Quote Originally Posted by Announcement translated from Russian
World's leading religious scholars meet on Sakhalin to discuss issues of spiritual security

by Alexander Kyzmin
Monday, October 13, 2014

An international workshop conference titled "Totalitarian sects and civil society: Current challenges of spiritual security" will convene in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on October 21-22.

Among the guests of honor and speakers at the conference will be world-renowned experts in religious studies and experts in the field of combating destructive religious organizations:

- Bishop Khristophor Karpassiyskiy - director of the Pancyprian Parents Union (Cyprus);
- Alexander Dvorkin - President of the Russian Association of Centers for the Study of Religions and Sects, Chairman of the Expert Council on Religion for the Ministry of Justice;
- Prof. Ivan Zhelev Dimitrov - chairman of the Center for the Study of New Religious Movements (Bulgaria);
- Roman Silantyev - Executive Director of the Human Rights Center of the World Russian People's Council;
- Chao Huang - Associate Professor, School of Philosophy, University of Wuhan (China);
- Vladimir Rogatin - Director of "Dialog"; Nikolaevsk Center for the Protection of the Family and the Individual (Ukraine);
- Gerald Armstrong - writer, former personal archivist to the founder of the Hubbard Scientology cult (Canada).

The conference is organized by the Russian Association of Centers for the Study of Religions and Sects (RATSIRS), the Sakhalin Information and Consulting Center for Religious Studies, and the St. Irenaeus of Lyon Center for Religious Studies.

Events of this kind have been held in various regions of the Russian Federation and in nearby countries and have had a significant positive impact on the religious situation in the region.

For those wishing to participate in the conference, the organizing committee can be reached by telephone: (4242) 26-14-96.


Russian source