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This chapter examines the visions which have been advanced by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to expand and secure its influence in society after fall of communism. While the end of the atheist rule inspired the Church’s hierarchy to seek a restoration of the pre-communist dominant status of Orthodoxy as the majority religion, the newly adopted understanding of freedom of conscience and belief as a just and equal treatment of all religious communities impeded the realization of this goal. As a result, the promotion of the Church’s positions on the communist past, the form of political governance, nationalism, and traditional values have turned out to be a dynamic process that provokes ambivalent reactions not only in society but also in the community of Orthodox believers.

This chapter considers the topics of nationalism, conservatism, homophobia, and religious intolerance in the Romanian Orthodox Church (RomOC, hereafter) after the collapse of communism in 1989. This analysis begins with a brief historical overview of the Church during the pre-communist and communist periods, and then turns its attention to presenting and assessing the above topics in post-communist times.

This article discusses peculiarities of trilateral relations between the Serbian diaspora in the United States, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarchate in the postwar period and in the 1960s. The work is primarily based on textual analysis of correspondence between Serbian American-Canadian Bishop Dionysius and Patriarch Alexius I. It examines the activities of the Serbian diaspora in achieving improvements in the situation of the Church in Yugoslavia, its attempts to influence the “Macedonian Church issue”, as well as the contacts of bishop Dionysius with the ROC after the schism within SOC in America in 1963.

On two Slavonic translations of the Renaissance drama Abraham’s sacrifice The paper’s main aim is to present two South-Slavonic translations of the Renaissance Greek drama Abraham’s sacrifice ( I Thysia tou Avraam ) by Vincenzo Cornaro; the first one was made by the Serbian man of letters Vikentije Rakic (1750–1818) at the end of the eighteenth century, the second one – by Andrey Pop-Doynov Robovski (1801–1858), a Bulgarian priest, teacher and activist for autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The different recep­tion and spread of the two translation was probably due to their various cultural contexts and literary value. Rakic’s translation was widely disseminated in both printed editions and manuscript copies, two of which are described in detail in the present article. O dwoch slowianskich przekladach dialogu Ofiara Abrahama Celem artykulu jest ukazanie specyfiki dwoch poludniowoslowianskich przekladow poźnorenesansowego dialogu Ofiara Abrahama (Ἡ Θυσία τοῦ Ἀβραάμ Vincenzo Cornaro), autorstwa Vikentije Rakicia (1750–1818), pisarza i tlumacza, oraz Andreja Pop-Dojnowa Robowskiego (1801–1858), kaplana, kaznodziei i dzialacza na rzecz autokefalii Bulgarskiej Cerkwi Prawoslawnej. Powstale w roznych okolicznościach kulturowych, o innych wartościach artystycznych, odmiennie byly przyjmowane i rozpowszechniane. Przeklad V. Rakicia trafil rowniez do kopistow kodeksow rekopiśmiennych w pierwszej polowie XIX wieku.

Vanga complex in Rupite as a religious sanctuary The article addresses the Vanga complex that has been developed since 1994 in a Bul­garian village called Rupite. Due to its unique spatial arrangement as well as the ambiguity of the religious practises engaged at the complex, it at the same time effortlessly serves as an Orthodox, an esoteric and a folk sanctuary. The fact that its creators were influenced by the Marxist and esoteric system established in the twentieth century by Lyudmila Zhivkova as well as spatial categories of the centre and axis mundi, resulted in the occult tenor of this place. Simultaneously, mystification used by the originators together with ambivalent approach of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church towards syncretic religious phenomena, enabled St. Petka Church – constituting the axis of the complex being discussed – to become an official Orthodox church. Furthermore, the Rupite complex can justifiably be interpreted as an institutionalisa­tion of the cult of the local seer Vanga, dynamically developing in the south-west of Bulgaria. Binding psychic and healing spiritual gifts of Vanga with folk beliefs about St. Petka, made it possible to inscribe the seer into the paradigm of a Christian martyr and a prophetess. Moreover, it also allowed Vanga to enter the pantheon of saint healers, who are particularly popular in these areas. Kompleks Wanga w Rupite jako sanktuarium religijne Tematem artykulu jest powstający od 1994 roku w bulgarskiej miejscowości Rupite – Kom­pleks Wanga. Dzieki swej wyjątkowości ,,przestrzennej” oraz niejednoznaczności wyzna­wanego kultu obiekt ten funkcjonuje jednocześnie jako sanktuarium prawoslawne, ezo­teryczne oraz ludowe. Miejsce to zawdziecza swoj okultystyczny charakter odwolaniom jego tworcow do marksistowsko-ezoterycznego systemu światopoglądowego, stworzonego w ubieglym stuleciu przez Ludmile Żiwkową, oraz do przestrzennych kategorii centrum i axis mundi . Jednocześnie, dzieki zastosowanej przez pomyslodawcow mistyfikacji oraz ambiwalentnej wobec synkretycznych zjawisk religijnych postawie Bulgarskiej Prawoslaw­nej Cerkwi, świątynia pw. św. Petki – stanowiąca oś omawianego kompleksu – stala sie oficjalnie cerkwią prawoslawną. Kompleks w Rupite ponadto interpretowac mozna jako instytucjonalizacje preznie rozwijającego sie w zachodnio-poludniowej Bulgarii kultu rodzi­mej jasnowidzki – Wangi. Powiązanie mediumicznych i leczniczych charyzmatow Wangi z ludowymi wyobrazeniami św. Petki pozwolilo na wpisanie jasnowidzki w paradygmat chrześcijanskiej meczennicy i prorokini oraz wlączylo Wange do panteonu – popularnych na tych terenach – tzw. świetych lekarzy.

