Officials disrupt churchgoers at Belarusian camp

MINSK, Belarus — Soldiers in Belarus recently disrupted a group of families staying at a private campsite, loaded the group members on a bus and transported them the 48 miles back to Minsk under police escort. The families, most of whom are members of a number of Minsk’s charismatic churches, were told on their second day at the campsite that their gathering breached health and safety rules and then were herded onto an “inadequate” bus “like criminals.”

As the gathering was not an official church event and the campsite was on the grounds of a house owned by church members, “we didn’t think we had to get permission for it,” said Andrei Froklihin of Word of Faith Church. And while he thought the campsite could have been criticized in some respects, Froklihin emphasized that participants have yet to be given any written explanation for the disruption or charged with any violation. “We still don’t know the official reasons for it.”