New Life Protestants met with EU ambassadors

• 26.08.2009, 9:06

Pastor of New Life Church Vyachaslau Hancharenka and lawyer Syarhei Lukanin visited the Embassy of France in Minsk on August 25.

They had a meeting with the ambassadors of the EU countries in the embassy.

Ambassadors of Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Estonia, and the representative of European Commission in Belarus were present at the meeting, www.newlife.by reports.

Vyachaslau Hancharenka told about the conflict with the city authorities. The diplomats asked whether the community had really received offers from the authorities to give them land or a new building for the church, as the First Channel of the national television reported.

The pastor expressed his position and explained that the offer of the authorities was, firstly, an unequal exchange, and secondly, it was undefended; so the New Life members don’t trust such promises.

“The church will have a constructive dialogue with the authorities only if everything that was seized is returned to the church,” Hancharenka stressed at the meeting.

We remind that a civil case between the church and the Minsk authorities over demolition of the church building was opened in 2005. The Supreme Economic Court confirmed lawful character of the decision of the city executive committee this year, the church was to get 37.5 million rubles for the building. The Protestants have recently refused to transfer the building.