The study investigates the inclusion of women deacons in the canons of the National Synod of Mount Lebanon of 1736, which formalized Latinization of the Maronite Church, providing for codification of its particular law. The canons were approved in forma specifica by Pope Clement XII and have never been modified or overruled, thereby giving evidence of the liceity of ordaining women deacons in the Catholic Church.

The Qadisha Valley (also known as Wadi Qadisha in Arabic) is located in northern Lebanon and is one of the longest valleys in the Mount Lebanon range. It combines a beautiful unique landscape with numerous historical and archaeological sites. Carved out by the Qadisha River in a deep gorge, the valley is an oasis of peace, serenity, and spirituality for many. It has sheltered Christian monastic communities for centuries. The Qadisha Valley is an important area for early Christian monastic movements that have been coming to live and pray there since the fifth century AD, mainly the Maronite Church between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1998, the valley was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural landscape.

This paper analyses the articles in periodicals published in the territory of Montenegro from 1835 to 1941, which describe the monasteries in the basin of Lake Skadar. During the Middle Ages the Lake and its surroundings geographically belonged to Duklja, Zeta and was part of the states that left rich cultural legacy. Serbian ruling dynasties the Vojislavljevic, Nemanjic, Balsic and Cmojevic built monasteries in basin of the lake and bestowed on them rich gifts, such as Precista Krajinska, Vranjina, Beska, Starcevo, Moracnik, and Kom. Filip Radicevic, Ilarion Ruvarac, Andrija Jovicevic, Marko Dragovic, Lazar Tomanovic, Toma Oraovac et al. wrote about these monasteries in Montenegrin periodicals. A large number of these articles spoke about the great role and influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church in this area during the Middle Ages, thus saving the tradition about the size and power of Serbian medieval state.

Freethought was a transnational movement that developed particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century, spreading across Europe and other world regions and promoting new models for society. The present article proposes an investigation of the contours and developments of the freethought movement in Romania before World War I. This is an important area of research given that most analyses performed to date have considered only the Western world and not the Eastern European context.Our intention is to elucidate to what extent the European models influenced this movement and to uncover their impact on the Romanian society of the time. The paper highlights the criticisms of the clerics (especially Orthodox) upon freethought, showing that the development of this current in Romania as a national movement represented not simply imitation of the European models, but an adaptation of those models to Romanian realities. The Romanian freethinkers can be seen trying to develop some of the most radi...

This article reviews the four marks of the Church − Unity, Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity − from the perspective of the Armenian Apostolic historical, doctrinal and liturgical tradition, with particular reference to the importance of the total identification of church and people and drawing attention to comparisons with the ecclesiological works and treatises of Western traditions. Within the rich context of the history and liturgical life of the Armenian Orthodox Church, the author expounds the meaning of the four marks of the Church, their co-inherence and linkage with the Incarnation of Christ, which enables the Church, ‘in her earthly and heavenly missions’ to reflect ‘the historical and mystical realities of what the apostles experienced in their mission as witnesses and teachers sent by Jesus Christ himself’.

The aim of this paper is to present the participation of Russian artists in the emergence and development of the Art Deco style in Serbian architecture, the style that marked the period between two world wars. In emanations of this style in Serbia, Russian architects and sculptors were of great importance, though their role was not discussed in historiography as a separate phenomenon. The decorative attitude made this essentially modern style more accessible to the refined artistic taste of Serbian social elite, which made Art Deco part of the image of its representative identity. In this period, Belgrade engaged architects arriving from Russia, who followed the local artistic demands, oriented toward decorative but also modern architectural form, and produced significant artistic oeuvre. Art Deco in Serbia was based on the modernization of constructions and building forms, nevertheless focused on facade decoration, enriched with ornaments, stylized reliefs, sculptures and fine-detailed ironwork. Architect and sculptor Roman Verhovskoj interpolated elements of the Art Deco style in an expressive and powerful way. Vladimir Zagorodnjuk decorated many public and apartment buildings with reliefs. ViktorLukomski as the architect of the Yugoslav government designed the Palace of the Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the State Hotel on Avala mountain. Architects Aleksander Medvedev, Valerij Stashevski, Andrej Papkov and Grigorij Samojlov embraced the style of softened, rhythmical, ornamentally enriched architecture, and developed a specific line of ornamental Art Deco. Creating the elaborate Art Deco interior of Cinema Belgrade, the most elite movie theater in Yugoslav capital, architect Grigorij Samojlov brought the spirit of Hollywood to Belgrade. The interwar development of the city and the quadruple increase in population were followed by the creation of its architectural identity, decisively marked by the modernity of Art Deco, following global trends that put it close to Paris, New York, Madrid, Casablanca, Havana, and Mumbai. In the oeuvre of Russian architects who worked in Serbia between two world wars, we notice a large variety of typical Art Deco motifs. Either contemporary or originating from classical, national, religious or mythological art, they are always transformed in accordance with contemporary modern spirit without direct application of topical templates. Already present in the early, initial phase of the style (1920–1927), related to Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925, Russian architects and sculptors strongly reflected the new style in the mature stage of its development (1928–1934), adopting both ornamental and sculptural forms of Art Deco. In the 1930s, their involvement in public and private architecture alike intertwined with the activities of local builders, with whom they equally participated in winning markets and personal self-fulfillment. In the late stages of Art Deco style, which in Serbian architecture developed in the period of 1935–1941, the Russian builders expressed the “joie de vivre” spirit characteristic of Art Deco, which became the most explicit form of the positive, creative global connectivity bringing to life some highlights of Serbian architecture.

The paper deals with the question of the dynamics of relations between the political power elite, the LGBT population and the Serbian Orthodox Church in the overall context of the Europeanization of Serbia. An insight is provided into the mechanism(s) through which the political elite in Serbia reproduces its dominant position. Serbian society is depicted as a captured one, and this is illustrated by empirical findings from a survey and in-depth interviews. This is followed by a focus on the political elite’s instrumentalization of the issue of sexual freedom in obtaining international support for maintenance of power through “tactical Europeanization”. After this the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church vis-à-vis the state and its alleged support for LGBT issues is considered. The Church seems to have “realized” that being silent on the LGBT issue is more profitable in a symbolic, as well as, in a material sense.

