Ideologists from Clergy :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus took over the relay baton from Georgia, which was the first on the ex-Soviet space to sign concordance on cooperation between the state and the main religious denomination. Belarusian ministries and ruling bodies have few days left to work out cooperation plans with the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

So, there came true the worst fears of the opponents of the new legislation “On the freedom of conscience and religious organizations”, who supposed that the provisions of the new law enable one religion to become dominant in the country. At the meetings with representatives of the Orthodox Synod in December last year Alexander Lukashenko declared that the country’s leadership “will always uphold religious and public organizations, whose activities are beneficial to the state”. After these words everyone realized at last, what he meant by saying that. Moreover, the president called the construction of Orthodox temples to be one of the key priorities in the country’s cultural life.

“Personal contacts” between the church and the Interior Ministry had been legitimized in late 90ies, when the Belarusian eparchy and police brass signed a deal, allowing the chaplains to hold ministries on the spiritual and moral development of the interior forces enlisted personnel.

At the same time representatives of the Union of Evangelical Christians tried to give Bible lessons to the conscripts. However, they were denied this opportunity on the level of military units’ commanders and garrisons. Now the Union’s chairman Sergei Khomich fears that following a ratification of the agreement between the state and the Orthodox Church other denominations may be stripped of their right, enjoyed over the past ten years, to cooperate with the penitentiary institutions, child asylums and old people’s homes.

Believers from other denominations seriously fear that this may lead to a situation, which existed in the Russian empire before the year 1905, when one could get imprisoned for the term of up to three years for alleged “seducing from Orthodoxy”.

Alexander Lukashenko has already put all dots over I’s by stressing that the “wholeness of the church is a key to the wholeness of our society and safety of our state”.