by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A Pentecostal pastor in Russia is in prison charged with undermining national security after he preached a sermon in which he criticized the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine from a Biblical perspective, the Norway-based Forum 18 rights group reports.
The senior pastor of Holy Trinity Church in the town of Balashikha near Moscow, Nikolay Romanyuk, was arrested on October 18 following a live-streamed sermon he preached in September 2022 stating that “on the basis of Holy Scripture,” Russian Christians should not fight the war in Ukraine.
Pastor Romanyuk was arrested on suspicion of violating Criminal Code Article 280.4, Part 2, Paragraph V – “Public calls to implement activities directed against the security of the Russian Federation, or to obstruct the exercise by government bodies and their officials of their powers to ensure the security of the Russian Federation using mass media or electronic or information and telecommunications networks, including the Internet,” Forum 18 said.
“Investigators arrested Pastor Romanyuk after early-morning armed raids on his home and those of several other church members on 18 October 2024,” Forum 18 said in its report. “Two days later, a court ruled that he should be detained for two months,” Forum 18 reports. “He is currently being held in Investigation Prison No. 11 in Noginsk, 50 km (30 miles) east of Moscow.”
Pastor Romanyuk faces six years’ imprisonment if convicted, Forum 18 said.
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