Downy mildew is one of the limiting factors of corn production in Indonesia. Several efforts have been needed to control pathogens, one of them is the development of resistant varieties. New resistant varieties must be developed to prevent a decrease in genetic diversity in a region due to dependence on one variety. Germplasms collected from a variety of different environmental conditions is a potential source of genetic diversity. This study aims to determine the resistance of maize germplasm accession to downy mildew caused by P. philippinensis. In this study, the total number of 96 accessions of maize germplasm were tested. The experiment was arranged in a group design with 2 replications. The intensity of downy mildew infection was observed based on the incidence of the disease in 25, and 35 days after planting(DAP). The value of Area under Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) is also calculated based on the intensity of downy mildew infection in a particular observation period. One accession which showed high resistance to downy mildew (Peronosclerospora philipinensis) was obtained, namely accession number 808 with 0 per cent infection and 0 AUDPC value, lower than the resistant varieties (Bima 3) used as a comparison, which had an average 5-10% infection and 103.5 AUDPC value. The accession obtained can be used as the source of the downy mildew resistance trait for the development of the new highly resistant variety.

89Religious education (RE) returned to the Romanian school curricula after almost 50 years of socialist and communist leadership, but the discussions concerning whether religion should or should not be taught in Romania’s public schools remained a hot topic throughout the last few years. With the overwhelming majority of Romanians declaring themselves ‘Orthodox’ (86.45 per cent according to the last census from 2011), 1 RE meant for the vast majority of pupils Orthodox teachings, throughout primary and secondary school, with no alternative subjects offered. The critics (mainly from civil society) addressed various concerns regarding teaching religion in public schools, from the fact that RE was an elective-compulsory subject taught in a confessional manner to the design and content of the RE textbooks, most notably the Orthodox ones. 2 The debate concerning the Orthodox RE textbooks touched mainly upon the moral dimension of the textbooks’ teachings and the means chosen by the Romanian Orthodox Church to promote its understanding of a moral and civic education, with little attention paid to other questionable approaches, such as the treatment of other denominations – part of the post-communist Romanian religious landscape. The discussion also lacked almost any academic dimension and appeared constantly in the media, often in a sensationalist manner, focusing extensively on the simplistic way several Orthodox RE textbooks treat certain behaviour as sin.

This research is part of the project Creative Agency and Religious Minorities: Hidden Galleries in the Secret Police Archives in Central and Eastern Europe. The project has received funding from the European Research 2020 research and innovation programme No. 677355. In the 20th century, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, and the Soviet atheist state each pursued missions that attempted to transform Moldovans into loyal and trustworthy subjects and to integrate them into new state structures. This article explores the "liminal" character of Moldovan identities forged on the Russian and Romanian borderlands through the prism of Moldova's "home-grown" religious movements. Grassroots movements led by charismatic and "trickster" religious figures "played" with dichotomies of the hidden and the revealed, innovation and tradition, and human and divine, succeeding in transforming the subject positions of whole segments of Moldovan peasant society. The resulting forms of "liminal" Orthodoxy have proved enduring, perpetually critiquing and transgressing canonical norms from the margins and subverting the discourses and narratives that seek to "harmonize" identities and to consolidate nation, state, and church in the Republic of Moldova.

What might have befallen the “Jews of Arab lands” in the shadow of the Holocaust certainly did not apply in the case of Lebanon. Lebanese Jewish life was markedly different from Jewish life elsewhere in the Arab-defined Middle East. This chapter speaks to a relatively “stable” Lebanese Jewish experience, in an era when the world at large was committing collective suicide, when the Jews of Europe were on the cusp of destruction, and when Middle Eastern Jewry was being slated for a similar fate.

Maronites who are identified as Monothelet by some historians mostly lived in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and Cyprus. They were recognized in Yohannes Maron’s leadership as a different community in Christian world. A long period following Maron’s death is not known well. During the period of the Crusades, they built close relationship with the Christian World. Although they had lived under ottomans sovereignty following the conquest of Syria and Egypt by Ottomans, they were particularly affected by French cultural and political influences. In nineteenth century there were important changes in social and economical architecture of Ottomans and rest of the world. Consequently, coastal regions with rich economical surroundings and port-town such as Izmir, Mersin, Beirut, and Haifa developed rapidly. The fact that a Maronite church was started out at Mersin in this period indicates the formation of a Maronites community. For different reasons, over the time, Maronites emigrated from their homeland to different countries. In nineteenth century majority appear to immigrate to America and a small number of the community settled in Adana, Tarsus, and Mersin. There are different views about the reason for their migration. In this study, demographical records of Maronites who settled in Mersin were evaluated.

One of the specificities of the actual Romanian death system is the poor development of cremation: there are three functional crematoria in Romania, a country with 19 million inhabitants, and the percentage of cremation is 0.37% of deaths per year (2016). This occurs in spite of the fact that Romania was a pioneer of cremation in South-Eastern Europe during the interwar period. Moreover, Romania was the first country where a crematorium was opened in 1928, even if the Orthodoxy represented the main denomination of the population (by comparison, the Soviet case is totally different). This chapter focuses on the intricate relations between the issues of cremation and the Romanian Orthodox Church during the last two centuries. According to the Romanian Orthodox Church Synods’ decisions (1928, 1933, and 2012) cremation is banned and the orthodox priests who perform religious service at the cremation assumes the risk to be defrocked. Under these conditions, this chapter analyzes from the historical point of view, the Romanian Orthodox Church’s reasons for such attitude, in the general context.

