MINSK, 10 February (BelTA) – I have huge admiration for kindness of Baptists and hug respect for diligence of Old Believers, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with representatives of religious denominations in Minsk on 10 February, BelTA learned.
The president said that in the course of his life he had encountered representatives of various denominations, including Baptists. The president shared a story from the Soviet times.
“Several villages on our farm practiced Baptism. Being secretary of the party committee, I thought I had to go and talk to them. Which I did. I talked to many people. They were kind people, they were mostly senior people. I developed tremendous respect for them. I always stood up for Baptists: these people lived on the farm I was in charge of. I visited and talked to them: they were the kindest people, very decent, kind-hearted people.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko said he had similar relations with the Old Believers. He got to know them closer during his presidential years.
“These men came to work at one of facilities. They say: 'Please come to our village, we are ready to marry you to our girl.' - “You marry only your own!’ - ‘We are ready!’ I kept promising to visit but I never came to that village. Recently I remembered it. It turns out that this village is no more. Mostly old men [Old Believers] lived in the village. Young people left. Maybe one or two people are still living but this is no longer a village of Old Believers,” the head of state said.
“But they were hard workers! Truly. They were very hardworking people. They were building a facility there. When I go there, I immediately think of the Old Believers, because I have never seen such hardworking people before or since. It was the Old Believers who built the facility for a health resort, I sometimes visit it, in Vitebsk Oblast,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “I had encounters with Evangelical Christians, Baptists, Old Believers back in the day. They have remained in my heart after decades.
During the meeting it was noted that Evangelical Baptist Christians have been practicing their faith on the Belarusian land for 150 years. “The situation has not always been kind for Evangelical believers, but we are glad that our predecessors, having gone through persecution, preserved their faith and passed it on to us. I want to express my gratitude to you for the fact that in the independent Belarus we can freely worship, practice our faith, teach children and youth. We are grateful for peace in the country, for good relations between various denominations,” said Leonid Mikhovich, Chairman of the Union of Evangelical Baptist Christians in Belarus.
“We have the opportunity to communicate with people of our faith from other countries. They come to visit us. We host guests from Europe, America. Usually they are surprised by the opportunities we have. Of course, they are surprised by the order, security, living conditions here, because they come with some preconceptions. We are grateful for the visa-free travel possibility and hope that such conditions will be preserved. We want people to come and see with their own eyes what is happening in Belarus,” Leonid Mikhovich added.
According to him, the relationship between church and state overlaps in two areas - support for family values and social ministry and charity.
“In our churches, family values always hold an important place. We are grateful for the fact that the state takes care of the family from its very inception: moral support, financial assistance, help with solving housing issues. We have many large families, and many families got an apartment or built houses thanks to the care of the state. I think that this focus on the family is more than justified,” Leonid Mikhovich emphasized.
