Служение заступничества
Сайт создан по личной инициативе членов церкви МСЦ ЕХБ
и не является официальным сайтом Отдела заступничества МСЦ ЕХБ
http://www.iucecb.com
iucecb@gmail.com
Служение заступничества - IUCECB.com

Библия

Четвероевангелие

Сообщения, ходатайства

Messages, petitions

Die Mitteilungen und die Bittgesuche (in deutscher Sprache)

Ответы на ходатайства

Вопрос регистрации (в документах)

Духовное наследство служения заступничества (в документах)

История общин ЕХБ (в документах заступничества)

Церковь и государство

Братский листок

Brotherly newsletter

Das Bruderblatt (in deutscher Sprache)

Не скроем от детей наших. Духовное наследие
- Г. К. Крючков
- Ю. К. Крючков
- М. И. Хорев
- Н. П. Храпов
- И. Я. Антонов
- Б. Т. Артющенко
- Н. Г. Батурин
- Н. Е. Бойко
- Д. В. Миняков
- Б. Я. Шмидт

Список
гонимых христиан

Пакты и законы
- Россия
- Украина
- Белоруссия
- Прибалтика
- Молдавия
- Кавказ
- Казахстан
- Средняя Азия
- Германия
- США

Служение
заступничества

Поиск по сайту

__________

Вход
для корреспондентов

Вход
для редакторов

__________

© 2002-2024 IUCECB

Ниже приведенный счетчик выставлен для количественного учета посещений нашего сайта. Редакция не отвечает за содержание сайта LiveInternet, который открывается при нажатии на картинку счетчика.

URGENT REPORT FROM THE EVANGELICAL
CHRISTIAN BAPTIST CHURCH, RUSSIA

15 сентября 2004 - http://iucecb.com/news/20040915-0930

Number 30, August 27, 2004

“Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings…” (1 Peter 4:13)

