Human rights defenders and church members have expressed shock and outrage at the sudden destruction of a Pentecostal Church in Moscow's eastern suburbs. Unknown workers - backed by police and civil volunteers - began tearing down Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church on the eastern edge of Moscow soon after midnight on September 6, the church's Pastor, Vasili Romanyuk, told Forum 18 News Service from the Russian capital. ‘By morning almost the entire three-storey building had been destroyed,’ said Forum 18’s Felix Corley and Geraldine Fagan. ‘This is the Soviet approach - to come in the middle of the night with mechanical diggers,’ said Mikhail Odintsov, an aide to Russia's Ombudsperson for Human Rights, The church has struggled to legalise the building it put up with its own money in 1995-6. Andrei Ivanov, spokesperson for the prefect of Moscow's Eastern Administrative District, defended the destruction. ‘Everything was done at the decision of the court,’ he told Forum 18.

Pray: for the Church in Russia that God would protect it from persecution leading to this form of destruction. (Est.8:6)

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