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Using documents, books and articles written by Nicola Velimirović during World War I, this article investigates his attitude towards this conflagration and shows how his Christian views influence his outlook on this topic. Shared during his visits to the USA and England and via lectures given in venues like Westminster Abbey or Oxford University, his ideas make him a militant for peace and, at the same time, a man who defends his country's cause in front of the Austro-Hungarian abuses. Investigating his writings from this point of view is important because he manages to show a different face of the future Serbian bishop and brings to the fore his concerns regarding his contemporary society.

George Radin (Đorđe Radin, 1896–1981) was one of the numerous Serbian emigrants in the USA in the period right before WW2. He studied at the most eminent American Universities and had become an attorney, then a lawyer and finally an expert in international law. He managed to achieve great success and expertise in the field of American foreign politics and diplomacy. In the period between the two World Wars, he met Bishop Dr. Nicholai Velimirovich who made a strong impression on him. He was the Bishop’s guide across the USA during his two visits there: in 1920 and in 1927. During his first visit to the continent, the Bishop had organized the life of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), considering that at the time SOC didn’t have its residing bishop there. Radin was, according to his own testimony, one of the organizers of the Bishop’s arrival to America at the beginning of 1946. He had been of the opinion that this significant Bishop should live in one of the Protestant Churches and hold lectures at the Universities, thus serving SOC and its members. In other words, it was his conviction that the Bishop should have organized the church life in the same way he did in his previous two visits to the USA. However, the situation between the two World Wars was far more complicated. The Serbian Church had by that time appointed its ruling bishop in America and Canada — Dionisiye Milivoyevich (Dionisije Milivojević, 1898–1979), who parted ways with Bishop Nicholai soon after his arrival to the USA. Immense damage had been done to the SOC by the utter lack of cooperation between these two bishops. Bishop Nicholai found a “Solomon’s solution” for this by deciding to live and work in Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. It was in this holy place that he reposed in 1956. Until the end of his life, Radin was of the opinion that a fundamental mistake had been made by the secession of the opportunity that through abiding in the Protestant communities Bishop Nicholai might do more for the SOC and the Serbs, especially through his acquaintances and contacts with the representatives of other Christian confessions, primarily Protestants. He mentioned this in his correspondence with Sliјepchevich (Đoko Slijepčević, 1908–1993). Also, Radin made all the efforts in his power to help overcome the current schism in the SOC. He wrote about his opinions, ideas and steps taken in that direction to the bishops of the Serbian Church, as well as the Patriarch German Djorich himself. Even though the Patriarch of the SOC also made efforts to help overcome the schism, at one point he told Radin that this unfortunate and extremely difficult issue is an internal matter of the SOC, and thus should be dealt with internally. In the appendix of this work, there are excerpts from the letters found in the Radin — Slijepchevich correspondence. They illustrate the enormous mutual trust and respect that these two acquaintances had for each other, having met by the mediation of Bishop Nicholai. The excerpts also present the opinions of the respectful lawyer and law expert — Radin who, in his own way, tried to contribute to the benefit of the SOC. They also convey his judgment on the importance of Bishop Nicholai as well as his discernment about the missed opportunity that the above mentioned bishop should have been presented with in order to contribute more to the SOC, its faithful people and all the Serbs in general — on the American continent, as well as in the whole world. It is clear that he remained hindered in that respect — among other factors — by the will of Bishop Dionisiye. Only a few years after the death of Bishop Nicholai, the most complicated problem of the SOC in diaspora unraveled — the schism. Radin directed all his attention and efforts towards the solution of this problem, in the ways he considered to be the most acceptable. In all this he had agreement with and support of Slijepchevich, with whom he had researched the best ways of achieving reconciliation. Fragments of his letters imply that the majority of his emigrant life he devoted to taking care of Bishop Nicholai, as well as fighting against schism and finding the possibilities of its overcoming.

This article examines the disputes that existed in the interwar period over the recognition of a Romanian Orthodox bishopric in Yugoslavia (The official name ‘Yugoslavia’ was only adopted in 1929. From 1918 to 1929, the state was officially called the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom. For the sake of simplicity, I will use the name Yugoslavia throughout this article.) and a Serbian Orthodox bishopric in Romania. The reason for this was the existence of two ethnically distinct Orthodox Churches (Serbian and Romanian) on the territory of the dualistic Hungarian monarchy before 1918, but both with de facto autocephalous status and territorial overlap. They came into being after the decision of the Synod of Bishops of the Hungarian Orthodox Metropolis to separate the existing parishes and dioceses along ethnic lines. After the break-up of the dualistic monarchy at the end of the First World War, one of the Serbian Orthodox dioceses landed on the territory of Yugoslavia (Vršac) and the second on the territory of Romania (Timișoara). However, both Romanian bishoprics (Arad and Caransebeș) ended up in Romania. Under these circumstances, several Romanian parishes in the Yugoslav Banat remained without a direct episcopal hierarchy. As a result, diplomatic negotiations began between the Romanian and Yugoslav governments and between the hierarchs of the Orthodox Churches of Romania and Yugoslavia on the establishment of a Romanian diocese on Yugoslav territory.Contribution: This article deals with a lesser-known topic on the history of the Orthodox Churches in South Eastern Europe. Because there is no extensive literature on this subject, I have made use of unpublished documents from the archives of the Metropolitanate of Sibiu (Transylvania, Romania).

