A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 22 - Tuesday, June 1st, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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Russian government trying to revive soviet religious conditionsRPTsMP OPPOSES ABOLITION OF 15-YEAR "PROBATIONARY PERIOD" FOR RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS Portal-credo.ru, 28 May 2004 - The Russian Orthodox church considers it inappropriate to abolish the obligatory fifteen-year period of activity in Russia for a religious organization to get registration. "Rejection of it is completely unjustified," said Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill to a parliamentary hearing in the State Duma on 27 May, ITAR-TASS agency reports. The suggestion to abolish the obligatory fifteen-year period was proposed by a working group for the Commission on Question of Religious Associations of the government of the Russian federation. Metropolitan Kirill thinks that existing legislation does not infringe upon religious activity, with the exception of the right to gain the status of a legal entity. And that tax privileges and access to the army and television and much else could become an important lever for influence in society. Adoption of the amendment to existing law proposed by the working group, according to Metr. Kirill, could "energize new religious movements and groups, destabilize the interconfessional balance, and promote new tensions within society and the country." In his opinion, existing legislation "does not restrict religious activity in any way." Religious organizations that have not received registration in the Russian Ministry of Justice have the right to conduct worship services, engage in charitable activity, and the like. On the other hand, the Russian Orthodox church opposes removing tax privileges for religious organizations, a correspondent for the Newsru.com agency specified. In the metropolitan's opinion, the authors of such amendments to the Tax and Land codes "are going along the very channel of politics that destroyed the religious life of the country" in the soviet period. The metropolitan explained that "taxation leads to a narrowing of the sphere of activity of religious organizations and seriously impedes social service," which constitutes an important part of their work. Metropolitan Kirill also called the government not to oppose the introduction into the curriculum of secondary schools the fundamentals of the culture of traditional religious organizations. "We are talking about a culturological subject," the metropolitan explained, noting that "the nation should not be deprived of the right of studying its culture." (tr. by PDS) NUMBER OF
REGISTERED RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFESSIONS
GIVEN IN PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS ON IMPROVEMENT OF
LEGISLATION OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE Religiia i SMI, 27 May 2004 - There are more than 21,000 registered religious organizations in Russia from 59 different confessions. This information was presented by the deputy minister of justice Evgeny Sidorenko, speaking Thursday in the State Duma at parliamentary hearings organized by the Committee on Affairs of Public Associations and Religious Organizations on the topic: "Improvement of the legislation on freedom of conscience and religious organizations--practice of implementation and problems and the way to solution." The representative of the Ministry of Justice also reported that in the current year more than 2,000 inspections of the activity of religious organizations were conducted, as a result of which 1900 notifications about various violations by them of existing legislation were sent and 246 petitions were sent to courts requesting the liquidation of a number of religious organizations.
"After decades of state atheism, the legislative
bases have been created in the country for freedom
of conscience and religious confession,
specifically," the speaker noted, "and a favorable
tax system has been created which has permitted
returning to the church many religious monuments
that had been alienated in the years of soviet
rule." According to E. Sidorenko, in the past
decade more than 4,0000 monuments and more than
15,000 different museum exhibits were returned to
the church. (tr. by PDS) |
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