SMOLENSK, Russia — Because a United Methodist congregation in the western city of Smolensk has a Sunday School that is attended by four children, the Smolensk Regional Court dissolved the church March 24, the church’s pastor Aleksandr Vtorov said.
The court agreed with the Regional Organized Crime Police that the Methodists were breaking the law by conducting "educational activity in a Sunday School without a corresponding license." Investigation into the congregation began after a complaint from local Russian Orthodox bishop Ignati Punin. It originally focused on a planned missionary college and then switched to the Sunday School. Vladimir Ryakhovsky of the Moscow-based Slavic Center for Law and Justice fears the Methodist congregation’s liquidation increases the threat to other religious education. "Almost every religious organization has a Sunday School," he said. "I don’t know of one that has a separate education license. Do they intend to liquidate them all?" Elsewhere, adult religious education without a license has already led to raids and enforced closures.
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