Church Wants to be Legally Distanced from ‘Foreign Agents’ Bill

admin | 10 July 2012

Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow (RIA Novosti / Alexander Vilf)

The Russian Orthodox Church has asked to State Duma to make amendments to the bill that tightens the screws on foreign-funded NGOs so that the legislation would not affect religious organizations.

The document introducing ‘foreign agent’ status to non-governmental organizations that are financed from abroad and engage in political activity was approved in the first reading by the lower house on Friday.

A senior church member, Archpriest Georgy Roshchin pointed out that the bill still lacks clarity on some issues. In particular, the Church is concerned about judicial nuances related to foreign funding.

“Even though the church is not engaged in any political activities, we think the bill can still be used in order to falsely accuse the Church of such behavior,” he said.

However, “Overall, the Russian Orthodox Church supports the legislation on NGOs,” Roshchin told Itar-Tass.

Source: TV-Novosti

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.