During the mass protests in Belarus before and after the presidential election in August 2020, several high-ranking religious representatives in the country publicly took a critical stance to the political repression of the protest – a development which is remarkable for religious communities in the autocratic regime. Since then, faith-based dissent and public activities of the faithful became an important element of the opposition movement, while the churches’ leaderships largely complied to the demand of the political leadership to refrain from political statements. This essay reflects on the Church’s public stance including the use of media platforms during this time. I consider ‘mediation’ as both a category to analyse the use of media by the Church and in the sense of a mediator as a go-between actor. The analysis shows, however, massive fragmentation within the churches and a reduced ability to act as consistent mediating actors.
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