Dispute Over Land For Religious Groups In Russia: Still No Mosque For Sochi, Protestants Struggle To Keep Church

ICC Note: The city of Sochi, Russia that sprung into the world’s eye during the Winter Olympics is also the site of another competition as religious groups battle for the right to be able to legally meet. A protestant Church, House of the Gospel, is facing having the land, where it has been meeting since 1993, sold out from under them. They have been engaged in a long battle with the city officials and are again going to court an attempt to retain the property to meet and conduct their services.
By: Victoria Arnold
03/04/2014 Russia (Forum 18) – Acquiring and retaining places of worship in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi is difficult for some local residents, Forum 18 News Service notes. Sochi’s Muslims are still without a mosque, despite repeated attempts to obtain land and permission to build since 1996. Despite repeated official promises of action, no concrete steps have yet been taken to enable a mosque to be built. In contrast, Krasnodar Region allocated more than 525 million Roubles for the construction of the vast Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Image of Christ at the Olympic Park, which was consecrated on 2 February 2014. Meanwhile, House of the Gospel Church is struggling to retain its Church building against city attempts to sell it off. In 2011 the Church asked for full ownership of the building it has used since 1993 (having had lesser ownership since 2007), as Russian law allows, but Sochi administration repeatedly failed to respond or give reasons for its lack of response. Two court hearings have failed to secure the Church’s rights to the property, and it is now preparing a third appeal. The hearing date will be set on 25 March.
Acquiring and retaining places of worship in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi is difficult for some local residents, Forum 18 News Service notes. During the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, athletes have been able to use dedicated worship space at the inter-confessional centre, with separate prayer rooms for the Orthodox, other Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu faiths, as well as chaplains of these beliefs.
Sochi’s Muslims, however, are still without a mosque, and a long-established Protestant community is embroiled in a legal battle to retain their Church.
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The House of the Gospel
In January 2013 Sochi administration decided to sell off much of its municipal property. This meant that the congregation of the House of the Gospel Protestant Church is faced with losing the site it has occupied rent-free since 1993. Two court hearings so far have failed to secure the Church’s rights to the property, and the community is now preparing to appeal a third time.
The Church complex houses two prayer halls, a Sunday school, a publishing outlet, offices, and departments for missionary work and philanthropy, and includes the original building granted by the city administration to the congregation “for charitable and liturgical purposes” in 1993, as well as new structures erected at the community’s own expense.
In 2007 the House of the Gospel and Sochi’s property department signed a contract transferring the title of the property to the Church, and allowing it free use of the building.
Property boom sparked fears
In February 2011, the Church applied to Sochi administration to have the property transferred to its full ownership under the 2010 Federal Law ‘On the transfer of state or municipal owned property of religious purpose to religious organizations’, but this request was ignored by the authorities.
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