ISKCON Moscow to Move Into New Rented Temple this October

With many ISKCON devotees around the world uninformed or misinformed about the current status of the temple in Moscow, Russia, ISKCON News spoke to local residents there to alleviate concerns and set the record straight.

Radha Damodara Das, Vice President of the Society for Krishna Consciousness in Russia, and Olessia Podtserob of ISKCON Communications Russia report that at present, devotees are still at their current temple at Dinamo in Leningradsky Prospekt. It has not been demolished yet, as some have reported, and devotees are not homeless.
The ISKCON Moscow temple has been at this location -- a temporary group of buildings -- for the past nine years, on the basis of a verbal agreement with the City of Moscow government.
According to the agreement, the government was gifting ISKCON with a five-acre plot in the Molzhaninovo District in the North of Moscow. Devotees were to move there as soon as they had built their planned temple -- a huge 12,300 square meter Vedic Cultural Center that would combine modern technologies and styles with classic Indian arches and domes.


In April 2013, however, the government refused to prolong ISKCON’s rights for this piece of land, in effect withdrawing its gift.
“That land has been taken away by the government and is not coming back,” says Olessia.
At the same time, the temporary temple in Dinamo was declared illegal, and a court decision ordered devotees to dismantle the buildings by September 14th, 2013.
As this was not enough time, devotees have asked the government for another three to four weeks to dismantle their temporary temple and relocate.
This means that they are currently working on dismantling the temple ‘complex’ -- two of the three buildings have already been taken down. But in the meantime, Sunday programs are still running in the third building and the Deities of Sri Sri Dayal Nitai Sacisuta are still being worshipped there. The residential ashram has already been moved to a rented house outside of Moscow.


Meanwhile, a new building in a different part of Leningradsky Prospekt has been rented and is being renovated for the Deities to move into by mid-October. The pujari (priest) department and the Deities’ kitchen, along with a temple room for daily programs, will also be included at this new location. Another building will be rented for Sunday programs.
“We are also looking into the possibility of buying a building for our temple in Moscow,” Olessia says. “But there is no specific plan yet. We are looking at different options.”
And what about the huge Vedic Cultural Center that had been planned on the outskirts of the city?
“We were told by the government that they are looking into giving us another piece of land in the South of Moscow,” Olessia says, “But we have not received any offer from them yet.”
In this regard, ISKCON Moscow requests the prayers of the Vaishnavas around the world.
Apart from that, however, they advise us that there is no need for a petition drive or other such actions at this time. They will keep us informed as the situation develops.

 By: Madhava Smullen ISKCON News on Oct. 3, 2013

 http://news.iskcon.org/iskcon-moscow-to-move-into-new-rented-temple-this-october,4080/