bergen,
given deportation orders in February for taking part in worship services in
Gomel's [Homyel] charismatic Living Faith Church (see F18News 11 February
2009 ).

Catholic religious work permission problems

The Catholic Church in particular has faced difficulty getting permission
for foreign Catholic priests and nuns to work in Belarus. They make up some
two-thirds of the 31 foreign religious workers banned since 2004. Many have
been summarily expelled or had their religious work permission renewals
rejected in recent years. Priests and nuns engaged in tackling social
issues, such as alcoholism, in a very public manner appear to be particular
targets for expulsion.

Four Polish Catholic priests as well as three nuns had their permission to
continue religious work in Minsk-Mohilov Archdiocese and Grodno [Hrodna]
Diocese revoked at the end of December 2008 (see F18News 26 January 2009
).

Parishioners in Borisov [Barysaw] of Fr Zbigniew Grygorcewicz, one of the
expelled priests who left the country in December 2008, have pressed
officials for his return (see F18News 7 January 2009
). In a 6 April letter
to parishioners seen by Forum 18, Gulyako's deputy Vladimir Lameko insisted
that the "position" of the Office over Fr Grygorcewicz's expulsion had
already been explained to them and that "changing our view is not
possible".

Fr Grygorcewicz had helped organise a Christian music festival, arranged
by Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, which was banned by the authorities
10 minutes before it started (see F18News 25 September 2008
).

In another new development, Belarus has completed the draft text of a
Concordat with the Holy See. The state Plenipotentiary for Religious and
Ethnic Affairs, Leonid Gulyako, announced this at a press conference in
Minsk on 15 July. The Interfax and Itar-Tass news agencies reported him as
saying that the draft text had been prepared by the Foreign Ministry and
his Office.

The Apostolic Nunciature in Minsk declined to comment to Forum 18 on 15
July on Gulyako's remarks.

It remains unclear if a Concordat will halt Belarus's continuing
violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief of Catholics and
others in the country. The Vatican has not criticised these violations,
apparently trusting in the possibility of a Concordat and even a papal
visit to Belarus. On the contrary, the Holy See's Secretary of State,
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, conveyed the thanks of Pope Benedict XVI "for
the religious liberty that Belarus enjoys" during a June 2008 visit to
Minsk, also telling a press conference that the 2002 Law was "a good law
reflecting the necessary protection and respect for the rights of the five
main confessions traditional to Belarus." On 27 April 2009 Pope Benedict
received President Aleksandr Lukashenko (see F18News 11 June 2009
). (END)

Forum 18