30 October 2007
Protestant communities ask God to forgive Belarusian people’s sins in Stalin-era

Many Protestants communities across Belarus on October 28 and 29 staged prayer services, asking God to forgive the Belarusian people’s sins committed during the Stalinist purges, Antony Bokun, the pastor of a Minsk-based Protestant community called St. John the Forerunner Church, told BelaPAN.

The prayer services were held on the occasion of Dzyady (ancestors’ remembrance day).

Before the prayer at the St. John the Forerunner Church, the believers were shown video materials about Belarusians who have survived the Stalinist purges.

Members of another Minsk-based Protestant community, God’s Grace, met with political victims to hear stories about their prosecution in the Soviet era. They prayed that the “black Communist past never return to the Belarusian land.” Priest Aleh Akulenka noted that millions of innocent people had been killed as a “sacrifice to communism."

Barys Charnahlaz, the pastor of Jesus Christ Church, said during the service that the future of the Belarusian people depended on their attitude to the past.

“The church should see the trouble of the people and address not only the problem’s symptoms but also the spiritual routes of the reality surrounding us. Only repenting of sins of ungodliness and manslaughter will make the revival of the Belarusian people possible,” Mr. Charnahlaz said.