PRAGUE, Czech Republic (ABP) — European Baptist and Orthodox scholars convened Feb. 8-11 in talks aimed to promote understanding between two Christian groups often at odds over issues like proselytizing and the separation of church and state.

The International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic, was host for the "Christian Mission in Orthodox Context" colloquium. The seminary co-sponsored the event with the Orthodox faculty of St. Clement of Ohrid University in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Planners called the meeting, spearheaded by Parush Parushev, academic dean at IBTS and a Bulgarian, a major initiative for both institutions.

"We are delighted at the developing cooperation between ourselves and St Clement of Ohrid University in Sofia," said IBTS Rector Keith Jones. "It complements the partnership we have had for the past decade with the Orthodox Academy at Vilemov in Moravia on the theology of creation care."

Discussing points of tension 

The aim of the colloquium, attended by more than 30 participants from Orthodox, Baptist, free evangelical and Pentecostal traditions, was to discuss points of tension and opportunities for enriching Christian witness in secularized European contexts with a majority Orthodox religious presence.

"Much of the difficulties and the challenges faced by the baptistic faith communities in the interactions with Orthodox religious communities and the governments of culturally Orthodox countries arise from misunderstandings related to the Orthodox notion of canonical territories (and largely of Orthodox canon law), evangelical emphases on religious freedom and the nature of religious proselytism," said a web page announcing the event.

Other papers discussed social ministries, shared spiritual roots of Russian Baptists and Russian Orthodox and writings of the famed Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

A press released termed the event "highly successful." At an informal social event on the final night, Jones and Orthodox professor Emil Trajchev exchanged gifts as a sign of the continuing partnership.

Making local connections 

Internationally, the Baptist World Alliance has held preliminary discussions with the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, but formal dialogue has not yet been inaugurated. Baptist and Orthodox scholars and church leaders have begun to make such connections in local contexts, however.

Baptist leaders in Russia recently applauded the election of Metropolitan Kirill as primate of the Russian Orthodox Church as "a clear vote for openness and dialogue." Leaders of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists said Kirill, who directed the church's ecumenical relations for 20 years, fully supported the dialogue and fraternity with Russia's Protestants started by his predecessor, Patriarch Alexei II, who died in December.

In visits to Russia and the Republic of Georgia in 2008, BWA General Secretary Neville Callam asked Orthodox representatives for cooperation in facing secularism and ministry to the poor and marginalized.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A Middle Eastern ethnic umbrella organization has written U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden asking them to push for an autonomous region for Assyrians in Iraq.

The Assyrian Universal Alliance released letters Feb. 10 appealing to Obama and Biden to urge Iraq to establish a self-administered region in ancestral Assyrian lands under jurisdiction of Iraq's central government.

Calro Ganjeh, secretary of the alliance's Americas region, said the action is needed save Iraq's dwindling Assyrian population from extinction.

Though predominantly a Muslim country, Iraq is home to one of the oldest Christian communions in the world. More than a million Chaldean Christians are thought to have fled sectarian hatred in the country fueled by the U.S.-led invasion if Iraq in 2003.

Dozens of Christians in the Iraqi city of Mosul died in a string of murders last fall, apparently because of their ethnic identity, amid a power struggle between minority Kurds and Sunni Muslims in provincial elections.

The letters to Obama and Biden said the situation in northern Iraq, the heart of Assyrian ancestral lands, "points to alarming deterioration of our nation's status."

"With so many Assyrians having fled Iraq, the very survival of the Assyrian nation hangs in the balance," Ganjeh. "Our numbers are dwindling and our communities are being shattered. Should this continue, the world will witness the demise of one of its most ancient and historically significant nations."

Formed in 1968, the Assyrian Universal Alliance brings together various Assyrian national federations and organizations around the world. It exists to inform the world about the plight of ethnic Assyrians, and promote safety and rights of Assyrian peoples wherever they live.

Ganjeh said an Assyrian region would encourage refugees and internally displaced Assyrians to return to Iraq.

Chaldean Christians date their community to the first century. It includes both Eastern-rite Catholics who recognize the pope and an independent church. Christians were offered protection under Saddam Hussein, but since his overthrow have been subjected to persecution by fundamentalist Muslims who say all Christians should either leave Iraq or be killed.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

MELBOURNE, Australia (ABP) — Australian Baptists were responding Feb. 10 to what has already become the deadliest outbreak of wildfires in the nation’s history.