After the end of the Second World War, approximately half the Jewish population in Romania was lost. Since the Orthodox Church was playing an important role in Eastern Europe as a social institutio...

Traditional foods tailored for religiously restricted menus represent up to a third of the Romanian food market during fasting and other religious periods, but food safety and enforcement organizations can only verify label declarations with products, without reference to the requirements imposed by the various Christian doctrines, 1 collectively still the largest religion in the world (ca. 2.5 billion people globally). A basic knowledge of food selection and restrictions associated with aspects of the Christian Church, described in Canon law, is crucial for food processing and certification as well as laws of fasting and abstinence practiced by believers throughout the liturgical year. Ideally, certification would include catering and restaurants, as well as specific events and tourism worldwide, and food companies should guarantee compliance with religious requirements to have value with consumers. Similarly, food authorities should provide – and be provided with – a checklist itemizing forbidden components and recommended procedures, which can be included in guidelines for manufacturers and retailers. Specific global and/or regional certification organization would avoid or reduce manufacture of counterfeit and/or fraudulent products, and strengthen positive perceptions of the commercial value and quality of certified products and services among relevant consumers. The present paper research aims to present the state-of-the-art and future trends regarding religious dietary laws and requirements for certification in the Romanian Orthodox Church food market.

Serbian Orthodox Church under the rule of the sultanate, mosques in Serbia. Sacral spaces as troublesome locationsThe territorial overlapping of the Ottoman Empire and the reaches of the Orthodox Church resulted in the emergence of new, complex phenomena and forms that managed to survive till the present times to a varying extent and by different means. These forms have become a part of the problematic and “difficult” tradition. Mosques and orthodox ­churches from the Ottoman times can be found among them. The subsequent reigns realised the ­symbolic impact of these temples on the area of religion, politics and culture. In the Ottoman times, the possibility of construction of new sacral buildings was determined by the then-current relations between the Serbian patriarchy and the caliphate. The fate of these buildings depended on the political situation, dominating imperial projects, cultural politics of the Serbian state and the local religious structure. The connections between temples and the dynamics of the political history of the Balkans is substantial: the temples were torn down and redesigned, the shape and location of orthodox churches relied on decisions by the Ottoman administration and the rules of oriental urbanism. However the mosques bear traces of inspiration with the Byzantine culture. Observing the development of sacral architecture in Niš – at the background of the political and social relations of the Ottoman empire, one is led to believe that orders rooted in external civilisations – the Islamic religion and the Orthodox Church, retained their individuality but at the same time continued to influence each other which is apparent in the wandering architectural patterns.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (Matt. 28:19) was one of the early golden verses from the Bible I memorized when I was in elementary school at the Armenian Evangelical School in Lebanon. (1) Who was being addressed? I asked myself. The church, my missionary teachers or me as a girl? The question remained with me until I learned the theology of mission of my church and became involved in the ecumenical movement. Mission: An ecumenical journey While at the Evangelical School, I faced a dilemma: On Sunday I attended the liturgy in the Armenian Orthodox church with my family, and during the week, I attended Bible studies and memorized golden verses at school. My parents explained to me the missionary nature of our church as the eucharistic community where discipleship meant internal conversion, commitment to Christian values of love and justice, and serving the world. My parents' explanation of God's mission contrasted with the school's message of repentance and personal salvation. In my mind, I was a sinner during the week and God's child growing up to serve humanity on Sundays. This different understanding of mission made me question the theology of mission of my church. In our history classes we learned that Armenians were the first people to adopt Christianity as national religion in 301 CE. How could the founders of our faith, the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who evangelized Armenia, and our church fathers be wrong? How about our Muslim neighbours and friends? While my parents assured me that my neighbours and friends were not doomed to go to hell, yet I always feared for them. My role as a girl-child having received the message "go forth" was clarified later when I joined the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) respectively as staff. My ecumenical quest, which led to the creation of the European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL), began with my work at the Ecumenical Youth and Students Secretariat of the Middle East in Beirut (2) and as development secretary. The next step was my appointment as executive secretary for Inter-Church Aid and Development Programme, the only woman executive in the newly constituted Middle East Council of Churches in 1974. During the 1970s Paulo Freire was a staff member at the WCC and his pedagogy (3)--based on "conscientization"/"awareness building" and liberation of the poor and the oppressed through reflection and action in the liberational methodological rhythm of See, Judge, and Act-guided our work. As head of the development department, I was further inspired by the WCC Commission on Churches Participation in Development (CCPD) with its emphasis on development as a process to promote social justice, self-reliance, and economic growth. The 1980s brought a new understanding of mission to the ecumenical movement through the WCC central committee's approval in 1982 of the document "Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation." (4) The document included the Orthodox pneumatology and showed the interrelationship between Christololgy and the Holy Spirit, as later explained by the current Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram I: The Triune God is the source of life. The Holy Spirit is the giver of life, the life-giving presence of the Triune God. Like breath, the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers life in human beings and in the whole creation. Without the presence of the Spirit all things in creation "die and return to dust" (Psalm 104:29). The Holy Spirit is not only the generator of life, but the one who sustains it. (5) The clarification that God is Trinity and the risen Christ is active in the Spirit as manifested through the Pentecost emphasized the cosmic nature of salvation and opened a new way of reflecting on creation, reconciliation, and healing. …

