Church land ownership getting tougher in Russia

MOSCOW — Protestant communities and other religious confessions in Russia are facing increasing obstruction from state authorities about building a place of worship.

For example, a protracted series of discussions and protests have still not enabled Moscow’s Emmanuel Pentecostal Church to either obtain a new construction site or official rights to the land beneath a building it owns.

Protestants are reporting suspicions that local Orthodox clergy are instrumental in blocking Protestant construction plans, through private discussions between state officials and local Orthodox clergy.

The Volga city of Saratov refused Word of Life Pentecostal Church permission to put an advertisement on its own outside wall, “on the basis of letter No. 490 dated 19 April 2005 from the Saratov diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Protestant communities also often speak of lengthy and energy-consuming battles to retain worship premises they acquire.