Police recently raided a church in the capital of Tashkent during Sunday worship, declaring the service an "illegal religious meeting" and demanding the pastor promise to stop all the church's activities. During the raid on Oct. 17, authorities demanded that Nikolai Shevchenko, pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, promise not to meet again in the church, but he declined to do so, Compass Direct reported. After confiscating samples of literature found in the church sanctuary and classrooms, the police left after telling Shevchenko and eight church members that they would be called to answer in court over the case. A member of the Baptist Union, Shevchenko's church has sought official registration for the last eight years. Despite a three-year lull in police actions against their religious activities, the congregation remains caught in an apparent standoff between local city regulations and the government's restrictive registration laws instituted in 1998, Compass reported. The me
mbers are an ethnic mix of Germans, Koreans, Uzbeks, Tatars, Kazakhs and Russians. With Sunday attendance averaging 130 or more, the church has since started two spin-off church groups in nearby districts of northeast Tashkent.
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