For the most part, contemporary Romanian Orthodox spirituality is still heavily based on a rhetoric which builds on the notion of ancestry with the intention not only to provide Romanians with a safe comfort zone, but also to secure its privileges and influence over most of today’s Romanian society. In attempting to go back in history to demonstrate that the ancestry of Romanians is sufficient proof for their full and unconditional adherence to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in its local Romanian version as the Romanian Orthodox Church, most of today’s representatives of Romanian Orthodox spirituality—notably Dumitru Stăniloae, Ioan Rămureanu, and Teoctist, the former Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church—focused on a rhetoric that, on the one hand, takes Romanians back to their Thracian, Dacian, and Roman ancestors, while on the other hand, seeks to inculcate the idea that an unflinching adherence to this specific ancestry, which is described as Christian by nature and birth, must be kept at all costs. Thus, this specific kind of rhetoric attempts to build a protective fence around Romanians, who are taught that they need to preserve their Eastern Orthodox Christianity and their allegiance to the Romanian Orthodox Church mostly because, since their ancestors were Christians, they are in fact born Christian. The process of building this protective wall around Romanians is described by means of the term ‘ecodomy’ and, unlike its general use in contemporary debates as focusing on positive aspects, the particular focus of the Romanian Orthodox Church on ecodomy based on the idea of ancestry is going to be revealed mostly through a chain of negative connotations. Thus, the contemporary rhetoric of the Romanian Orthodox Church based on the notion of ancestry as ecodomy—one may even call it negative ecodomy—is going to be explained in connection with three fundamental aspects, namely church, nation, and culture, all intended to preserve not only the influence of the Romanian Orthodox Church in nowadays Romanian society, but also a set of privileges in its relationship with the state.

Cremation in Romania is shaped by several distinctive issues in comparison to Western societies, not least the existence of a single operating crematorium for 20 million inhabitants (in 2011). The most critical problem of the Romanian death system is the lack of available burial places in urban areas, a crisis that could be solved through the acceptance and expansion of cremation as an alternative solution. The goal of this paper is to analyse attitudes towards death in Romania, particularly focusing on the issue of cremation. The main conclusion is that the position of the Romanian Orthodox Church and its influence in Romanian society is the major explanation for the current situation. The lower degree of secularisation in Romanian society compared to other European countries is an important factor in shaping the specificity of Romanian practices in relation to death and cremation.

У овом прилогу посматране су композиције за веће инструменталне саставе српског савременог композитора Милорада Маринковића (рођ. 1976): Херојска увертира за симфонијски оркестар (1999), Псалмодија за симфонијски оркестар (2006), Концерт за клавир и оркестар и Мала опера за камерни септет (2010). Након разматрања композиторовог разумевања термина религиозна, духовна и црквена музика, следи анализа која има за циљ да покаже да обликотворни елементи који се уочавајусу присутни у свим наведеним делима, а то су – а то су циклични принцип, наглашена улога прве (главне) теме, коришћење (инструменталног) исона и, уопштено говорећи, тежња ка интегрисаности музичког тока – омогућавају да се она посматрају као остварења религиозне музике. Поред тога, разматрана је природа коришћених музичких материјала, елементи програмности који су присутни у композицијама, као и нарочит однос Милорада Маринковића према стваралаштву Љубице Марић (1909–2003), као узору за коришћење мелодија из српског Осмогласника у инструменталној музици. The opus of contemporary Serbian composer Milorad Marinković (b. 1976), which encompasses works of choral, chamber, concertante and symphony music, leans towards classical forms of artistic music, Serbian folklore music, and Serbian Orthodox church chant. This paper deals with pieces composed for larger instrumental ensembles: Herojska uvertira (Heroic Overture) for symphony orchestra, Psalmodija (Psalmody) for symphony orchestra, Koncert za klavir i orkestar (Piano concerto) and Mala opera (Little Opera) for chamber ensemble (septet) with prominent soloist parts of flute and clarinet. Special attention is placed on different procedures used by Marinković to accomplish wholeness and integration of the musical tissue. This paper observes these pieces as examples of religious music, having in mind the composer’s own understanding of the notion. Among common characteristics of the observed works that justify this point of view are specifc single movement forms and the prominent role of main thematic materials, a cyclic principle, and programmatic elements. References to Serbian church chant observed in Marinković’s instrumental works are also discussed, especially in parallel with the analogue procedures used by Ljubica Marić (1909– 2003), one of the composer’s role models. Although Marinković’s works for instrumental ensembles do not fall into the category of spiritual music in its narrow sense (as defned by the composer himself), in this paper they are nevertheless considered as “spiritual” in a broader sense, as an expression of the composer’s desire to spiritualize his entire artistic output.

The Slava has been a folk-religious holiday among the Serbs for centuries. As the cult of a specific Christian saint within the family (genus, tribe), a protector and giver, over time many common structural elements of the ritual emerged. However, the ways of celebrating, ritual meals and duration of the Slava have certain local variances which are caused by folk- religious traditions as well as the wider (state) and socio-political context. From the 13th century onward the Slava has been under a strong influence from the Serbian Orthodox Church. The contemporary way of celebrating the Slava has been formed by the Church. Some authors have considered the Slava a marker of Serbian national identity. The Slava is a social and spiritual good passed down from father to son. In matrilocal marriage, the son in law accepts the Slava from his father in law, and keeps his own as secondary. Over the centuries here were many limitations and even bans on the practice of the Slava, most notably imposed on the Serbs by the Venetian republic and the Austro-Hungarian Empire – all with the aim of imposing a union of the faith with the Vatican and turning the Orthodox faithful over to Catholicism. Key words: Slava, Serbs, Christianity, Orthodox Church, national identity

Multianalytical study of two Serbian icons, “The Virgin and Child” and “St. Petka”, painted on canvas by unknown authors was performed in order to identify materials used as pigments, binders and ground layer. Investigated icons belong to the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. Samples, collected from different parts of the icons, were analysed by: optical microscopy (OM), energy dispersive X-Ray fluorescence (EDXRF), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Obtained results reveal presence of the following pigments: Prussian blue, ultramarine, green earth, iron oxides, lead white and zinc white. Linseed oil was used as a binder. Materials used for ground layers were gypsum, calcite, baryte and lead white. Gilded surface of the icon “The Virgin and Child” was made of gold. Gilded surface on the frame of this icon was made of imitation of gold i.e. Schlagmetal, since EDXRF spectroscopy showed presence of copper and zinc, while gold was not detected. Based on style and art historian consideration as well as on obtained results for corresponding pigments and binder both icons were the most probably made at the end of 19th or beginning of the 20th century. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177021]

