Orthodox Church

Belarus: True Orthodox battle on for legal worship

By Felix Corley - Forum 18 News Service, 3 April 2003

Fr Leonid Plyats, priest of the True Orthodox parish of St John of Kronstadt near Minsk, told Forum 18 News Service that his community will fight on to be able to worship openly and legally despite the rejection on 27 March of his parish’s suit to overturn the denial of registration. Denis Yelizarev of the government’s Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs insisted that the Committee’s assessment against the parish had been correct. “They slandered other faiths, that’s why they were banned.”

Forum 18 News Service (F18News, Oslo, Norway) is a Christian initiative which is independent of any one church or religious group. Its independence is safeguarded by a board whose members are Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic Christians. F18News is objective, presenting news in a deliberately calm and balanced fashion, and presenting all sides of a situation. The overriding editorial objective of F18News is to as accurately as possible present the truth of a situation, both implicitly and explicitly.

Website: http://www.forum18.org/index.php

Document – A Rejoinder to a Challenge of the Legitimacy of the Orthodox Monastic Brotherhood of the Holy Monastery of Esphigmenou

By Agios Agathangelos o Esphigmenites, 29 January 2003

Our readers who understand French may have already seen our report on recent developments around the Monastery of Esphigmenou (Mount Athos), posted on 25 January 2003. The monks are zealots, who in the 1960s broke off communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople and stopped commemorating him at their services. The conflict has now reached a peak: after […]

Albania: signs of a comeback in religion – Interview with Jim Forest

By Zenit.org, 28 January 2003

The world may have forgotten Albania, but the Orthodox and Catholic churches haven’t. Jim Forest, secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, gives his view on what has been happening in the former Communist nation.

Belarus: minority faiths fear rise of Orthodoxy

By Natalia Mukha - IWPR, 17 January 2003

President Alexander Lukashenko’s speech to mark Orthodox Christmas last week suggested he is considering a wholesale union of church and state. Minority faiths fear they will become the first victims.

Natalia Mukha is a journalism student at the Belarusian State University in Minsk.

This article was originally published by the IWPR (Institute for War Peace Reporting), London, in the first issue of its Belarus Reporting Service (BRS, 17 January 2003). The Institute for War & Peace Reporting strengthens local journalism in areas of conflict. Religioscope has been allowed by the IWPR to repost its articles.
Website: http://www.iwpr.net/

Russia: public opinion divided over tuition of Orthodox culture in State schools

By Geraldine Fagan, 6 December 2002

According to her Constitution, Russia is a secular state. According to the 1992 law on education, state education is secular in nature. On 22 October 2002, however, Education Minister Vladimir Filippov sent to Russian regional education departments a 30-page prototype of a new curriculum subject – “The Foundations of Orthodox Culture“. Keston News Service – […]

Russia: destruction of Orthodox church in Tatarstan

By Geraldine Fagan and Tatyana Titova, 9 November 2002

Although not the first such incident in Naberezhnyye Chelny, the destruction of the Orthodox Church of St Tatyana on 1 October was “the first time the authorities took any notice,” the secretary of the Moscow Patriarchate’s local deanery has told Keston News Service. Naberezhnyye Chelny is the second largest city in the republic of Tatarstan, […]

Georgia: Church and State in tight embrace

By Lyuda Rayeva, 17 October 2002

A new concordat between the Georgian state and the Orthodox Church is cementing the latter’s special status in society. IWPR – 17 October 2002 – Early one morning this week, President Eduard Shevardnadze and Patriarch Ilya II met in the Svetitskhoveli cathedral in the old Georgian capital of Mtskheta to sign a formal agreement binding church […]

Lyuda Rayeva is a freelance journalist based in Tbilisi.

This article was first published on 17 October 2002 (CRS No.151) by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR), London. Posted on Religioscope with permission.Articles published by the IWPR on Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Caucasus as well as other topics can be accessed on its website:
http://www.iwpr.net
IWPR supports recovery and development in crisis zones by providing professional training, financial assistance and an international platform to independent media, human rights activists and other local democratic voices. IWPR’s primary beneficiaries are local journalists who participate in its reporting, research and training programmes.

Estonia: government proposes compensating Orthodox Church

By RFE / RL, 30 August 2002

The Estonian Interior Ministry has reached a provisional agreement with both the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church under the Constantinople Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Estonia to share the use of existing church property after a nearly decade-long dispute, BNS reported on 29 August. RFE/RL – 30 August 2002 – Under the […]

This news items was originally published in RFE/RL Newsline, 30 August 2002. Copyright © 2002. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

Belarus: church destruction sparks outrage

By Kathleen Knox, 8 August 2002

A newly built church in western Belarus was to have been consecrated last week. Instead, it and a parish house were bulldozed on orders from local authorities who cited a violation of planning regulations. The church’s supporters claim its destruction amounts to religious persecution. RFE/RL – 7 August 2002 – The first weekend in August was meant […]

This report was originally published by RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty). Posted on Religioscope with permission.

Belarus: independent Orthodox church bulldozed

By Felix Corley, 2 August 2002

2 August 2002 was to have been the day the Autocephalous Orthodox church in the village of Pahranichny close to Belarus’ western border with Poland was consecrated. Instead, at 8 pm on 1 August, the village was surrounded by troops in camouflage uniforms, all roads were blocked off and the church was destroyed, Keston News […]