wfn.org | Church Leader Dismisses Claims

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

17-September-1997 
97355 
 
    Church Leader Dismisses Claims That New Russian Law 
    Is Too Restrictive 
 
    by Stephen Brown 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
GENEVA--Metropolitan Kirill, one of the Russian Orthodox Church's most 
senior officials, has dismissed suggestions that controversial legislation 
being considered by the Russian parliament will restrict religious freedom 
in Russia. 
 
    Speaking to journalists Sept. 11 in Geneva, where he is attending the 
Central Committee meeting of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Kirill 
claimed that if the legislation were passed, new religious organizations -- 
even worshipers of "arctic penguins," he added ironically -- would be able 
to carry out most of their religious activities unhindered. 
 
    They would have the right "to celebrate worship, hold processions, 
publish books, teach adults and children," Kirill said, but for 15 years 
they would not be registered with the state authorities, which would mean 
that they would not be able to own property in Russia.  Critics of the 
proposed legislation have suggested that the probationary period would 
severely limit the rights of new religious organizations. 
 
    "If, during 15 years, it becomes clear that penguin worshipers do not 
put bombs in public palaces, do not kidnap children from their parents and 
do not break up families, then they have the right to be registered 
legally," he said.  Kirill is head of the Department of External Church 
Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. 
 
    The original version of the bill, strongly supported by the Russian 
Orthodox Church, was approved in June by an overwhelming majority in both 
chambers of the Russian parliament. However, the bill was vetoed in July by 
President Boris Yeltsin after widespread protests from abroad and from 
minority religious organizations inside Russia, saying that the bill would 
restrict their activities.  Last week, President Yeltsin sent a revised 
version of the bill to the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. 
 
    Kirill said that the bill had now been revised in two main respects. 
The preamble to the bill now mentioned "Christianity" rather than simply 
Orthodoxy as being one of Russia's religious traditions, alongside 
Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, and the provision which required a 15-year 
probationary period before a new religious organization could be registered 
with the state authorities would not be applied as rigorously to religious 
bodies already established in Russia as to new groups. 
 
    Kirill was strongly critical of outside intervention when "Bill 
[Clinton] wrote to Boris [Yeltsin]" urging him not to sign the original 
legislation which Kirill described as being more "liberal" than laws 
governing religion in a number of other European countries.  "The new law 
is so liberal it will prove to be ineffective," Kirill said, suggesting 
that it would "not be able to stop anything in Russia." 
 
    Pressed by journalists to explain why the Russian Orthodox Church was 
backing "ineffective" legislation, Kirill said that the proposed 
legislation set down criteria "to help people separate genuine religious 
activity from an activity which is dangerous for society." 
 
    He pointed to the "great numbers of missionaries arriving in Russia 
today" whose combined budgets amounted to $150 million a year.  This 
amounted to "five times the budget of the Russian Orthodox Church," Kirill 
said.. 
 
     "They can buy everything they want. They can buy journalists who 
disinform the world public opinion, buy TV time and buy property. This law 
attempts to protect society from this invasion from abroad." 

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