According to news reports, authorities have confirmed 181 deaths as of the afternoon of Feb. 10 from the fast-moving fires, which raged over the prior weekend. They fear the death toll may reach as high as 300 once all of the charred bodies identified. Whole towns in the rural areas north and east of the city of Melbourne have reportedly been incinerated.

The Baptist Union of Victoria — the southern Australian state where the worst of the fires have been concentrated — sent a Feb. 9 letter to its approximately 200 member churches asking for contributions to a “Emergency Bushfire Relief Fund.” The fund is a joint effort of the statewide union, the broader Baptist Union of Australia and Baptcare, a Victoria Baptist benevolent agency.

The letter said the fund began with a grant of $50,000 in Australian dollars from Baptcare and “generous” contributions from the two Baptist unions.

“Many Baptist churches in Victoria and beyond have contacted us asking us what they can do to help. Many have already opened their building to provide emergency centres and accommodation; offered pastoral care and support; started collecting clothes,” the letter said. “Pastors in the most affected areas tell us that financial assistance is likely to be the most effective help they can give, so we are hoping, through the generosity of the churches and their agencies, to resource these churches to meet the needs of their communities."

Baptcare is also soliciting donations on its website.

Eron Henry, director of communications for the Virginia-based Baptist World Alliance, said Feb. 10 the worldwide Baptist umbrella group is monitoring the situation. He said any donations made to Baptist World Aid, the group’s relief arm, for the Australian fires would be channelled through the Baptist Union of Victoria.

The union also is providing samples of prayers to churches to guide them to pray for the bereaved, for emergency medical workers and for God's transformation of tragedy.

–Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (RNS)—A landmark court case will test whether Canada’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage also justifies the practice of polygamy.

The defense lawyer for a British Columbia man who openly admits to having multiple wives will argue that Canada’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage broadens the definition of marriage to include multiple spouses.

Blair Suffredine, lawyer for Winston Blackmore, who prosecutors claim has 19 wives, said he will argue in court that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects polygamy under the principles of equality and religious freedom.

When the Canadian parliament made same-sex marriage legal in 2005, members of the Conservative Party of Canada argued that changing the definition of marriage would open the door to court challenges from people who wanted polygamous unions.

Canadian evangelical Christians also opposed making same-sex marriage legal on the grounds that it could permit immigrants from countries where polygamy is legal to maintain multiple spouses in Canada. Some Muslim countries allow polygamy.

Legal specialists say it would be hard to cite same-sex marriage laws to defend polygamy in the United States, in part because same-sex unions are not constitutionally approved across the country.

In the United States, polygamists who belong to fundamentalist breakaway Mormon sects have been prosecuted for sexual crimes involving minors—not polygamy itself.

Daphne Gilbert, a law professor at the University of Toronto, told Canadian Press the argument proposed by Blackmore’s lawyer is predictable, but without merit.

Same-sex relationships maintain Canada’s traditional view of marriage, she said, because they only involve two people. Polygamous marriages, she added, raise questions about whether the often-young wives truly are consenting to being married.

Even if a lawyer could prove a ban on polygamous marriage is a violation of the Charter, Gilbert said the Canadian government would be allowed to ban polygamy by arguing the value of protecting the greater public good.

The two British Columbia men charged with polygamy by government prosecutors—the first case of its kind in Canada—are leaders of rival polygamous factions of roughly 400 members each. They reside in a community called Bountiful in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains near the U.S. border.

Winston Blackmore, 52, has more than 100 children from as many as 19 wives. The other man on trial is James Oler, 44, who is charged with having two wives. Both Blackmore and Oler have long been affiliated with the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

NEW YORK (ABP) — The cholera outbreak that has killed thousands in Zimbabwe should be considered a crime against humanity and laid at the feet of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, an international doctors’ group said in a new report.

Physicians for Human Rights released the report at Jan. 13 press conferences in New York and South Africa.

In a preface to the 54-page document, the group “rightly calls into question the legitimacy of a regime that, in the report’s words, has abrogated the most basic state functions in protecting the health of the population.”

The preface was signed by former Irish premier and U.N. human-rights officer Mary Robinson, retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and former U.N. chief prosecutor Richard Goldstone. It notes, “As the report documents, the Mugabe regime has used any means at its disposal, including politicizing the health sector, to maintain its hold on power. Instead of fulfilling its obligation to progressively realize the right to health for the people of Zimbabwe, the government has taken the country backwards, which has enabled the destruction of health, water, and sanitation — all with fatal consequences.”

