New Life Full Gospel Church Minsk, Belarus

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New Life Full Gospel Church Minsk, Belarus
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(No Transcript)
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Belarus

• Former Soviet Republic, gained independence in
  1991
• Area 80,134 sq miles (207,600 sq km)
  Population 9.7 mln
• Long and painful past (constant wars every 4th
  died during WWII) and hard reality (Chernobyl)
• Average Life Expectancy M - 56-57 yrs,
• F - 61-62 (48 of men die before pension)
• 3rd place in Europe in abortion
• 1st place in Europe in divorce rate
• Average monthly salary - 150 250
• (30 of the population live below poverty
• line)
• 33,000 institutionalised orphans

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Church Under Communism

• No home churches allowed neighbours spying for
  KGB
• Illegal services, heavy fines and imprisonment
• Children could be taken away to be free from
  anti-Soviet propaganda
• Baptisms and other rites were done secretly
• Bibles, Psalm books, religious literature was
  hand copied
• Prohibition of any forms of social activity,
  including charity
• No access to Universities or highly paid jobs
  Christians were considered 2nd class citizens
• Libelling in media Protestants are swindlers,
  involved in some shady business funded by the
  West, or spying for CIA, and have human
  sacrifices
• Baptist or Pentecostal swear words

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Church in Post-Communism Era

• Since 1990, the number of Protestant
  congregations, registered and unregistered, has
  more than doubled
• Officially Registered Religious Communities in
  Belarus Orthodox 1351 Roman Catholic 439
  Protestant 966 Muslim 27 Jewish 24.
• In Belarus, there are more than 100,000
  Evangelical Christians

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New Life Church

• began in 1991 from a group of young people from
  an underground Pentecostal church (pastors
  father had been imprisoned for his faith)

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Small beginnings

• The official birth of the church is June 17,
  1992 - the first water baptism and first
  communion. By the end of 1992 the church had 300
  members

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New Life Now

• has more than 1000 adults and over 300 children
• has 10 branch churches all over Belarus and
  beyond with total number of 300 members
• has 30 various ministries,
• inc. orphans, prison, etc.
• The Senior Pastor is
• Slava Goncharenko

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Current Government Views

• "I want the Orthodox Church to be an institution
  of our state and one of its main supporters."
• "Some members of the opposition, instigated by
  foreign minions, make provocative suggestions
  about narrowing the sphere of activities of
  traditional religions, primarily the Orthodox
  Church, for the benefit of various sects and
  religions that are nontraditional in this
  country.
• President Lukashenko (professing Orthodox
  atheist),
• October 2004

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Protestants are a Sect Cult

• Publications of anti-Protestant articles, anti-
  sectarian programmes on TV, Belarusian Orthodox
  Church sells anti-Catholic and Anti-Semitic
  literature
• The Ministry of Education uses the textbook "Man,
  Society, and State," which labels Protestants as
  "sects". They claim the word "sect" is a
  "scientific" word, and therefore it does not
  label Protestants as antisocial.

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Present Laws on Religion

• The Constitution of Belarus declares the equality
  of all religions. However, the current special
  legislation is predominately oriented towards
  Orthodoxy. Protestant churches are not taken into
  account at all.
• No church can rent a public auditorium without
  the governments consent.
• To pray, take communion or read the Bible in
  private homes a group of people more than 3 (i.e.
  home groups, your own family) must require prior
  permission from local authorities.
• No church can have a service in its own building
  without obtaining a prior permission (New Life
  Churchs case).
• No church can have any activity in another town
  or village (i.e. churches activities are
  restricted only to the place where they are
  registered).

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Present Laws on Religion (cont.)

• Meetings without prior written permission are
  only allowed at crematories, graveyards,
  pilgrimage sites and officially authorised church
  buildings by the state.
• Street evangelism is illegal without an obtained
  permission in each case.
• It is practically impossible to register a new
  church, thus making it illegal from the very
  start. A new church must have over 20 people and
  have a special public auditorium building for it
  to be registered (i.e. registration impossible
  for village churches).
• Being a part of unregistered church leadership is
  penalized by up to 2 years of imprisonment.
• A Church can be closed if it is given 2 warnings
  by the state in 12 months.
• Any violation of these laws is seriously punished
  
• (For the last 12 months 4 churches have been
  closed. Pastors and leaders of various
  denominations are being fined and imprisoned)

