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Persecution!
Written by Hugo
Tuesday, 26 July 2005
Dear Friends
The following letter from the president of our association in Russia, Igor Nikitin, is an urgent call to prayer for the church in Russia. As we are experiencing an anticipation in the spiritual world of what God is about to do in Russia, we also see a sharp increase in persecution.
What the enemy is intending for harm, God will turn about for His glory!
Be sure that God is hearing your prayers for Russia. Imagine the voices of the children of God worldwide going up to His throne in prayer. He WILL hear and He WILL answer!
All of this is part of the process to prepare churches in Russia to grow tenfold and even hundredfold.
In Him
HugoFrom the Office of the Association of Christian Churches in Russia “Union of Christians” St. Petersburg, Russia
July 22, 2005
Dear friends,
During the last two months Protestant Churches in Russia experienced the hardest pressure of the last 10 years! The disruption of services at Churches, arrests of pastors and bishops, burning of church buildings, churches put to the ground, wide mass media campaigns against the Christian Churches are just a few to mention.
A huge mass media campaign was organized to promote the Orthodox ideology and bring indignity and discredit to all other confessions. There were many articles about the leaders of the country, including President Putin, showing their devotion to the Orthodoxy, publishing the pictures with their confessors, and exaggerating the term “traditional and non-traditional religions in Russia”. This classification as such brings about division of religious organizations into “first class” and “second class”. But now even a third class appears, namely, “sects” - according to the media.
The Orthodox Church initiated special conferences, i.e. the conference that took place in Saratov in May 10-11, 2005 “Neo-Pentecostal Sects in Russia: threat of the religious extremism”. Famous Orthodox priests put pressure on the Government at all levels. So Bishop Tikhon in Archangelsk region addressed the Head of the Administration of Archangelsk region with a request to stop the social projects of the Protestant churches, saying that those were just recruiting events of the neo-Pentecostal sects (he calls the registered religious organizations named as neo-Pentecostal sects).
The Conference “Neo-Pentecostal Sects in Russia: threat of the religious extremism” was held in Saratov and organized by Alexander Dvorkin together with Saratov Eparchy of Russian Orthodox Church and local Administration. Just after that the media all over the country published articles with headlines such as “Watch out! Sects!”, “We need defense from the sectarians”, “Sectarians get active!”, “Orthodox and Lutheran Churches declared about harm of the Neo-Pentecostals”, etc.
During the same time in the Archangelsk region, in the north of Russia, Christian Churches were performing an action “Feel the power of changes”. In order to stop this activity, local authorities and media published the following statements:
Tatiana Podiakova, Deputy of the regional Assembly, Archangelsk: “It is horrible that we have in our region “Feel the power of changes” action going on”.
Professor Elena Galimova, Pomorsky State University: “We should not allow them to organize anything! We need to set Cossacks on our borders! The so-called tolerance turns out to be a persecution of our religious feelings… It is not the Church that should be concerned about the sects. First of all this is the business of the Government to secure its citizens from these sects…”
Denis Ichetkin, a journalist of the local newspaper: “For example, in Iraq Anglican preachers were trying to organize their business in Basra… Rebels needed just one truck with explosives to drive them out to their islands… Our nation and religion are too peaceful towards the false, so Russia is unplowed field for the protestant emissaries.”
Natalia Ozhigina, Head of the P.R. of Russian Federal Intelligence Services: “… Religious projects are usually used to cover different activities of the Intelligence Services of foreign countries. Big amounts of finances are requested usually to accomplish such projects. Foreign capital takes part in it. All these details make us to be more watchful. Our goal is to protect our society from these subversive activities of the Intelligence Service of foreign countries and Intelligence Centers”.
Against this background it is no wonder for what happened in Izhevsk on the 14th of April, when 3 Christian services were interrupted, 46 people were arrested. People in masks rushed into the church building right in the middle of the service and made all the people stay face to the wall outside with hands lifted up. Some were arrested for 3 days.
Arrest of Pastor Alexander Purshaga, Bishop of the Assembly of God Church “Emmanuel” in Moscow, who was held in the prison for 5 days. Pastor Purshaga went on a hunger-strike. At the same day a Pastor from St. Petersburg Ilija Astafiev was arrested in Moscow and stayed in the prison for 4 days with some other ministers of the Church.
Burnings of the Baptist Churches in Chelyabinsk and Izhevsk were kindled at the same time; also Kaliningrad Pentecostal Church was put to the ground in the beginning of May.
Probably for the first time in 10 years a special “list of the churches” was prepared by Alexander Dvorkin and circulated around. This list contains Protestant Churches which were named of as sects; such as Calvary Chapel, Vineyard, Word of Life, Church of God, and others.
The Association of Christian Churches in Russia was put under a great pressure as well. Our Senior overseer of the ACCR churches in Central and South regions, Pastor Hugo Van Niekerk was not allowed to have a religious visa anymore. He is a citizen of the Republic of South Africa, and was active in the spiritual and social work in Russia during the last 10 years. He is a key minister of the ACCR. Several Christian churches were born under his leadership, and he is an overseer of 80 ACCR churches. “The denials of our visa applications are probably not an attack on us personally, but rather on the evangelical church in Russia”, - says Pastor Hugo Van Niekerk.
This intervention into the internal matters of the Association became more clear, when we heard what the Prosecutor of Krasnodarsky region had to say during a meeting with the Government and Social organizations and leaders of the main confessions of Cuban: “… activities of the sects, which are inimical to the Russian State, will be broken with all lawful methods, and if needed, with unlawful methods, too”.
At the same time the license of the Radio “New Life” was canceled - the only FM Christian radio station that was working in Magadan since 1996.
The status of religious freedom and the problems of discrimination against non- Orthodox organizations were noticed in the PACE Resolution 455, where it is recommended to the Russian Authorities to guarantee exclusion of any juridical, administrative or fiscal discrimination against so called non- traditional beliefs and bring execution of the Law about the freedom of conscience and religious unions in accordance with the standards of the Council of Europe. On the 23rd of June the U.S. Congress issued the Resolution 190 on the situation with religious freedom in Russia too.
It is very important now for all people of good will to do all things possible to keep the freedom of beliefs in Russia and not allow the destroying of the Protestant Churches in Russia.
Rev. Igor Y. Nikitin Chairman of Senior Bishops Council Association of Christian Churches in Russia “Union of Christians”
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