Members of the persecuted New Life Church in Minsk, Belarus, have celebrated victory after a shock ruling from the country's highest economic court that could finally set the church free from years of constant harassment by the authorities.
The highest economic court of Belarus has cancelled all previous court decisions against the church and is re-examining the case, reports Mission Network News.This is quite unprecedented for an independent, non-registered church to get this kind of attention from the Belarusian government
Glenn Penner of Voice of the Martyrs Canada
New Life Church became the victim of state oppression after a new religion law came into effect in 2002, dubbed "the most repressive law in Europe". In the same year the 600-member New Life Church, situated on the outskirts of Minsk, bought a cowshed to use as a church building. Every government department had given the church approval to change the designated land usage needed to renovate the shed into a church but the last remaining department, the religious affairs department, refused to grant the necessary approval. Then in early 2005 the church faced several attempts by the authorities to shut it down.
Now the ruling from the economic court has given fresh hope that the church will finally be able to worship in peace.
Glenn Penner of Voice of the Martyrs Canada explains: "What makes this so unusual is that this is a court body that normally only examines matters of what is considered of state importance. So this is quite unprecedented for an independent, non-registered church to get this kind of attention from the Belarusian government."