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• New Life Church in Minsk, a member of the
  Union of Full Gospel Churches, might be
  forcefully closed because authorities refuse to
  register the congregation at the cow barn it owns
  and wishes to use as a place of worship. New Life
  Church, known as the "cowshed church," bought the
  barn and its surrounding property three years
  ago. The church began to meet there after denied
  permission to rent anywhere else. Local
  authorities, however, refuse to allow New Life to
  convert the building, change how the cowshed is
  registered, or allow the church to meet in the
  building as is. Therefore, New Life Church has no
  place to worship and no place to register, making
  all church activities illegal. New Life's pastor
  and other leaders have received large fines for
  holding illegal services, technically for
  violating laws on assembly. At the same time,
  authorities permit a Belarusian Orthodox Church
  community to meet without disturbance in a
  converted railcar less than a mile away.
• (International Religious Freedom Report 2006
  by US Dept of State, http//www.state.gov/g/dr
  l/rls/irf/2006/71370.htm)

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New Life is searching for a place to meet (1999
2003)

• Due to restrictions in legislation, we were
  forced to leave the building we were renting and
  try to have services in any public auditorium we
  could find,

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• in car parks and woods,

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• anywhere in the city (near an attraction park,
  etc.).

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• Then when we couldnt have church on our own, we
  joined with other churches and held open air
  monthly prayer meetings called We Are Praying,
  And It Will Get Better till we couldnt do it
  any longer.

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• We were determined not to give up whatever the
  weather

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• One never knew when and where they would be next
  Sunday
• But finally we had to accept we needed a place to
  have church. So we bought an ex-cow barn. The
  authorities knew we were going to build a church
  there.

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• The building was in such poor state we couldnt
  use it. We started negotiations with authorities
  regarding getting permission to build a church on
  the site of the cow barn. The permission has not
  been granted and the church had to renovate the
  old cow barn. Meanwhile, we had a temporary (14
  months) home on our property, till a hurricane
  torn it to pieces.

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• After that, the only place where we could gather,
  was the old cow barn

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• We started gathering there and renovating the
  building by faith. See where it brought us to

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New Life Case

• The authorities have denied the church the right
  to have services in its own building and refused
  to authorise the usage of the ex-cow barn as a
  church building. An official who issued the
  permission at one point, was fired. The church
  was given six warnings for holding unsanctioned
  religious services (2 are enough for the church
  to be closed). New Life has had regular visits
  from sanitary inspectors, fire service, police
  and even SWAT teams trying to stop illegal
  services.
• Finally, in August 2005 the Mayors Office of
  Minsk passed a verdict, forcing the church to
  sell its building due to inappropriate usage
  for 17,000 (not enough to buy a 1-room flat in
  Minsk).
• The church appealed to all Courts,
• including the Supreme Economic Court,
  and the President, but to no avail
• Police at New Life service

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WHY?

• The church was sold the cow barn by Minsk Region
  Committee. The city spread, and in a years time
  after its sale the building came under the
  jurisdiction of the Minsk Executive Council, with
  the price of the land raising sufficiently. The
  authorities claimed they needed this land to
  build a school and a day care centre.
• However, as it became clear, the real purpose for
  their claiming back this land (worth of 800,000
  according to recent estimates) was to sell it to
  private hands for the construction of individual
  houses.
• The authorities fail to
• explain what law
• the church broke.
• The church building and nearby houses
• under construction

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Present Situation

• The authorities threaten to transfer 17,000 to
  New Lifes account this week. If it happens, in
  10 days after that we will be forced to leave the
  building. As we consider all the acts of the
  government in regards to our building unlawful,
  we are not going to agree with that and volunteer
  to give it back. The authorities may try to take
  it back by force. Our only hope in this situation
  is on the Lord.

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How can you help?

• Please pray updates on the churchs website at
  www.newlife.by
• Please forward this presentation to people you
  know or to your MP/Senator. If you know people in
  Mass Media, we would appreciate if you would let
  them know as well.
• Write a letter or get your home group/your church
  to write a letter signed by many people in
  support of New Life. It can me mailed to
  Administration of the President of the Republic
  of Belarus, 38, K. Marx St., 220016, Minsk,
  Belarus. Please e-mail a copy of your letter to
  us at mail_at_newlife.by Thank you so much!
• Your voice can REALLY make a difference!