Los Serbii od tysiąca lat związany jest z atoskim monasterem Chilandar. Sam monaster do momentu przejęcia przez Serbów istniał już od dwustu lat jednakże w 1198 roku został oficjalnie przekazany przez cesarza bizantyńskiego Aleksego III Angelosa, serbskiemu królowi Stefanowi Nemanii (przyjął mnisze imię Symeon) oraz jego synowi Rastko, który przyjął na Atosie mnisze imię Sawa. Ci dwaj późniejsi święci Cerkwi serbskiej przeszedłszy na Atosie przez wszystkie stopnie życia monastycznego sprawili, że monaster Chilendar stał się centrum życia kulturowo – duchowego, jak również i politycznego czasach niewoli osmańskiej. To tutaj na tle przepięknej atoskiej przyrody w klimacie modlitwy i zaciszu bogatych zbiorów chilendarskiej biblioteki, najwybitniejsze autorytety zarówno duchowne jak i świeckie otrzymały przygotowanie dla pracy zarówno misyjnej jak i politycznej co było bardzo istotne w szczególności w czasach pięćset letniej niewoli tureckiej. Wszelką pomoc przychodzącą z zewnątrz, okupowanej Serbii jak również z prawosławnej Rosji i rumuńsko-mołdawskich możnowładców chilendarscy ojcowie dzielili pomiędzy wszystkie potrzebujące atoskie monastery nie bacząc na pochodzenie etniczne ich mnichów. Te małe sumy przeznaczane było do opłacania drakońskich podatków i renowacji podupadających atoskich monasterów. Po uzyskaniu niepodległości Serbia po okresie pięćsetletniego polityczno-kulturowo-religijnego niebytu musiała utorować sobie drogę do odnalezienia się w nowej europejskiej rzeczywistości. Również los Chilendaru nie pozostał obojętny dla formułującej się na od nowa serbskiej państwowości. Monaster zapełnił się na nowo serbskimi mnichami. Odbudowywali oni nie tylko struktury życia monastycznego ale kładli podwaliny dla dalszego duchowo-kulturalnego rozwoju wyzwolonej z islamskiej niewoli swojej serbskiej ojczyzny.

Social engagement is an urgent need of our world. For the Church, social involvement is part of its missionary vocation, because it is not only an eschatological purpose, but also a temporal, earthly one. It aims primarily to create communion and human solidarity, as an expression and understanding of experience of the divine presence, but also as a necessity of life, as a fundamental need to help each other. We were created by the same single God, we all share, regardless of race, colour, gender, education and religion, the same humanity that we customize specifically, so we have to be sensitive to the needs of those around us. From its very beginning, the Christian Church was involved in social activities, initiating the very first institutions for social assistance such as: hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, with free care without discrimination of beneficiaries. Furthermore, the first free public schools appeared under religious patronage. Today, the Romanian Orthodox Church is concerned with social involvement, as in its entire history, having such priorities as: helping those who are unable to support their own existence; integration of migrants into society; supporting the education of children whose parents have emigrated abroad; supporting social equity through direct community initiatives, including legislation; promoting solidarity and social communion; supporting youth education for dialogue, openness to the needs of the neighbour; and promoting the common values of humanity.

Armenia emerged as a new nation during the First World War, joining the world order that was taking shape in the wake of collapsing empires. President Woodrow Wilson, in his wartime addresses, proclaimed the principles that should guide the peacemaking for this new world. His decision to attend the 1919 Paris Peace Conference increased the expectations that all peoples, including the Armenians, would have a better future. Wilsonian ideology promised peace and justice for all nations, both old and new. American power, greater than that of any other empire, would presumably enable the United States to help others fulfill Wilson's ideals in the post-war world. Contrary to these hopes, however, Armenia failed as a new nation, revealing not only its own limits but also those of Wilsonianism. The realities of international politics prevented the Armenian people, who had suffered so much in the past, from achieving the Wilsonian promise after the Great War. The limits of American power and ideology resulted in an outcome very different from what the Armenians wanted and what the US President had heralded. Armenia possessed assets that made it attractive to American leaders. Its people were white – literally Caucasian – and Christian, at least culturally, as a result of the Armenian Orthodox Church's role since the fourth century CE in shaping and preserving national traditions. It also enjoyed bipartisan support from the American political elite. Not only the Democratic President but also the Republican leader, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, favored the new nation.

Hungarian Calvinists made a concerted effort to build a Romanian Reformed community in the Transylvanian principality during the seventeenth century. The attempts to create a Romanian Reformed community in seventeenth-century Transylvania was an inevitable failure. This chapter focuses at Hungarian Calvinist attempts to reform Transylvanian Orthodoxy during the seventeenth century. The seventeenth-century Calvinist mission to the Orthodox population of Transylvania was a distinct movement from previous efforts to convert Romanians undertaken during the sixteenth century by both Lutherans and Calvinists. The Transylvanian principality was a Reformed state from the early decades of the seventeenth century led by Reformed princes, and with Calvinism as its ruling ideology. As a result of institutional reforms undertaken as part of the Calvinist mission to Orthodoxy, the Romanian Orthodox Church technically became part of the Transylvanian Reformed Church. The imposition of conditions on new Orthodox metropolitans in Transylvania continued throughout the seventeenth century.

