Religion and Rights Institute Honours Salvation Army Leaders
Director of the Russian Institute of Religion and Rights, Mr Anatoli Ptchelintsev, with Commissioners Barry and Raemor Pobjie
COMMISSIONERS Barry and Raemor Pobjie, until recently leaders of The Salvation Army's Eastern Europe Territory, have been given honorary awards by the Russian Institute of Religion and Rights. Director of the institute, Mr Anatoli Ptchelintsev, presented certificates to the commissioners during a farewell meeting in Moscow before they moved to London to take up new appointments as leaders of the South Pacific and East Asia Zone at International Headquarters.
The text on the certificates says – in Russian – that each recipient is awarded an honorary doctorate for 'outstanding contributions towards the establishment of a civil society and protecting the freedom of conscience and religion'.
The institute has been in existence for 10 years and the commissioners are the 10th and 11th people to be honoured in this way. The award, held in high esteem within human and religious rights circles in Russia, gives public recognition of the key roles Commissioners Barry and Raemor Pobjie played in victories won for The Salvation Army and all Christian believers in Russia.