The document is the product of a December trip to Zimbabwe by a group of four human-rights activists, including two public-health physicians. It details the gradual destruction of the nation’s public-health system — once considered one of the best in Africa — to the point where virtually all hospitals are closed and the most basic public sanitation and health needs go unmet.

Zimbabwe has been in an economic free-fall since 2000, when Mugabe's regime began seizing the country's largely white-owned corporate farms. Food productivity in a nation once considered the breadbasket of southern Africa has plummeted along with average life expectancy, which is now the lowest in the world at 36 years of age. Meanwhile, malnutrition, inflation and unemployment have soared.

The breakdown of sanitation infrastructure following nationalization of municipal water systems has led to the cholera outbreak. There is virtually no clean drinking or bathing water in many areas of the country.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 40,000 Zimbabweans have contracted cholera from water-borne bacteria. On the day the report was released, the group confirmed that Zimbabwe’s death toll from cholera has exceeded 2,000.

The report recommended that the U.N. take over Zimbabwe’s public-health system, and that the Mugabe regime be investigated by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

“Heedless of concern for the population of Zimbabwe from world leaders and groups such as PHR [Physicians for Human Rights], the government has denied access to the country, detained journalists, tortured human-rights activists, and even refused visas to former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and [South African human-rights activist and wife of Nelson Mandela] Graça Machel,” the report continued.

“PHR’s team members legally entered the country and were transparent about the purpose of conducting a health assessment. Nevertheless, the government apparently planned and then falsely reported their arrest at the end of the investigation. Such actions are a desperate attempt by Robert Mugabe to conceal the appalling situation of his country’s people and to prevent the world from knowing how his government’s malignant policies have led to the destruction of infrastructure, widespread disease, torture, and death.”

Mugabe has blamed Western sanctions against his regime for the food shortages that have contributed to Zimbabwe’s public-health disaster. His government has been deadlocked since September on a power-sharing agreement with the chief opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

"The Mugabe regime has used any means at its disposal, including the politicization of the health sector, to maintain its hold on power," the report said.

–Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Iraq should be designated as a “country of particular concern” because its government tolerates the abuse of religious communities, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom .

The federal commission said many Iraqi religious minorities—including Christians, Yazidis and Sabean Mandaeans—have fled, threatening their faiths’ existence within the country.

“The lack of effective government action to protect these communities from abuses has established Iraq among the most dangerous places on earth for religious minorities,” said Felice Gaer, chair of the commission.

Only five of the nine commissioners agreed with the “country of particular concern” designation, the report noted. That designation is used when a government has engaged in “systemic” and “ongoing” religious freedom violations.

But the report said all of the commissioners agreed the Iraqi government needs to take more action to address the plight of religious minorities.

Commissioners encouraged President-elect Obama’s administration to make prevention of abuse a high priority and to seek safety and fair elections for all Iraqis.

They also asked the U.S. government to appoint a special envoy for human rights in Iraq and Iraqi officials to establish police units for vulnerable minority communities. They also seek changes in Iraq’s constitution, which currently gives Islam a preferred status, to strengthen human rights guarantees.

Rep. Frank Wolf, co-chair of a congressional caucus addressing human rights, said about 500,000 Christians—50 percent of the population of that faith in Iraq in 2003—have fled the country.

The U.S. State Department designated Iraq as a “country of particular concern” from 1999 to 2002 under the International Religious Freedom Act. It dropped the designation in 2003 after the U.S. war in Iraq began and Saddam Hussein’s government collapsed. In May 2007, the commission placed Iraq on its watch list due to escalating sectarian violence and the conditions affecting religious minorities.

GAZA CITY, Palestine (ABP)—Fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants has damaged a Baptist church in Gaza.

On Dec. 27, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of attacks on targets throughout Gaza retaliating against rocket and mortar fire against Israeli towns and villages by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza.

According to media reports, windows at Gaza Baptist Church were shattered when an Israeli air strike on a nearby police station killed about 40 people. All church members were reported safe, because most people are too afraid to go outside their homes.

It isn’t the first time for the only Protestant church in the Gaza Strip to be caught in the crossfire between battling forces. Palestinian police twice seized the six-story building, which also includes a public library and one of the area’s few breast-cancer clinics, as a sniper post.

Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, described the plight of Palestinian Christians in a message at last year’s New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta.

“We live between two fires,” he reported, noting, “The fire of the Israel occupation; the siege we live under” severely restricts travel.

“Also, we experience the fire of the militant Muslim, who is not happy about what we do and who we are.”

Terrorists twice bombed the building of the Palestinian Bible Society, and last year militants kidnapped and executed the manager of the society’s Christian bookstore.

