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Last year, there was an uptick in fines to Protestants and fellow religious minorities in the region annexed from Ukraine.
Since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014—one of the central points of conflict in the current clash between the two countries—Protestant Christians in the territory have faced greater government penalties for practicing their faith.
Like elsewhere in Russia, meeting together to sing and read Scripture or letting others know about a church gathering puts believers at risk under a strict 2016 anti-evangelism law. Last year, authorities prosecuted 23 cases of such activity in Crimea, up from 13 the year before, according to Forum 18, which tracks religious freedom violations in the region.
Evangelical Protestants in Crimea received the most penalties. At least nine people from Pentecostal, Baptist, and other Protestant churches were fined for “missionary activity.”
Four of those cases involved members of the Potter’s House, a Protestant congregation in Sevastopol, a southern port and the largest city in Crimea. Pastor Evgenii Kornev leads efforts to proclaim the gospel online and in the streets; his Twitter feed features clips of an Easter procession and service, new home Bible groups, ministry to former drug addicts, and open-air evangelism. Even when Kornev came down with COVID-19, he continued to preach over video.
But that activity has also gotten his church in trouble. Kornev and fellow pastor Aleksey Smirnov were fined in 2021 for leading services. One of the Potter’s House members, Ivan Nemchinov, was fined twice for performing music, praying, and participating in church gatherings, in part because authorities were tipped off by YouTube and social media posts.
The Christians tried to appeal the charges, but none of the cases brought by the Police Center for Countering ...
Continue reading... Umn ministry Chennai
from Christianity Today Magazine
Umn ministry
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