Based on the issues of the journal Christiyanka (Christian Woman), an organ of the Union of Orthodox Parish Confraternities in Bulgaria, the present chapter discusses the media strategies of the clergy and laity for defining and defending the aspirations of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to intervene actively in the social sphere after World War I. This chapter shows how this specific version of religious renewal presupposed collaboration with the state, a kind of secularisation of the main functions of the clergy, and a monopolisation of discussions of social questions by the Church. It also traces the development of the Bulgarian conception of practical Christianity‚ understood as intensive charitable work and influenced by the Protestant diaconia and Catholic caritas.

The chapter presents detailed findings on the earliest intellectual networks and grassroots groups that engaged in Serb nationalist activism in BiH, merged to form SDS, and defined the party’s internal power relations. Recognizing that the agency of the Serb movement in BiH extended beyond the official party, it also discusses a variety of different organizations and modalities that circulated the same discourse and thus contributed to the same political mission. These are Serb cultural societies, the Serbian Orthodox Church, official institutions staffed by SDS personnel, and the Serb para-institutions that the party created in 1991 and 1992 to oppose unfavorable decisions by the Bosnian government.

This chapter is an attempt to present the formation, main characteristics, and development of the God Worshipper movement on the basis of historical sources and the press. It further seeks to offer an answer to the question of to what extent this movement was indigenous or influenced by other similar movements. The God Worshipper movement emerged in the Kingdom of Serbia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Movement received the official blessing of the Church in 1920; it quickly spread in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and from 1932 received an ‘institutional-religious framework’. Worshippers influenced monastic life in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), helping to increase the number of monks. After 1945, the God Worshipper Movement retreated underground and slowly disappeared.

This chapter tries to understand the complex field of lived religion, nationalism, and sexual (in)tolerance by analyzing the online public responses to the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Irinej’s comments on the Belgrade Gay Pride Parade 2012. The aim is to identify discourse strategies of commenters on the most visited online multimedia portals in the Serbian language who responded to the news items published on October 3, 2012 concerning Patriarch Irinej’s open letter to the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, urging him to ban the upcoming Pride Parade. The discursive strategies found in the material are organized in two main categories. Relational strategies (focus on online intolerance) emphasize the direct interaction between speaker and audience, in this case between the Patriarch and the commenters. Argumentative strategies (focus on online lived religion) highlight the content of the interactions. The concept of lived religion will serve here as an analytical and epistemological tool for understanding online religious practice and its perspectives on the politics of intolerance in Serbia. Lived religion is understood as the patterns of meaning, experience, and action of religious and spiritual persons and groups that emerge from and contribute to their relation with (what they consider to be) the sacred. The focus of a lived religion approach is neither on the canonical sources of a religious tradition nor on the doctrinal calibration of religious convictions but on the day-to-day ways in which religion is lived. Religion then is also understood in a broad sense, including the major traditions and denominations as well as post-modern spiritualities, indigenous cultural habits, and civil religion or implicit religion (Ganzevoort and Roeland 2014). More specifically, in this chapter we will not be looking at the theological debates about religious diversity (theologia religionum), nor at those about sexual diversity. Instead we will focus on the ways the debates are played out in public discourse at the societal level. Recent developments in the study of lived religion mostly focus on the importance of lived religion in individual everyday religious/spiritual practices and experiences in specific sociocultural contexts; less effort is spent in grasping the complex subtleties of how religion is lived in virtual spaces. For that reason, there is a clear shortfall in the existing literature in terms of analyzing lived religion in the virtual (online) spaces.

This chapter offers an example of the renewal of the Church in the Romanian context and highlights the enduring power of Scripture to change lives and renew communities within an Eastern Orthodox context. It looks at the crucial role that the Bible played for renewal movements within the Romanian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the twentieth century by presenting the lives and influence of three key Orthodox priests: Dumitru Cornilescu, Dumitru Popescu, and Iosif Trifa (the founder of the Lord’s Army). An important section of this chapter explores the foundation, establishment, and theology of the Lord’s Army. This chapter also presents a brief portrait of the renowned Romanian Orthodox peasant poet Traian Dorz, the second leader of the Lord’s Army in Romania

This chapter studies the influence of renewal religious movements on the language policies of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the second half of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries before the decision to introduce modern Serbian into the religious service was taken in 1964. The chapter recognises the influence of Protestant communities , particularly the Nazarenes and Adventists , ‘the movement of the pious’ (which later evolved into the God Worshipper movement), the Greek Orthodox brotherhoods of Zoe and Soter, and the liturgical renewal movement in the Roman Catholic Church .

