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New Life Church leader expected to meet with head of Minsk city government in early January

 

Vyhachaslaw Hancharenka, leader of a Protestant community called New Life Church, is expected to have a meeting with Mikalay Ladutska, head of the Minsk City Executive Committee, at the beginning of January.

On November 30, Mr. Hancharenka requested the meeting to ask Mr. Ladutska to reverse the city government's 2005 decision to take away the community's building and land plot.
"Ina Kavalewskaya, deputy head of the city government's department that deals with applications, has recently phoned us and said that Hancharenka would be able to meet with Ladutska in early January," New Life Church lawyer Syarhey Lukanin told BelaPAN. "Kavalewskaya said that the city government was receiving many letters regarding New Life Church from various governmental agencies. She said that work was under way to make a 'balanced' decision."

Mr. Lukanin stressed that the community did not have any "demands" for the city government. "We only have 'wishes,'" he said. "We really want to establish a constructive dialogue with the authorities and work together for the benefit of our city."

New Life Church, the largest community in the Association of Full Gospel Christians, obtained state registration in December 1992 and is said to have more than 1000 members.
Since 2005, New Life Church has been under threat of eviction from its prayer house on the outskirts of Minsk. Under the most recent eviction order, the community was to vacate its building on Kavalyova Street on December 5.

New Life Church refused to surrender its prayer house voluntarily, started an open-ended prayer vigil inside the building, and appealed for help to the central government as well as the Belarusian public and the international community. On December 4, the court proceedings against New Life Church were terminated at the request of the district housing authority.

New Life Church subsequently called on the housing authority to formally recognize the community as the owner of its prayer house and land plot. //BelaPAN.by