Russian city of Yekaterinburg rejects plan to build church in park

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Russian city of Yekaterinburg rejects plan to build church in park

22 May 2019

Residents of Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, have rejected plans to build a church in a popular park, ending a week of unrest.

The governor of the surrounding region, Sverdlovsk, said the church would not be built as a result of a survey conducted by an opinion pollster.

The VTsIOM poll found 58% did not want St Catherine's Cathedral in the park.

"This conflict is over, it's been exhausted," the governor, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, wrote in an Instagram post.

-snip-

Opponents said the cathedral would have destroyed one of the few green spaces in the city in the Urals.

The Russian Orthodox Church says it needs new churches to replace the many buildings destroyed under Soviet anti-religion laws.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48371921

[Act_of_Reparation]

1. Here's the best part:

Vakhtang Kipshidze, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, has accused protesters of being "anti-religious".

"There are a multitude of lawful ways of expressing disagreement... but to create conflict on religious grounds is especially sad on the soil of Yekaterinburg, where not so long ago by historical standards mass religious persecution took place and Tsar Nicholas II and his young children were murdered," he told Interfax.

He added that protests "could only have been organised by people driven by anti-religious motives".

Mr Kipshidze said that while the Church was in favour of constructive dialogue with the protesters, these discussions should not include people who "simply cannot tolerate anything connected to religion".

The Church has been denied unconditional access to public land? PERSECUTION!

[Voltaire2]

2. slavery continued in Russia, especially in the east, up until the revolution

and the ROC was knee deep in the system, owning extensive estates and the serfs that came with them.

Perhaps this history has a bit to do with the antipathy of the population toward giving public lands to the ROC.

[Mariana]

3. Good.

I have to wonder why they're so dead-set on destroying the park. Is it because they figure if the people have nowhere to go to have fun and relax, they'll spend more time in church?

Vakhtang Kipshidze, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, has accused protesters of being "anti-religious".

Of course he did.

He added that protests "could only have been organised by people driven by anti-religious motives".

Yes, the only reason people might want to keep their park is because they're anti-religious.

[MineralMan]

4. Well, I can't imagine any US city allowing a church to be built

in a city park, either. In fact, that would violate the separation of church and state.