Baptist Church in Lipetsk – Most Secure Location for the Defusing of Explosives

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Police choose Baptist churchyard for bomb search

M o s c o w – On 6 August, city authorities chose the grounds of a Baptist church in Lipetsk south-east of Moscow for the bomb search of a local city bus. On that Monday morning the bus and a group of police and security officials arrived just as the congregation`s pastor and a colleague were standing in the churchyard. Church pastor Vladimir Boyev reported later that the unwelcome, surprise visit was completely unannounced. Entrance to the church building was immediately sealed off. Pastor Boyev`s unsuspecting wife, who arrived later, was arrested and taken to a police station prior to her release. She had expressed the desire to remove supplies from the building intended for a church-sponsored vacation camp.

It soon became clear that the sniffer hounds had been mistaken – the suspicious package contained nothing more than laundry soap. The all-clear signal was given and the security forces retreated. Local radio reported shortly thereafter: “The defusing of a city bus occurred at the most secure location of all – the grounds of the Church of the Holy Trinity.” No thank you or word of apology was ever offered by police officials.

A staff member at headquarters of the Baptist Union in Moscow asks: „Why did they not do their inspection in an open field, at a garbage depot or on the grounds of an unused factory? It is unthinkable that such a check would take place in the vicinity of an Orthodox church. I believe they wanted to make clear that Baptists are an inferior social group”

A press release from the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) reports of discrimination and calls the incident illegal and “simply absurd”. The Lipetsk congregation has suffered repeatedly from tensions with local authorities.

Dr. William Yoder

Department for External Church Relations, RUECB

Moscow, 31 August 2007

baptistrelations@yandex.ru