"Baptism inaugurates a life that daily moves forward to a battle, confident that in each sorrow, there is a more vigorous expression of the presence of the risen Christ. Baptism warns the Christian that if he shares the same life, he must face the same struggle of life unto death so that life is eternally victorious. Recent events in the Romanian Orthodox Church regarding the baptism of infants by immersion have ignited a civil debate and much criticism. The issue of baptism and for that matter, the baptism itself is very important. For the believers especially this is important. However, no matter how important this is, one has to agree that it should never ever lead to division and hate. Unfortunately, it looks like nothing among believers can lead to disagreement more than such discussions about the role of baptism, the meaning of it, and of course, the methods used to perform the baptism. On the other hand, there should be an agreement that ignoring the problems raised by this issue will not solve it at all, but instead creating even more problems and further the gap among many Christians, ultimately. The fact that there is a possibility to discuss this important doctrine as part of a dialog among many denominations, among many religions it will prove the level of one’s maturity to “agree to disagree” with the main goal of learning always and know what to stand for and what is worth fighting for. When it comes to major doctrines special attention should be given to the text, making sure that there is a proper, correct, throughout exegesis as well as a very good lexical and syntactical study. The purpose of this research is to dig deep into the Bible and more specifically exegete the text found in The Gospel of Matthew chapter 3, from verses 13 to 17, then view its theological lessons followed by practical applications."

Through the concrete steps taken by its members (clergy, believers, and monks), from 1998 until now, the Romanian Orthodox Church has carried out extensive actions to monitor and solve the migration crisis. Thanks to this approach, initiated and improved by its current Primate, His Beatitude, Patriarch Daniel, both in the country and in the diaspora of our Church, the phenomenon of migration was not only be monitored, but also solved both in accordance with Church rules and with State laws, as well as those of the Law of the European Union, that is, of the EU Member States. From our article, the informed reader will be also able to see that, in its actions for monitoring and solving the migration problem, our Church has taken into account both the guidelines issued by the bodies of the Ecumenical Council of Churches and the guiding principles stated by the leaders of the two Churches, Catholic and Orthodox, namely, His Holiness, Pope Francis, and His Beatitude, the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, in their joint Declarations on the issue of migration, hence the ecumenical nature of the approach to the issue of migration.

The first secular burial took place in Romania in 1891 (Arghir Parua, a socialist). Starting from this data, this article aims to analyse the current situation of civil funerals in Romania. Changes...

In 2015, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church issued an unusual statement declaring that the arrival of refugees represented a “true invasion” in the region. One year later, during debates on Moldova’s presidential elections, the Orthodox Church endorsed the fake news that 30,000 Syrians were about to arrive in the country. Drawing on interviews in Chişinău and Sofia, the article argues that the European refugee crisis has led to an internationally-linked Orthodox conservatism characterized by five components: defending a mythical past; fostering close relations with state authorities; anti-Westernism; building conservative networks at local, national, and geopolitical levels; and presenting Orthodox churches as alternative governance structures. These components shape religion–state relations in predominantly Orthodox countries in the region and have had a direct impact on the ways in which religious and state bodies have responded to populism and geopolitics.

After the fall of Communism, the Serbian Orthodox Church has experienced a significant revival, part of which has been the recollection of past events, personas, sites and shrines in order to re-establish its position in the post-Yugoslav republics. One of these processes of recollection is devoted to the cult of St. Jovan Vladimir (d.1016) and the sites associated with him in southern Montenegro. This article analyzes the forging of this memorialisation in its material form in the Serbian Orthodox Church as well as the erasure of rival processes of memorialisation. The reconstruction of memories and re-consecration of shrines is taking place across Eastern Europe today and the purpose of this study is to identify the key factors that determine the success or otherwise of such projects. It is focussed, in particular, on the ‘consecrating’ of four key sites closely related to the cult, all of which have been trans-national and trans-religious. (Less)

One of the features of interwar Romania was a quantitative and qualitative increase in sports. During this epoch, Romania followed a Western pattern, despite the significant differences between it ...

The study examines the extension of state control over the assets of the Romanian Orthodox Church during the Communist period of Romanian history. The author examines the topic by separately presenting norms and measures applied to immovable, and then to movable assets which were nationalised or taken under state control based on various legislative measures and pretexts. In the study the process by which the land and immovable assets, both of an ecclesiastical use, and used for supporting educational and other church activities is examined. The measures taken against the land and forestry assets held by the Romanian Orthodox Church by way of its institutions (parishes, monasteries etc.) is presented, as well as the fate of some church buildings. The author also examines the various measures aimed at bringing movable assets of the Romanian Orthodox Church under state control, including by confiscation, and forced inclusion into museum collections.

