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Away in a Cowshed
17 December 2004The 600-member charismatic New Life Church in Minsk has been banned from meeting under Belarus' religion law. The church, which bought a cowshed on the outskirts of the city two years ago, intending to rebuild it as a church, has faced repeated obstructions from the government, which has barred the church from worshiping at the cowshed; threatened to demolish the building; denied the church's church's compulsory re-registration; threatened the pastor and administrator with fines for leading unregistered worship; and sent police or riot police to each Sunday service. The church has also been prevented from renting another meeting space in Minsk, but according to Aleksandr Kalinov of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, these difficulties are all their fault. "'They insist on trying to use the cowshed as a church -- they refuse to find other premises.'" All other official regulatory agencies approved the use of the cowshed for the church, but the religious affairs department objected, and arranged for the church's permission to be revoked, which in turn cost the church its re-registration last November. No similar constraints have been put on an Orthodox congregation building a church nearby.
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