Moscow
On January 28th the Duma Committee on Non-governmental and Religious Organizations, as a part of the 4th Annual Christmas Parliament Meetings, held a round table dedicated to the question of improving laws regulating religious organizations. ELC Archbishop Dietrich Brauer in his report called attention to the process of registration of pseudo-ecclesiastic organizations and spoke against their activities, stating that they not only "harm the reputation of religious groups, but they also destroy peoples' souls."
Yaroslav Nilov, the head of the Committee, led the discussions. Before them he summarized the work of the Committee over the past year, reminding everyone that the "State Duma made a number of important statements, to the press in particular, about avoiding inciting religious hatred. Mr. Nilov regretted that the full Duma considered, but did not pass, the document the Committee recommended regarding the repression of Christians in the world, though, he underlined, "this question remains relevant today in many regions of the world."
Among legislative initiatives, the Committee chair noted that it is a step forward that the Russian Civil Code has been altered to show that the activity of religious organizations is regulated by a special law "On the Freedom of Conscience;" "this allows religious organizations to fully function today," he said. In his words the corrections made to the portions of the law regarding ministry in the penal system "significantly simplified the work of ministers." "A new order was found for regulating financial activity of religious organizations," the definition of the term "religious group" was clarified, the "so-called 15 year formula" was taken out of the law, and a 10 year limit was placed on newly founded religious organizations on their missionary and educational activities; norms were formulated to defend holy texts from accusations of extremism, and the first reading of a law went through which would allow the possibility of foundations to administer the properties of religious organizations if the foundations themselves are religious organizations or an organization's representative.
At the end of his presentation the Committee Chair summarized by saying that the state knows that the "dialog which we have needs to be developed and strengthened and the State Duma, which can act as a meeting place for dialog and a "spark for speeding up certain processes" will continue to improve the legal code of the country.
On January 28th the Duma Committee on Non-governmental and Religious Organizations, as a part of the 4th Annual Christmas Parliament Meetings, held a round table dedicated to the question of improving laws regulating religious organizations. ELC Archbishop Dietrich Brauer in his report called attention to the process of registration of pseudo-ecclesiastic organizations and spoke against their activities, stating that they not only "harm the reputation of religious groups, but they also destroy peoples' souls."
Yaroslav Nilov, the head of the Committee, led the discussions. Before them he summarized the work of the Committee over the past year, reminding everyone that the "State Duma made a number of important statements, to the press in particular, about avoiding inciting religious hatred. Mr. Nilov regretted that the full Duma considered, but did not pass, the document the Committee recommended regarding the repression of Christians in the world, though, he underlined, "this question remains relevant today in many regions of the world."
Among legislative initiatives, the Committee chair noted that it is a step forward that the Russian Civil Code has been altered to show that the activity of religious organizations is regulated by a special law "On the Freedom of Conscience;" "this allows religious organizations to fully function today," he said. In his words the corrections made to the portions of the law regarding ministry in the penal system "significantly simplified the work of ministers." "A new order was found for regulating financial activity of religious organizations," the definition of the term "religious group" was clarified, the "so-called 15 year formula" was taken out of the law, and a 10 year limit was placed on newly founded religious organizations on their missionary and educational activities; norms were formulated to defend holy texts from accusations of extremism, and the first reading of a law went through which would allow the possibility of foundations to administer the properties of religious organizations if the foundations themselves are religious organizations or an organization's representative.
At the end of his presentation the Committee Chair summarized by saying that the state knows that the "dialog which we have needs to be developed and strengthened and the State Duma, which can act as a meeting place for dialog and a "spark for speeding up certain processes" will continue to improve the legal code of the country.
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