Most American Christians know the state of Israel was established in 1948, Massad said, but fewer are aware that when that happened, 700,000 Palestinians—including 55,000 Christians—became refugees.

Massad said his father’s family lived the Gaza Strip all their lives but lost property, even though they had the official documents to prove ownership.

“Because you experience the grace of God and love of God, you are able to forgive and move on,” he said. “But if you didn’t experience his grace, this is going to create bitterness and hatred in your heart. And this is why the fights between the Palestinians and the Jewish people are more intense and more and more difficult.”

With 1.5 million residents, the Gaza Strip is one of world’s most densely populated places, increasing the likelihood of collateral damage when fighting erupts.

The U.S. State Department has called for a “durable and lasting cease-fire” in the conflict.

President-elect Barack Obama, who has been criticized for not speaking out on the Gaza attacks prviously, broke his silence Jan. 6, calling the loss of civilian lives “a source of deep concern” and vowing to “hit the ground running” on brokering Mideast peace when he takes office Jan. 20.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — A three-member medical team from Hungarian Baptist Aid is in Egypt, helping both Palestinians and Israelis affected by the current Gaza crisis.

Baptist World Aid, the relief-and-development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, gave an initial grant of $10,000 for medical treatment of people who have fled the fighting, in its 13th day as of press time Jan. 8. Other planned relief projects include counseling and relief programs in the heavily bombed Israeli city of Sderot, said BWAid Director Paul Montacute.

The BWAid Rescue24 team, operated by Hungarian Baptist Aid, arrived in Cairo Dec. 31. The team expects to relocate to the Egyptian city of El Arish, about 25 miles from the Gaza border.

After receiving permission from Egyptian authorities Jan. 1, the team visited Palestinians recovering in Cairo's Nasser Hospital.

"I played on the street when suddenly bombs began to fall," said 13-year-old Attala Abid, who has a severely injured leg. He was one of 79 injured Palestinians who managed to get through the Egyptian-Palestinian border at Rafah as of Jan. 1.

The doctors, who are also qualified as anesthesiologists, took part in a skull operation. In addition to meeting medical needs of Palestinians, the group also is looking to give Israeli children opportunities to dwell in Hungary as guests of the organization.

Church World Service, a cooperative ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican communions affiliated with the World Council of Churches, launched an emergency response including humanitarian relief, protection for refugees displaced by attacks and an appeal for donations from the United States.

The group also mobilized its Speak Out advocacy program to urge members of Congress to seek an immediate cease-fire, address the humanitarian situation and renew talks aimed at achieving a "durable peace" between Israel and Palestine.

Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, a Church World Service member, called on both sides in the conflict to "break this cycle of ongoing violence" and urged the United States "to join with other nations in a new mediating role in the search for a just and lasting peace in the area."

"The issues that continually roil this region are complex and they shall never be resolved through armed force," Medley said. "The welfare of each is linked to the welfare of the other…. Only sustained diplomatic efforts which acknowledge the human rights of the other can provide the possibility of peace."

BMS World Mission — British Baptists' global-missions arm — gave $10,000 to local partner Bethlehem Bible College, which is caring for some students from Gaza who had to leave their homes due to difficulty even prior to the current humanitarian crisis.

Gordon McBain, BMS World Mission regional secretary for the Middle East and North Africa, described the situation in Gaza and the south of Israel as "dreadful" and called on Christians to pray for an end to the violence.

"I believe that as Christians there is much that we can do to help alleviate the suffering that has become an everyday event," he said.

Last year BMS World Mission formalized partnerships with Baptist groups in both Israel and Palestine. "These are groups who are trying to bring about change through peaceful methods rather than through bombs and tanks," McBain said. "Christians there are using the power of prayer, dialogue and social care to change things for the better."

Bader Mansour, secretary of the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel, said Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel want to show grief and solidarity with fellow Palestinians suffering in Gaza, while also abiding by the law. Most Israelis strongly support the attack on Gaza.

"It is very hard being an Arab in Israel these days with the polarization and the very different attitude of Arabs and Jews toward the war," Mansour said. "Please pray for the light of Christ to shine on the Palestinians and Israelis. Both need Christ badly."

Donations to the Gaza crisis relief effort may be made to the Baptist World Aid Emergency Response Fund.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — A three-member medical team from Hungarian Baptist Aid is in Egypt, helping both Palestinians and Israelis affected by the current Gaza crisis.

