Ewald will be in the Ukraine in October and November 2008 to lecture on the theme “Law & Grace” at three Conferences: at the Odessa Theological Seminary, at the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in L’viv, and at the Donetsk Christian University. The Conferences have been arranged to help pastors and Christian workers to understand the relationship between law and grace from a biblical perspective. These lectures will be based on Ewald’s book, “Law & Grace” published in the Ukraine in 2007 and available through a number of Christian bookstores in the Ukraine.

The trip will also seek to consolidate the contacts established by our coordinators in the Ukraine with churches and teaching institutions, and to promote the biblical study material that we have been preparing over recent years.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PETITION REJECTED AS PRESSURE ON PROTESTANTS CONTINUES
2 April 2008
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1109

Pavel Nozdrya, a member of the charismatic Jesus Christ Church in the southern city of Mozyr who helped gather signatures on a religious freedom petition, told Forum 18 News Service he lost his job as an electrician at the local university in mid-March. He was one of seven members of a church youth group meeting in a private house on 29 February which was raided by local ideology officials. A police officer who visited the same house on Sunday 9 March said he was responding to a warning that a human sacrifice would take place there. Nozdrya attributes the harassment to the church’s involvement in the mass petition to amend the restrictive 2002 Religion Law, which was handed to the authorities in late February. Government bodies rejected the petition in late March, claiming that reports of religious freedom violations “do not correspond with reality”. Pavel Severinets, an Orthodox Christian involved in the campaign, and members of the Minsk-based charismatic New Life church face prosecution.

POLITICAL PRISONERS DENIED RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

20 March 2008

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1103
Belarusian and international law upholds the rights of prisoners and detainees to pastoral visits, communal worship and religious literature. But recent prisoners of conscience have described their particular experience of violations to Forum 18 News Service. Artur Finkevich was allowed to attend Catholic Mass just three times during 18 months in jail. “Even though I was constantly filing requests. I think they saw not allowing me to go as part of my re-education.” Detained in Minsk since 21 January, political prisoner Andrei Kim has had “no response whatsoever” to his request for a visit by a Protestant pastor, his mother told Forum 18. One political prisoner reported that Catholic and Orthodox ordinary prisoners were forced to work at Easter and Christmas. Belarusian officials have insisted that prisoners’ religious freedom is respected. There are currently no prisoners jailed purely for their religious convictions in Belarus.

BAPTIST PASTOR FREED, SECOND RELIGIOUS PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE STILL JAILED
28 April 2008
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1102
Azerbaijan has today (19 March) freed one of its two religious prisoners > of conscience, Baptist pastor Zaur Balaev, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Balaev was arrested in May 2007 and jailed for two years in August, on what church members insist were false charges. “It’s a great joy to be free,” Balaev told Forum 18 after his release. Since Balaev’s jailing, a number of other Protestants have been threatened with jail, but these threats have not so far been carried out. However, Jehovah’s Witness Samir Huseynov, jailed in October 2007 for 10 months for refusing compulsory military service on religious grounds, has not been freed. Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union, welcomed Balaev’s release. “We thank God and those who prayed and supported Zaur,” he told Forum 18. “But there is a lot more work still to be done to defend religious freedom in Azerbaijan.” State officials have refused to tell Forum 18 whether Balaev and his congregation will be safe from future official harassment, or to discuss Huseynov’s case.