During the census inhabitants of Lithuania were asked this question: "What religious community would you attribute yourself to?"
Below are the answers in summary.
by Donatas Glodenis
"White Lotus" phenomenon: an overview
The "White lotus" movement is an interesting phenomenon in the post-soviet Ukraine, Lithuania and a few other countries in Europe[1]. The movement was started by Vladimir Ivanovich Skubajev (1956 - ) a Ukrainian national, who has graduated from a pedagogical institute (nowadays it would be called university), worked in a high school and later as an elevator maintenance man. He got acquainted with students from Laos, with whom he began to practice Kung Fu, later spending some time in Laos. Upon return he claimed he has been initiated as a teacher in a Laos Buddhist martial arts school "Sha Phoot Phan", and began to teach Kung Fu in 1988 in Cherkassy, Ukrainian town of about 400,000, where the construction of a Buddhist temple was started by the movement in 1989, and is continuing to date. The "White Lotus" movement has continued to spread since and currently it has branches in many of the former Soviet Union republics including Lithuania and other Baltic States, also Greece, USA (branch in Chicago), United Arab Emyrates and Germany[2]. The movement's manifold activities provide it with many marketable features, so the spread of the movement should be expected in the future.
by Donatas Glodenis
This paper aims to give a general overview of the situation of the new and non-traditional religious movements in Lithuania, without going in-depth or trying to evaluate either religious movements or societal reactions to the phenomena described.
In this presentation the manifestations of Satanism in Lithuania will be discussed. The terms that would be used are: Satanism which in this case is used as deriving from Christian demonology - the cult of Satan or devil, which could be described as a power of evil that might be found in the Bible. As religious scientists claim, Satanism had manifested as an attack upon a dominant Christianity and the society it had supported. As religious organization, Satanism, according to Massimo Introvigne, might be divided into adult and youthSatanism groups.
Q: What kind of an organization you are? Do you fight against sects, or not?
A: NRTIC has a moderate position towards new religious movements, and it avoids labeling those groups "sects". In our approach we try to follow the London based organization INFORM. NRTIC does not believe in repressive measures, but is trying to cooperate in establishing a civil society with responsible expression of freedom of religion.
The Ministry of Justice press release today announced, that the second religious community of the unification church will also be registered. The first community belonging to the controversial movement from Korea was registered by the government ten years ago.
The decision was taken after more than a year of inquiry into the doctrine and activities of the second community of the Unification Church. The initial process of registration, that was started a year ago, was delayed because of numerous complaints from relatives and parents of the members of the Unification Church.