Baptist World Aid, the relief-and-development arm of the Baptist World Alliance, gave an initial grant of $10,000 for medical treatment of people who have fled the fighting, in its 13th day as of press time Jan. 8. Other planned relief projects include counseling and relief programs in the heavily bombed Israeli city of Sderot, said BWAid Director Paul Montacute.

The BWAid Rescue24 team, operated by Hungarian Baptist Aid, arrived in Cairo Dec. 31. The team expects to relocate to the Egyptian city of El Arish, about 25 miles from the Gaza border.

After receiving permission from Egyptian authorities Jan. 1, the team visited Palestinians recovering in Cairo's Nasser Hospital.

"I played on the street when suddenly bombs began to fall," said 13-year-old Attala Abid, who has a severely injured leg. He was one of 79 injured Palestinians who managed to get through the Egyptian-Palestinian border at Rafah as of Jan. 1.

The doctors, who are also qualified as anesthesiologists, took part in a skull operation. In addition to meeting medical needs of Palestinians, the group also is looking to give Israeli children opportunities to dwell in Hungary as guests of the organization.

Church World Service, a cooperative ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican communions affiliated with the World Council of Churches, launched an emergency response including humanitarian relief, protection for refugees displaced by attacks and an appeal for donations from the United States.

The group also mobilized its Speak Out advocacy program to urge members of Congress to seek an immediate cease-fire, address the humanitarian situation and renew talks aimed at achieving a "durable peace" between Israel and Palestine.

Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, a Church World Service member, called on both sides in the conflict to "break this cycle of ongoing violence" and urged the United States "to join with other nations in a new mediating role in the search for a just and lasting peace in the area."

"The issues that continually roil this region are complex and they shall never be resolved through armed force," Medley said. "The welfare of each is linked to the welfare of the other…. Only sustained diplomatic efforts which acknowledge the human rights of the other can provide the possibility of peace."

BMS World Mission — British Baptists' global-missions arm — gave $10,000 to local partner Bethlehem Bible College, which is caring for some students from Gaza who had to leave their homes due to difficulty even prior to the current humanitarian crisis.

Gordon McBain, BMS World Mission regional secretary for the Middle East and North Africa, described the situation in Gaza and the south of Israel as "dreadful" and called on Christians to pray for an end to the violence.

"I believe that as Christians there is much that we can do to help alleviate the suffering that has become an everyday event," he said.

Last year BMS World Mission formalized partnerships with Baptist groups in both Israel and Palestine. "These are groups who are trying to bring about change through peaceful methods rather than through bombs and tanks," McBain said. "Christians there are using the power of prayer, dialogue and social care to change things for the better."

Bader Mansour, secretary of the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel, said Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel want to show grief and solidarity with fellow Palestinians suffering in Gaza, while also abiding by the law. Most Israelis strongly support the attack on Gaza.

"It is very hard being an Arab in Israel these days with the polarization and the very different attitude of Arabs and Jews toward the war," Mansour said. "Please pray for the light of Christ to shine on the Palestinians and Israelis. Both need Christ badly."

Donations to the Gaza crisis relief effort may be made to the Baptist World Aid Emergency Response Fund.

–Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)—An Israeli air strike at Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip seriously damaged Gaza Baptist Church on New Year's Day. The Israeli offensive was launched Dec. 27 after a week in which more than 200 rockets struck southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Windows were blown out at Gaza Baptist Church when Israeli aircraft attacked a police station across the street, according to a report from the BosNews service. In 2007, the six-story church was commandeered by fighters with the Palestinian Fatah faction as a lookout station during the civil war in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas.

More specific information on the building and church members is not yet available. The church's pastor, Hanna Massad, was forced to flee Gaza after the Hamas takeover. Another Baptist leader in Gaza, bookstore owner Rami Ayyad, was kidnapped and murdered in October 2007.

Israel followed several days of aerial bombardment on Hamas target with a ground invasion Jan. 2, cutting the Gaza Strip in half and digging in around Gaza City.

The Israeli offensive has focused on gaining control of high-rise buildings outside Gaza City and destroying buildings that serve as Hamas command centers or weapons caches, according to news reports out of the region. Israel also has attacked tunnels in southern Gaza used to smuggle weapons.

While Gaza health officials said the death toll of 537 included at least 200 civilians, Israeli officials have countered that civilian deaths are inevitable when Hamas military sites and operations are based in urban areas.

"If Hamas chose cynically to use those civilians as human shields, then Hamas should be accountable," Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich told the Associated Press. "Civilians will probably continue to get killed, unfortunately, because Hamas put them in the first lines of fire."

