Tuesday 13 October PERM PENTECOSTALS RESIST FORCED REGISTRATION by Roman Lunkin, Keston News Service In a controversy which could set a major precedent for Russia's most independent-minded religious minorities, the plenipotentiary ('upolnomochenny') for church-state relations in a city in Perm oblast about 850 miles east of Moscow is demanding that a Pentecostal congregation undergo formal state registration even though the congregation would prefer to remain unregistered. Backed by the local priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, the plenipotentiary continues to press his demand even though the local procuracy recently dropped all formal charges against the congregation. The Pentecostal congregation in the city of Osa, affiliated with the Russian Association of Christian Missions of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, has chosen to organise itself as a so- called 'religious group' rather than as a 'religious organisation'. Under Russia's 1997 law restoring state control over religious life, only 'religious organisations' must be registered and only they have the formal status of 'legal personalities' with the right to own or rent property. The Russian Association of Christian Ministries has a registered centre in Perm city, the capital of Perm oblast, but as a matter of basic theological principle it refuses to seek state registration of its local congregations. Several months ago Osa's official city newspaper launched a series of articles attacking the Osa congregation led by pastor VALERI MENSHIKOV. The articles, the authors of which included officials of the local administration and procuracy, accused the Pentecostals of being a closed 'sect', of subjecting people to psychological pressures and of tearing them away from society. The newspaper refused to give the Pentecostals a chance to respond. One official of the procuracy, LILIYA SELIVANOVA, insisted in one of the articles that the congregation must undergo formal registration because it had more than ten members. In response to a complaint from the mother of a 24-year old girl, the procuracy conducted an investigation of the group's activities-but Selivanova confirmed in an interview with Keston that this investigation found no evidence of illegal activities. In order to normalise its relations with the administration, Selivanova told Keston, Menshikov's congregation would now be required only to reach a new agreement on the rental of its place of worship; the Perm centre of the Christians of the Evangelical Faith could act as the formal party to this agreement, she said, since the local congregation lacked the formal status of a 'legal personality' and thus did not itself have the right to conclude contracts. In addition to this, the procuracy had to be convinced that Menshikov was indeed legally authorised by the Perm centre to act on its behalf; Selivanova satisfied herself of this on 5 October. She also withdrew her previous demand for formal registration, since, as she put it, she did not find in the 1997 law any specifications about how large or small the membership of a 'religious group' must be. Selivanova said that the press campaign against the Pentecostal congregation had not been conducted under pressure from the city administration, but rather the main role had been played by personal appeals from citizens and by the 'anti-sect' position of the local Orthodox priest. But the head of the Pentecostals' Perm centre, ALEKSANDR VASECHKIN, expressed a quite different view. He told Keston that the local authorities prefered not to act by legal methods, and that the so-called 'appeals from citizens' were false and had been inspired by the Osa city administration. The Directorate of Justice, he said, had warned him that if and when his centre received reregistration the territory on which it would be specifically authorised to operate would include only the city of Perm rather than the entire oblast. Vasechkin said that the local authorities did not accept the Pentecostals' view that it was necessary to distinguish between a local, independent religious group and the centre of the Christians of the Evangelical Faith and were annoyed by the fact that the charter of the Perm centre did not reflect their opinion. The Pentecostals believe that the organisation of the Perm centre and its relations with local religious groups were their own internal affair, he said. Menshikov, the head of the Osa congregation, told Keston that although the procuracy was no longer publicly denouncing the group, pressures were still coming only from the local administration. He said that the head of the administration, the plenipotentiary for church-state relations and the local Orthodox priest were determined to expel the Pentecostal congregation from Osa. The congregation now had more than 60 members and had begun to build its own prayer house, he said--but it refused to seek formal registration because this was a fundamental principle of the Association of Christian Missions. Osa's Orthodox priest, ARKHIMANDRITE VENIAMIN TREPALYUK, expressed strongly negative views about the very existence of the Pentecostal congregation. He told Keston that though legal ways to liquidate this 'sect' had not yet been found, 'not everything is so simple'. He said that the procurator had promised again to resolve this matter. The administration for too long had failed to concern itself with the activities of the 'sectarians', he said. The Osa city plenipotentiary for relations with religious organisations, ALEKSANDR OKHOZIN, denied that he had any connection with the press campaign against the Pentecostal congregation. In an interview with Keston he said that Menshikov's group would have to agree to a rental contract in which the legal personality would be the Perm centre--and then all documents would be in order. But even then, he insisted, the Pentecostal congregation could not be considered a mere religious group since the new law and the commentaries thereon stated that more than ten people were needed to form a religious organisation. If the Pentecostals continued to fail to apply for state registration, he said, 'we will consider that they have violated the law'. Asked by Keston why the procuracy interpreted the law differently, he replied that this was their problem. He said that ignorance of the law by the Pentecostals or their deliberate disobedience of it would not spare them from its application. 'Of course I am not Pontius Pilate, but I wash my hands of this,' he said. Asked by Keston to comment on the plenipotentiary's view, State Duma aide LEV LEVINSON categorically stated that Okhozin's demand that the religious group be registered 'grossly violates the existing law; it is inconsistent with both the old law on freedom of conscience and new 1997 law'. If a religious congregation had more than ten members, he said, then it might voluntarily choose to seek registration and obtain the rights of a legal personality - but nobody had the right to force it to be registered. (END)