Baptists in Russian city claim bureaucrats restricting religious freedom

MOSCOW (ABP) -- Baptists in the city of Lipetsk, Russia, claim local authorities are using bureaucratic methods to restrict their activity.

The provincial capital 235 miles southeast of Moscow has in recent years become a focal point of tension between Russian Orthodox and Baptist Christians.

According to Forum 18, a Norway-based news service that monitors religious freedom, two local congregations recently lost legal status for allegedly failing to file tax returns on time -- a charge that Baptist leaders strongly deny. A third lost its rented worship space for failing to have a representative appear at a court hearing that congregation members claim they weren't informed about.

"Soon there won't be a single Baptist church in Lipetsk!" exclaimed a Nov. 28 headline on the Forum 18 website.

Vitaly Vlasenko, director of external church relations for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, said it is obvious that government officials in Lipetsk are partial to the Orthodox, but he personally does not believe events there represent a campaign aimed specifically at local Baptists.

Vlasenko said the processes of registration, documentation and taxation for churches have become entangled in bureaucracy, and that issues once settled through negotiation with government officials now often wind up in court.

Most Russian Baptist congregations have neither made the effort nor had the funds to hire bookkeepers and lawyers in the past, Vlasenko said, but now they must focus on including such safeguards.

The Russian Baptist union said in a recent news release that tensions between religious groups may revolve largely around money. In 1989, Lipetsk city leaders handed over the former Orthodox Church of the Trinity's Conception for Baptists to renovate and use for worship. Four years later, officials reversed the decision and ordered Baptists to return the building to Orthodox officials in exchange for appropriate compensation.

The Orthodox side did not agree to compensation and accused the Baptists of seizing an Orthodox sanctuary. The 100-member Baptist congregation has said they are willing to return the building for monetary compensation for improvements to the building or use of another building of comparable size and value.

In April the city decreed the Baptists must give up the building without compensation. Officials dissolved the congregation as a legal entity, claiming the church neglected to file required tax statements.

Vladimir Ilovaisky, the church's pastor, accused local officials of deceit. "We have always handed in our tax reports on time," he said. "If we are guilty of something, then tax offices should inform us accordingly or levy a fine. They have instead taken away our legal status."

Ilovaisky said the Baptists "are not barbarians" and would not resort to defending the building by force, but still hoped for a settlement through legal means.

Not all residents of Lipetsk have shown as much restraint. On Nov. 4 about 200 marchers took part in an annual procession from Lipetsk's central Orthodox cathedral to the outlying Trinity Church now used by Baptists.

The event celebrated National Unity Day, a state holiday introduced in 2005 to commemorate Russia's 1612 expulsion of invading Polish and Lithuanian forces. In recent years, the day has become a forum for demonstrations by nationalist and far-right activists.

Two nights after the march, 28 windows of the Baptist-run structure were broken by vandals thought to be members of the nationalist Slavic Union.