Dear brothers and sisters! On August 21-22, an annual Christian service for representatives of the International Union of Churches of the Evangelical Christian Baptists (IUC ECB) was scheduled to take place in the town of Lyubuchany, Chekhov’s district in the Moscow region. Since 1991, such gatherings have been taking place in the Moscow region and they are characterized as peaceful religious services. In the past, the place for these services was provided either by private individuals or local authorities.
In the last several years, such meetings have been held most often in the Chekhov district of the Moscow region. As a rule, we have not inform the local authorities about the dates of upcoming meetings because these meetings are exclusively of a religious nature and are regulated by the Federal law of September 26, 1997, Number 125-F3 “On the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations”, as well as by the Federal law “On gatherings, meetings…” of June 19, 2004, Number 64-F3. Paragraphs 1-6 of Article 2 (general description) of this law allow us to affirm that our religious gatherings are not subject to any of these provisions, and therefore we consider the application of the given law as it relates to the mandatory written notification as groundless.
Thus, in the town of Lyubuchany, on private property belonging to our fellow believer V. L. Chekanov, which is away from residential homes, from August 17 – 20 a tent was erected to serve for an upcoming gathering within the confines of the privately owned land.
After arriving at the field, representatives of the local administration and a police chief, having learned of what was taking place and being satisfied with the answer, suggested that we write a letter of notification to the administration, referring to the fact that “we know you, but you still must observe the law, in particular the Federal law ‘On the gatherings, rallies, and demonstrations.’” Believers explained that our gatherings do not have any relation to rallies or demonstrations; they are conducted away from the public domain on private property. No demands are advanced to the government at these meetings and they are not used to form opinions on any socio-political issues. Rather, this is an ordinary Christian service, consisting of prayer, reading of the Bible and singing, which is purely religious in nature. Similar gatherings are regulated by the law “On the Freedom of Conscience…” and do not prescribe any requirement of notification to unregistered religious groups (Article 7, paragraph 1).
According to Article 14 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, religious associations are separate from the state, and therefore the local administration is not entitled to sanction or regulate religious activities. Evangelical Christian Baptists in our country are not a totalitarian sect, and we have never had an extremist slant. Our preaching is pure and holy, and our conduct, as a rule, exemplary. The government can exercise control over us, as [individual] citizens, as long as it is legitimate and lawful in nature, but the control over the church is not permissible at all.
It was clear that the administrators were simply looking for an excuse to disrupt our scheduled service. On August 20, 2004, the landowners – a Chekanov couple with many children – were summoned by the district police officer to the city Prosecutor’s Office to see S.A. Kryukov. There, in a note of explanation, V.A. Chekanov pointed out that the church in Lyubuchany had invited believers to conduct a religious service. Toward that end, they offered a plot on their field after cutting down tall grass.
After lunch on August 20, 2004 on the plot where believers were preparing to conduct a service, approximately 70-80 organizers of the event and guests were present. All of them became eyewitnesses of an unprecedented lawless action against believers. At approximately 6 p.m., a column of vehicles comprising police cars and vans, special vehicle and buses carrying riot police, fire trucks, emergency vehicles, ambulances, crane, tow-truck, and other plain cars with and without license plates, proceeded in a gloomy and endless row from the direction of the town toward the field where the tent was set. Everything appeared like a “psychological attack.” There were more than 30 cars with blue license plates (government and police) alone… Very soon people in camouflage uniforms, wearing helmets, machine guns, and gas masks, encircled the entire field in a tight ring. Explosives experts with dogs were combing through the area. There were also many people in plainclothes, some of them with television and video cameras, as well as scores of women and men in police uniform. A young Christian man attempted to take a picture and was immediately hit by a RUBOP soldier. His finger was dislocated, the camera taken away and the role of film exposed. The operation was directed by the chief of the OVD (The Department of the Interior) for the city of Chekhov, Colonel B.N. Zhukov, deputy chief of the Chekhov’s district administration, A. N. Pirkovsky, and a senior FSB official, A. I. Sergeyev. They presented believers the Instruction from the acting head of the Chekhov district’s administration dated August 20, 2004, Number 158-r “About measures to prevent the conduct of religious events in the town of Lyubuchany”, which for some reason was left without a signature and stamped with a dubious seal “For reference and copies”.
The Instruction prescribed anti-constitutional measures:
“1. To prohibit on the territory of the town of Lyubuchany the conduct of unsanctioned gatherings of religious nature…
2. To the chief of the Chekhov’s OVD… to prevent the conduct of these events… If necessary, conduct an evacuation of participants.”
Believers were ordered to dismantle the tent on their own and to carry away the pews and other items, but they did not agree to it because they considered the actions of the authorities to be illegal. Then workers, who suddenly appeared under the direction of A. N. Pirkovsky began to rapidly take apart the pews, ripping them from the foundation. Two dozen young police officers aided them in this work. The names of the believers were written down and they were escorted away one by one by police. Then, the believers were allowed to take personal belongings, and were ordered unto two buses, and taken 20 kilometers away to the city of Chekhov, where they were kept more than two hours before being released. That night, the brothers returned to the field. The workers tried not to damage the property, even though they did not always succeed. The pews and a part of the tarpaulin were loaded into trucks and driven away. No one bothered to file an Act about the removal of property, and no one counted the number of pews or other private property taken away. (Much later, on August 23 and 24, believers found these pews on the territory of state-owned factories in the town of Lyubuchany and the city of Chekhov. Some of the pews were broken, others sawed.) The tarpaulin off the foundation was taken down with the help of a crane and an automatic-elevator by the emergency soldiers. They worked until 2 am. When the chief was confronted regarding the ripped tarpaulin, he broke out in vulgar language, curses and threats. In general, that evening believers had to endure much humiliation, mockery, and threats. They were treated like criminals. A protocol was filed against the brother in charge of erecting the tent; he was not handed a copy of it.
By late that night, most of the uninvited guests had left. Only seven special vehicles remained with officials from the FSB, the crimes investigations unit, and a bus with riot police.
With the help of a tow-truck, they removed nearly all of the cars belonging to believers from the field. Many believers were waiting with concern and bewilderment for the morning – thousands of believers were on their way to the service…
At 6 am it became known that all of the roads to town were cordoned off by police. They were allowing through only those people who had local residency. Many people heading to dachas, in all likelihood did not manage to reach their plots that morning. The roads were congested with traffic jams several kilometers long. None of the highway police officers could offer a sensible explanation, just “We were given orders…” Someone leaked a rumor that a terrorist act was in the making.
Believers were nonetheless beginning to reach the site of the meeting: some coming across countryside roads, others coming on foot from the train station (approximately 3 miles away). By 8 am approximately 200 believers were already standing on the outskirts of the plot where the gathering was to take place, being confronted by a bus with the riot police. Police officers addressed believers crudely with cynic humiliation attempts and obscene language; thereafter, they unleashed truncheons, fists, and boots, if anyone said even a word.
This is in particular how they treated a senior minister of the Council of Churches, V.F. Ryzhuk. At 8:30 am, together with other believers, he arrived at the place of service. He was immediately accosted by a pair of plump men, demanding “Why did you come here?” “To pray!” “You are not going to pray to God here!” They refused to show any ID. And as soon as the senior minister said just a few words of prayer, “Lord, I thank You that I can be in this place…”, one of them twisted his left arm behind his back, and the second one grabbed him from the right side and pushed him into a “Zhiguli” and drove him away to a police station in the town of Stolbovoi. (In response to a question, “Who are these people?” – the police replied, we don’t know, but they are from the FSB”.) As a result of this treatment, Vasily Fedoseyevich suffered a clinical death, but in response to earnest prayers of God’s people was brought back to life, even though he remains hospitalized to this day.
The situation was becoming tense. Believers remained standing and singing without responding to rude treatment. While more people kept coming. It was impossible to hold back this endless flow… Thus, a service took place. Believers had both the moral and legal right to hold it. We are given by God the right to assemble for worship and prayer and to live in accordance with the Holy Scriptures without meddling in issues that God entrusted to the secular authorities, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
The service took place, but believers had to experience a substantial amount of humiliating treatment and threats! All stores in town, except for one, were ordered closed. For two hours the electricity was cut off for the entire town until authorities realized that the loud speakers and amplifiers were connected to autonomous power supply. In such a way, they were also forming a public opinion, implying that the people were suffering on account of the Baptists.
The waterline, which believers had connected from the nearest homes across the entire field to the place of water and food distribution, was also cut off. The days were hot, and everyone wanted to drink. For mothers with babies, a special place was set aside for breastfeeding in a small tent. Following the instructions of the chief of this operation, deputy chief of the UVD (Department of the Interior) of the Moscow region, Colonel V. I. Krykhin, the entrance to this tent was blocked by riot police; despite numerous requests and petitions, no one was allowed in on the first day. This official did not hesitate to identify himself, whereas others refused to do so.
During the entire two days, the service was held under constant pressure in conditions of siege by the army of the Interior Forces and the undesirable presence of nearly 150 police officers and secret agents, who were walking over the territory and in the tent itself while the service was taking place. They were smoking, swearing, and threatening others. From time to time they checked people’s documents; those who disagreed with them were taken away and detained in police cars and buses. Officers of the OVD (Interior) in plainclothes were video-taping the meeting and barely reacted to objections and prohibitions.
From everything observed, we have a number of questions to the organizers of this infringement against the rights of believers, which we would like to address to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation:

