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A controversial new federal law limiting the activities of some religious groups has left Primorye churches and officials unsure of how it will affect local believers.

The law, passed in September, divides churches into “groups” – which are limited to worship activities – and “organizations” – which can visit hospitals and prisons, establish educational bodies and mass media, and bring missionaries from overseas. Organizations must have been in the country for 15 years or more.

The law is a revision of a measure backed by the Russian Orthodox church but vetoed in July by President Yeltsin under pressure from the United States and other countries.

Vasily Tushkin, Primorye’s regional coordinator for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, said the law shouldn’t be applied even in its present form.

“In many ways it goes against the Constitution [which guarantees freedom of worship],” he said. “It seems to me that what’s behind the law is the Russian Orthodox Church. They would like to have some sort of monopoly on absolute truth.”

But some in the Russian Orthodox Church say the law doesn’t go far enough toward establishing the primacy of their faith. Father Sergyi, secretary for the Primorye diocese of the Orthodox church, said he has only made a preliminary review, but the law changes nothing in the status of the Orthodox church vis-a-vis other faiths.

“It puts the Russian Orthodox church on the same level as totalitarian and destructive sects,” said Father Sergyi (Orthodox priests do not use their last names).

Manfred Brockmann, provost of the Lutheran Church in the Russian Far East, said his church, like Roman Catholicism, has been active in the country for centuries. He said it still isn’t clear if the law will be enforced.

“If it should come into being, I always know that the Church of Christ has been much more alive under pressure rather than as a friend of the state,” Brockmann said.

Pavel Fadeyev, specialist for the Krai Committee for Political and Public and Religious Organizations, said the law won’t become valid until it is published in newspapers. The committee will meet with experts this month and apply the law to each church.

“But I personally think that there shouldn’t be such a big noise about it,” Fadeyev said. “The law cannot satisfy everybody, but everybody will be considered carefully.”

Two churches that will have the status of a group, rather than an organization, will include the Church of Christ and the Ananda Marga faith.