Believers of Protestant churches in the Novgorod region ask the governor to protect them from attacks by local media

On December 5, believers of the Protestant churches of the Novgorod region addressed the governor of the region, M.M. Prusak. The appeal expresses concern about "the prevailing religious atmosphere in the Novgorod region." According to the authors of the document, "its instability is indicated by repeated arson of houses of prayer, negative publications and reports that regularly appear in the Novgorod media." In particular, the indignation of the protesters was caused by one of the reports of the Slavia TV channel:

"... On December 4, 2006, the Slavia TV channel aired three times a report on the consecration of an Orthodox church in the village of Shimsk. As Christians, the believers of the Evangelical churches share the joy of the parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church on this occasion. However, in the report of Denis Bezrukov and Sergey Shcheglov, in addition to admiration for the new building, there were words about the uselessness of "the practically empty prayer house of sectarians." The illustration following these words indicated that by this they meant the church of evangelical Christians.

“Such statements,” the appeal says, “offend the religious feelings of evangelical Christians. Firstly, the building is called a prayer house, and a prayer house, the basis for which are the words of Holy Scripture “... for My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples” in the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 7. Also, in response to the statement that this is a sect, we can report that in Justice we received a certificate of registration of the church, the Christian Evangelical Church of the village of Shimsk, and not the sect, as the journalists claimed.

We hope that the Constitution of Russia is not just words, but a law that guarantees everyone the right to freely believe and satisfy their religious requirements without fear of being destroyed.

Dear Mr. Governor, we kindly ask you to pay attention to this problem."

Sources

• DOCUMENT: Appeal of the believers of the Protestant Churches of the Novgorod region to the Governor of the Novgorod region M.M. Prusak // Portal-Credo.ru. 2006. December 14. (With reference to the website of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists.)