English
Archbishop Artemy: Spiritual Testament
To His Holiness Kirill Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ From Archbishop Artemy of Hrodna and Vaŭkavysk REPORT 9 June 2021 No. 9-621/1 Your Holiness! I consider it necessary to address you with explanation of my position in the context of recent events in the social and political life of Belarus. On 9 August 2020, presidential […]
“It reminds me of ISIS”. The Briton talks about his collaboration with the St. Elizabeth Convent
Tell us a few words about yourself and your way to Orthodox Christianity? My name is Steve Lacey, I have worked in advertising and communications for a number of years. I’m disabled, having what’s called a “lobster hand”, which looks like a hook, a missing fibula and a shortening of my tibia. I also have […]
Forum 18. BELARUS: Seven fined for talking about Easter in street
Olga Glace and Felix Corley Seven Protestants were fined about 2 months’ average wages each for talking to others on a Minsk street about Easter. Police arrested and handcuffed the seven, took them to a police station, and held them for about eight hours. No official would explain why they did this. Similarly, regime officials […]
Icons of the Belarusian revolution: a conversation with Xisha Aniolawa, the artist
Ksenija Anhielava, also known under the artistic pseudonym of Xisha Aniolava. Born on September 12, 1975 in Miensk. In 1996 she graduated from the theater school of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts. An actress, a radio host, and an artist; a mother of two children, Xisha has been painting since 2011. You can find […]
Forum 18. BELARUS: Rent hikes, suspicious fire, enforced church closure, expulsion anniversary
8 March 2023Olga Glace, Forum 18 The regime terminated unlimited, free of charge rental agreements with at least four Catholic churches still in state hands. It claimed that, in exchange for signing a new agreement to pay rent, the churches will eventually be allowed to resume using their historical buildings rent-free. «We were told that […]
Forum 18. BELARUS: Religious freedom survey, January 2023
26 January 2023Olga Glace, Forum 18, and John Kinahan, Forum 18 Forum 18’s freedom of religion and belief survey analysis of Belarus notes continuing violations of this freedom and of interlinked freedoms. These include a web of «legal» restrictions on which communities can meet, where, who they are led by, and what literature they may […]
The Christian Vision Group’s Statement Regarding the Imprisonment of Daria Losik, Wife of Political Prisoner Ihar Losik
21 January 2023 On 19 January 2023, the Brest regional court sentenced political prisoner Daria Losik to two years in a penal colony. In December 2021, her husband Ihar Losik was also sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. Consequently, their young daughter Paulina has been left without parental care. Daria […]
The Christian Vision Group’s Statement Regarding the Persecution and Torture of Rev Uladzislau Bahamolnikau in Detention
Rev Uladzislau Uladzimiravich Bahamolnikau was brutally detained by GUBOPiK (Ministry of Internal Affairs Department for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption) officers on 31 August 2022 following a search of his apartment in Minsk. Bahamolnikau has PhD in theology, he is a priest of the Minsk eparchy of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. He ministers in the Epiphany parish […]
Praying Instead of Protesting? The Belarusian Churches and Political Protest After the 2020 Presidential Election
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2022 Abstract Belarus is one of the least religious societies of the former Soviet Union. Nevertheless, two Christian denominations – the Belarusian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church – do have a specific impact on social discourse, be it through facilitating the discourse on conservative moral […]