MOSCOW (ABP) — A Russian Baptist leader praised Patriarch Alexey II of the Russian Orthodox Church, who died Dec. 5, as a creator of "peace and consensus" during the post-communist and post-Soviet years in Russia.

The Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists posted a letter of condolence on its website within hours of the 79-year-old patriarch's death.

Yuri Sipko, the union's president, praised Alexey for his "massive, unifying role in the creation of peace and consensus during the travail of Russian society in the 1990s."

Voice of econciliation 

"In those days, the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church was a voice of reconciliation and hope," Sipko wrote. "We prize highly the courage and resolution which Partriarch Alexey II demonstrated during the formation of the New Russia."

Vitaly Vlasenko, the RUECB's director of external church relations, met with Alexey on numerous occasions. He praised his late colleague's efforts to further inter-confessional dialogue. Alexey was instrumental in fostering Orthodox-Baptist dialogue, which included two theological consultations in 2006 and 2007.

"The patriarch had a very elegant and warm style," Vlasenko said. "He always spoke to us kindly and remembered us Baptists very well. We felt like the Christian wisdom of the ages emanated from him. We hope very much that his successor will continue down the road of understanding between our two churches — the route which Alexey himself had embarked upon."

Consulted with BWA 

During a visit to Russia and Georgia in June, Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, also met with the patriarch, who called for continued consultation between the two groups on common moral values.

"We look forward to strong ties of friendship between you and the Baptists of this great country as we seek faithfulness in God in the face of the monster of secularism and the terror of sin," Callam told the Orthodox leader. "We are committed to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ, the hope of the world."

News reports did not indicate the cause of Alexey's death. His funeral, scheduled for Dec. 9, will be attended by Russian dignitaries including President Dimitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW (ABP) — Baptists in the town of Lipetsk, Russia, claim local authorities are using bureaucratic methods to restrict their activity.

The provincial capital 235 miles southeast of Moscow has in recent years become a focal point of tension between Orthodox and Baptist Christians.

According to Forum 18 , a news service that monitors religious freedom, two local congregations recently lost legal status for allegedly failing to file tax returns on time — a charge that Baptist leaders strongly deny — and a third lost its rented worship space for failing to appear at a court hearing that congregation members claim they weren't informed about.

"Soon there won't be a single Baptist church in Lipetsk!" exclaimed a Nov. 28 headline in the Oslo, Norway,-based Forum 18.

Partiality toward Orthodox 

Vitaly Vlasenko, director of external church relations for the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, said it is obvious that government officials in Lipetsk are partial to the Orthodox, but he personally does not believe events there represent a campaign aimed specifically at the Baptist church.

Vlasenko said issues of registration, documentation and taxation have become very bureaucratic and issues once settled through negotiation with government officials now often wind up in court.

Until now Baptists have not taken the effort or had the funds to pay bookkeepers and lawyers, Vlasenko said, but now they must redouble those efforts.

The Russian Baptist union said in a recent news release that tensions between religious groups may revolve largely around money. In 1989 city fathers handed over the former Church of the Trinity's Conception for Baptists to renovate and use for worship. Four years later officials reversed the decision and ordered Baptists to return the building for appropriate compensation.

The Orthodox side did not agree to compensation and accused the Baptists of seizing an Orthodox sanctuary. The 100-member Baptist congregation is willing to return the building for monetary compensation for improvements to the building or use of another building of comparable size and value.

In April the city decreed the Baptists must give up the building without compensation and dissolved the congregation as a legal entity, claiming the church neglected to file required tax statements.

Official deception charged 

Baptist Pastor Vladimir Ilovaisky accused local officials of deceit. "We have always handed in our tax reports on time," he said. "If we are guilty of something, then tax offices should inform us accordingly or levy a fine. They have instead taken away our legal status."

Ilovaisky said the Baptists "are not Barbarians" and would not resort to defending the building by force, but still hoped for a settlement through legal means.

Not all residents of Lipetsk have shown as much restraint. On Nov. 4 about 200 marchers took part in an annual procession from Lipetsk's central Orthodox cathedral to the outlying Trinity church now used by Baptists.

The event celebrated National Unity Day, a state holiday introduced in 2005 commemorating Russia's 1612 expulsion of Polish and Lithuanian forces that has become a forum for demonstrations by nationalist and far-right activists.

Two nights after the march, 28 windows of the Baptist-run structure were broken by vandals thought to be members of the nationalist Slavic Union who were part of the procession.

–-Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.