After obtaining autonomy from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1831, the Serbian Orthodox Church gradually established and strenghtened its position by means of constitutions and laws of the Principality of Serbia which were passed in the course of the XIX century. The established status of an official state church implied considerable priviledges but also the readiness to accept potential candidates designated by the Prince or the Government for the highest hierarch positions as well as the state’s control over practically all segments of religious life. This relationship in which provisions of the Canon Law were frequently ignored, forged a kind of partnership enabling the state to strenghten its economy and democratic institutions while at the same time providing the church with an opportunity to improve its internal organization, the quality of candidates entering priesthood and to create favourable conditions for its spiritual mission. The dissatisfaction with the Russian politics after the Congress of Berlin and the shift towards a new foreign policy relying heavily on the support of Austria-Hungary, soon took toll on the relations between Prince Milan and Metropolitan Mihailo who was a notorious Russophile and a fervent advocate of the Pan-Slavic solidarity. Dissatisfied with the Metropolitan’s activities in Bosnia, the new ally demanded that the Prince remove the dangerous opponent which proved to be a daunting task, due to the Metropolitan’s popularity and his demonstrated leadership skills. In 1881, under the pretext that the Church opposed the Tax law, the Prince’s Government, led by the Progressive Political Party first removed Metropolitan Mihailo which was followed by the removal of all other remaining disobedient Episcopes in 1883. The 1882 amendments to the Law on Church Authorities of the Eastern Orthodox Religion which resulted in changes of the composition of the Assembly of Bishops and included more lay people in the body tasked with the election of the Metropolitan, represented a genuine coup against the Church unprecedented in its centuries long history and practically annulled the canonical order governing the life and functioning of the Orthodox Churches. Having elected the new Metropolitan and Episcopes, the Government led by the Progressive Party established such an organization of the Church which was utterly dependent on the will of the state and the balance of powers on the Serbia’s political scene. The altered political circumstances brought about by King Milan’s abdication and normalization of relations with the Radical Party, enabled Metropolitan Mihailo’s return and reestablishment of previous order in the Church. The ancient Canons, which were ignored at one point in history, proved their vitality, but these events were also convenient for the growing middle class to send a clear message to the Church that the old times of harmonized activity were gone and that the new forces were taking over the public and state affairs.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, new religious communities and movements began to arise in Serbia. The appearance of these new religious trends was influenced by the West, and their expansion was facilitated by the general state of Serbian society and the Church. By the interventions of particular members of the clergy, this national religious impulse was channelled into the unique God Worshipper movement. The characteristics of its followers (God Worshippers, or bogomoljci) were regularly going to church, frequent praying, fasting, self-sacrifice, charity, and the chanting of specific hymns. The aim of the paper is to consider the characteristics of God Worshippers’ melopoetic creativity and thus contribute to a more comprehensive perception of this religious phenomenon, which significantly defined and shaped contemporary ecclesiality.

The post-war period in Lebanon brought to the open all sensitive subjects that have marked the history of Lebanon: how to avoid falling into such a crisis? How not repeating such war? How can the Lebanese society eradicate the reasons that may lead to any other war? The Lebanese crisis had challenged the Church inviting her to move from being a passive witness to an active participant in the peaceful struggle for the liberation of the Lebanese society and help the country to complete its incorrect reading of history. Can the Maronite Patriarchate have a positive role in this regard? Can the Maronite Patriarchate bring about the purifi cation of the memory in a multiconfessional country? In this paper, and after defi ning the meaning of the purifi cation of memory in the Lebanese context, we will consider the important challenges that must precede any serious and defi nitive solution to the crisis in Lebanon and how can the Lebanese Church contribute in the development of a national identity and in the building of a new state free from any kind of domination. The purpose of this paper is not to justify what has happened in the past 34 years, i.e. since the beginning of the Lebanese war, but to contribute in searching for a sustainable peace.

Hristofor Zhefarovich’s Stemmatographia as a document of the cultural and national aspirations of the Serbs in the first half of the eighteenth century Stemmatographia, by Hristofor Zhefarovich (1741), was one of the most important Serbian books published in the first half of the 18 th century. The first part contains the majestic portraits of the canonized Serbian sovereigns who built and strengthened the medieval Serbian state; the second part presents images of the coats of arms of the Balkan lands. Work composed in such a way corresponded to the political and religious program of the Archbishopric of Karlovci, the most important Serbian religious and secular institution in the lands belonging to the Habsburg monarchy. The reference to the tradition of the medieval state by presenting images of rulers and marking its territories by coats of arms legitimized the authority of the Serbian Orthodox Church that declared itself to be the heir and continuator of this tradition. At the same time, the gallery of portraits of the rulers and Orthodox Church notables constituted the national pantheon of saints that conferred a sacral aspect on Serbian history. Stematografija Hristofora Žefarovicia jako dokument kulturowych i narodowych dązen Serbow w pierwszej polowie XVIII wieku Stematografija Hristofora Žefarovicia (1741) byla jedną z najwazniejszych serbskich ksiązek wydanych w pierwszej polowie XVIII wieku. Pierwsza jej cześc zawiera majestatyczne portrety kanonizowanych serbskich wladcow, ktorzy budowali i umacniali średniowieczne panstwo serbskie; druga przedstawia wizerunki herbow ziem balkanskich. Tak skomponowanie dzielo wpisywalo sie w polityczno-religijny program Metropolii Karlowickiej, najwazniejszej serbskiej instytucji religijnej i świeckiej na ziemiach nalezących do monarchii habsburskiej. Odwolanie sie do tradycji średniowiecznego panstwa poprzez zaprezentowanie wizerunkow wladcow oraz określenie jego terytoriow poprzez umieszczenie herbow legitymizowalo wladze serbskiej Cerkwi uznającej sie za spadkobierczynie i kontynuatorke tej tradycji. Jednocześnie galeria portretow wladcow i dostojnikow cerkiewnych konstytuowala narodowy panteon świetych, ktory nadawal historii Serbii wymiar sakralny.

The new European state Montenegro has been a scene for an internal ecclesial strife between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the newly formed Montenegrin Orthodox Church since the early nineties. This article focuses on the ecclesiological models used in the discussion between the two churches. On one side the Montenegrin Church understands itself from the classical juridical “eusebian” church model. This model’s main focus is the lawful canonic status of independent churches called autocephaly, which the Montenegrin Church claims to possess. On the other side the Serbian Orthodox Church operates with a Neo-patristic ecclesiological model that claims the Eucharist as the true form for an Orthodox Church. A form that the Serbian Church denies that its Montenegrin counterpart has. The two models are focused on two different key-aspects of the Orthodox ecclesiological complex, which are the canon laws and the genuine patristic tradition

The article highlights the issue of leadership within the Romanian Orthodox Church, as it is going through a period of redefinition of its values. Connections between organizational culture, management culture and leadership in modern organizations highlight the manner in which leadership is exercised in the context of knowledge of the organization's foundation.

Between 1944 and 1964, Romanian Orthodox Christians were imprisoned in large numbers, for political reasons. They have been regarded not as individual victims, nor just as members of a particularly...