Timeline:
Growing Anti-Missionary Sentiments and Restrictions

November 1993

• Mayors in Kazan and Naberezhnyye Chelny, in Russia's Tatar Republic, ban the use of public buidings by religious groups.

• Ukrainian legislators pass amendment which states "clergymen, religious preachers, teachers, other representatives of foreign organizations who are foreign citizens and come to visit temporarily in Ukraine may preach religious doctrines, administer religious ordinances, or practice other canonic activities only in those religious organizations which invited them to come to Ukraine and with official approval of the governmental body that has registered the statutes."

• In an interview, Patriarch Alexei II calls for "a state Act ... to regulate activities of all these preachers in our country."

• Foreign missionaries in Ukraine report an increase in the difficulty of obtaining residence visas.

• Amendments to the current law on religion under discussion within the Russian government.
• The government of Uzbekistan threatens Christian and other non-Muslim groups  with loss of legal status for evangelism of Muslims or distribution of literature in Uzbek.

• International Christian Seminar on "Totalitarian Cults in Russia" meets in Moscow. The final document of the seminar affirms the right of all religious movements  to exist "which in their practice do not infringe upon the basic human rights, the institutions of the family and society and its laws, and which do not appeal, whether directly or indirectly, to hatred or to the service of evil." The statement calls for additional changes in legislation on religion in Russia and the formation of an interdenominational commission to regulate religious programs and education in state schools and institutes.
• Moscow's Christian Legal Center holds briefing for parachurch organizations on draft laws that would limit the activities of foreign missionaries.

• Conference on "Christian Faith and Human Enmity" takes place in Moscow with representatives of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic, and Buddhist communities. The final document states "in order to make Christian efforts towards the common good coordinated and open for discussion by Christians of various confessions and to help solve problems and resolve possible disputes among Christians, we have agreed to establish a mechanism of inter-Christian cooperation working on a regular basis. It can include the Christian churches and religious bodies which have traditionally served in the CIS and the Baltic countries."
• Twenty-five deputies of the Moscow City Duma sign appeal to the mass media requesting greater caution in giving access to preachers and representatives of religious sects.
• Armenian president Levon Petrossian issues a decree restricting religious activities because non-registered institutions and foreign organizations are "ruining the moral and psychological climate."
• Rossiiskaya Gazeta publishes article alleging that the United States has sent spies to Russia posing as Methodist missionaries.
• April draft law on religion becomes public. Would allow government to establish regulatory council and would limit foreign religious organizations to activity approved by an affiliated Russian religious organization.
• Russia State Duma discusses and rejects a draft law on property rights of religious organizations which also would have restricted the rights of foreign religious workers.
• Police in Uzbekistan evict a Russian charismatic church and two Korean churches from public buildings in Tashkent.
• After threats to Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Seventh-day Adventist churches, skinheads hold worshippers captive at a Church of God in Rousse, Bulgaria. Seven church members severely beaten.

• Vladimir Zhirinovsky pledges to stop Western religious organizations from operating in Russia if he is elected president.

• Two days after the election of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, authorities warn visiting missionaries not to preach.
• Operation Mobilization cancels evangelistic event scheduled for August 3 in Barna, Bulgaria, because of "the shrinking religious freedom in Bulgaria."

• The government of Bulgaria denies legal status to over 20 religious organizations, including Scripture Union and Gideons International.

• Word of pending changes in the law spreads through the foreign religious community in Russia. Parliament member Gleb Yakunin calls for Western protest of the law. Others fearful of the changes, nevertheless question the advisability of Western public protest.

• President Boris Yeltsin meets with Patriarch Alexei II to discuss state support for restoration of churches, and the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the privatization of historical buildings. 

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© 1994 Institute for East-West Christian Studies
ISSN 1069-5664