In Belarus, 40 Orthodox parishes have been liquidated in recent years
A large-scale wave of legal purges has affected structures of the Belarusian Orthodox Church across all regions of the country. Since the end of 2023, dozens of religious communities have officially lost their registration or found themselves in the process of forced closure.
As follows from data gathered by the "Christian Vision" initiative, between November 2023 and November 13, 2026, 40 cases of liquidation of parishes of the Belarusian Orthodox Church were recorded in Belarus. An analysis of records from the Unified State Register (USR) and tax databases shows that 34 religious communities have already been permanently stripped of their legal status. Another six organizations are currently undergoing the official procedure of termination of activities.
The closure process has affected all regions of the country without exception. The highest number of liquidated communities is in Hrodna Region, where nine parishes have lost their legal status. In Brest, Minsk, and Mahilioŭ Regions, seven such cases have been recorded each, and five each in Viciebsk and Homieĺ Regions.
According to extracts from state registers, it is predominantly small rural communities that fall under the legal axe. Among them are parishes in the village of Dziatlavičy in Vaŭkavysk District, Vialikaya Sviantsitsa and Yatvesk in Svislač District, Zarečča in Rahačoŭ District, Šychaŭ in Žlobin District, as well as Paniacičy in the Vilejka area. According to records, many of these religious communities obtained official registration back in the early 1990s, but now local executive committees and tax inspection offices have initiated their closure.
All six ongoing liquidation procedures currently recorded involve parishes in Brest and Mahilioŭ Regions. Moreover, in several cases, liquidation rulings were issued not by local authorities, but by courts of law. Thus, the decision to terminate the activities of the religious community in the village of Niasiata, Kličaŭ District, was issued by the Mahilioŭ Regional Court on June 25, 2026. Exactly one month later, on July 26, 2026, the same court ruled to liquidate the Orthodox parish in the village of Ciacieryna, Kruhlaje District.
The official grounds and reasoning for rendering such court rulings are not published in public databases. Researchers note that the gathered data reflect solely documented facts and do not constitute exhaustive statistics on the overall decrease in the number of BOC structures in the country.
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