Minsk, Belarus - Church of Saint Mary Magdalene (18th century)

MINSK, Belarus—At a press conference held in Minsk on November 30, officials of the Belarusian State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs announced the final results of two-year compulsory re-registration under the republic’s 2002 religion law. The re-registration process itself, they maintained, had “positive influenced the activity of religious organizations and assisted both further development of church-state relations and respect for citizens’ rights to freedom of conscience and belief.”

According to the State Committee’s official press release received by Forum 18 News Service, the total number of local religious organizations that passed re-registration was 2,677 out of a possible 2,783.

While 106 communities therefore failed to obtain re-registration, the State Committee claims that the level of re-registration across Belarus was “over 99 per cent” by including 84 of their number since they reportedly voluntarily submitted applications for liquidation. Such requests for “self-liquidation”, states the press release, were “motivated by the de facto disintegration of the religious organization before the start of the re-registration process due to believers moving to another place of residence or to the founders of a religious organization ceasing to participate in its activity.”

Thus, since they either re-registered or requested “self-liquidation”, the State Committee claims that the Belarusian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Old Believer, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, New Apostolic, Judaic and Muslim confessions all fully re-registered. (According to the Committee’s criteria, the Church of Christ, Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and Latin-rite Catholics also fully re-registered, but they are not mentioned.) Of the 84 local religious communities that reportedly requested liquidation, the press release mentions 61 by confession - 11 Orthodox, three Old Believer, four Roman Catholic, 17 Baptist and 26 Pentecostal. Of the remaining 23, State Committee official Aleksandr Kalinov accounted for 19 when providing Forum 18 with preliminary figures on 16 November - eight Full Gospel, four Muslim, two Jewish, two Lutheran, one Church of Christ, one Baha’i and one Mormon.

The influence of militant atheism on officials is strong, and close supervision by officials of religious communities is an integral part of central state policy.

According to the State Committee’s November 30 press release, 22 religious communities are not re-registered to date. It claims that five do not have a valid legal address, two have less than minimum membership, six do not have statutes corresponding to the requirements of the 2002 religion law, four did not apply, three are still being considered and two no longer exist. From information obtained so far from state and religious representatives in Belarus, Forum 18 calculates these 22 to include ten Baptist, three Full Gospel, two Pentecostal, two Calvinist, one Messianic Jewish and two Krishna Consciousness communities.

Non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox churches were in 2003 effectively banned from re-registering.

Speaking to Forum 18 on November 22, the general secretary to the Belarusian Baptist Union said that all of his organization’s member communities that wished to re-register had done so, “whether with or without difficulty”. Viktor Kryuchko also claimed that the Union did not compile data, so he was unable to tell Forum 18 even approximately how many had not wished to re-register. However, he stressed that if these communities encountered state harassment, the Union would intercede for them and publicize details.