1. How should we consider the statement by a man dressed in plainclothes, who refused to identify himself (who was, ostensibly, one of the leaders of this operation), “Do you think that all of this is taking place without the consent of the President’s Administration?!”
2. To what extent were the actions of the authorities legal and legitimate?
3. Did the military and other unsolicited guests, as well as their vehicles, have the right to stay on private territory during the course of three days and two nights?
4. Did the authorities have the right to take apart a tent and arrest property without filing appropriate paperwork?
5. What was inside the special vehicles with tinted windows and what operation was planned that the soldiers of the Interior were there with gas masks?
6. How can such inhumane treatment by police toward children, mothers, youth, and the aged be explained?
7. Who will be held responsible for inflicting pain and suffering to believers and non-believers alike, as well as to the local residents, because the majority of them are outraged at the government’s actions?
8. Who will be held responsible for the lawlessness of the riot police, who assaulted the honor and dignity of citizens with impunity?

Therefore, despite the existence of a Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, another lawless and anti-constitutional action was undertaken against Evangelical Christian Baptist believers. If we consider that all of this was carried out with the consent of the President’s Administration, this causes us serious apprehension that the brief time of relative liberty of religion is disappearing. However, according to the Holy Scriptures, we will continue to pray for those in authority (1 Tim. 2:1-4), remaining in spiritual matters faithful to the Head of the Church – our Lord Jesus Christ.


Документ-источник данного документа:

  1. ОТДЕЛ ЗАСТУПНИЧЕСТВА МСЦ ЕХБ
    СООБЩЕНИЕ
    АНТИКОНСТИТУЦИОННАЯ АКЦИЯ ВЛАСТЕЙ ПРОТИВ МСЦ ЕХБ
    № 30, 27 августа 2004 г.