Saint Anthim of Iberia was one of the most cultured people of his time. He is a creator of a whole epoch in Wallachian and, in general, Romanian history. A highly learned metropolitan, he was also one the greatest Orthodox theologians of the time, a master of morality and doctrine, and finally a wise politician, who played a great role in the very complex social, political and cultural life of the Wallachian Principality. He harshly criticized the illiteracy and the greed of clergy, Eastern Patriarchs’ craving for wealth and power, and he relentlessly denounced the corruptness and the moral degradation of the ruling classes. His efforts to ally with Russia to liberate Wallachia from the Ottoman yoke led him to conflict with his great contemporary, Constantin Brâncoveanu, and then, even more gratingly, with the Voevoda Nicholas Mavrocordatos (1716-1730), described by some historians of the time as unwaveringly loyal to the Ottomans. The Phanariote Nicholas Mavrokordatos, who was only interested in the Ottoman Empire, replaced the Wallachian princes. Mavrokordatos was suspicious of Metr. Antimos and ordered the metropolitan to resign. Mavrokordatos appealed to Patriarch Jeremiah after Metr. Antimos refused to do so. The Patriarch convened a council of bishops, without any Romanian representation, that condemned the metropolitan to anathema and excommunication. Not satisfied in a finding that denied Metr. Antimos his title of Metropolitan of Hungro-Wallachia, Mavrokordatos order the metropolitan to exile to St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai. On September 14, 1716, while en route to his place of exile, Metr. Antimos was ambushed by Turkish soldiers on the bank of the Tundzha River, near Gallipoli, as it flowed through Adrianople, and butchered him. Then, they threw his remains into the river. This brutal action ended the earthly life of a great man who had dedicated his strength, talent, and knowledge to the revival and strengthening of Orthodox Christianity among the people of Wallachia. The faithful Romanian people, considering, from the beginning, the sentence of defrocking as unjust and illegal, not only never stopped honoring Anthim the Iberian as chief priest also after his abusive defrocking, but with the passage of time increased their acts of piety and honor, considering him one of the most worthy hierarchs who pastored the Romanian Orthodox Church and a martyr, who sacrificed his life, with dignity, for the Orthodox faith and for the freedom and independence of the Motherland, which, since his adoption, he served as the most devoted and loving son.

This paper explores the educational practices of the Syriac Antiochene Maronite Catholic Church in the United States towards Maronite children and adults. The paper proposes, to a large extent, that the current educational forms have led to an uncritical obedience to the ecclesial tradition. These forms are: Qurbono (liturgy), catechetical texts, storytelling, and communal modeling. Part one of the paper contextualizes the conversation and describes the four educational forms practiced within the tradition. Part two argues for a refashioning of the educational forms so that they are consistent with a more dialogical and multi-linguistic approach. This is achieved through the practice of being prophetically obedient and placing the current educational practices of the group in direct conversation with prophetic literature. It offers a renewed vision of pedagogy and curriculum for Maronite Religious Education in the United States. The aim is to accompany and guide the Maronite people towards a Prophetic Obedience to this ancient tradition in a revitalized form.

Aim. We tend to believe that the religious life of Romanians in the diaspora – living in the proximity of the Romanian borders (we do not take into account the groups that left towards Spain, Italy, Germany, and so on at the beginning of the third millennium) - is a taboo subject. The Orthodox (Romanian) clerical elite focused less on the assiduous study of the religious life of their Romanian brothers outside the borders; in this case, in Hungary. Therefore, we have the scientific duty—but more importantly, the moral duty—to bring to light the truths that are either not known or are known in a distorted form. The road of Voniga (Giula-Giroc) that we followed during the PhD research period was a blessing from the point of view of a scientific void/niche. Methods. In our study, we have applied two “simple” components: the archive and the specialised bibliography. Results. The archive was largely preserved only by Elena Csobai and Emilia Martin. The respectable ladies professionally structured the archive (Romanian Orthodox Church in Hungary) and saved hundreds of research sources from the depth of history. Conclusion. As Moisa noted (2011), the puzzling ethnographic, linguistic, cultural, and historical bulk material is without a doubt focused on the Church. The church is inextricably linked to the lives of Romanians in Hungary. Going through the tens of thousands from the mentioned fields, even superficially, there is an undeniable truth: the spirituality is present, more or less, in the writings of most of the select researchers who have worked in the scientific field for the past three decades.

В данном обзоре анализируются издания, выпущенные по случаю Всеправославного собора на Крите в 2016 году: монографии Святой и Великий Собор Православной Церкви и Всеправославный собор, а также дневник сербского епископа, принимавшего участие в работе собора. Книги вызовут интерес у занимающихся разбором деяний Критского собора и у всех, кто желает ознакомиться с деятельностью Сербской Православной Церкви до и в течение проведения данного мероприятия. In this review we will introduce you the works published on the occasion of the Pan-Orthodox Council in Crete in 2016. We shall pay attention to the content of the monographs The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church and the Pan-Orthodox Council. And also on the diary of the Serbian bishop who participated in the Council. Books can be useful to everyone who analyzes the Cretan Council and who wants to get acquainted with the activities of the Serbian Orthodox Church before and during this event.

The article analyzes the current socio-political position of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the context of the state of Emergency caused by the pandemic of a new coronavirus that has affected the countries of the European Union. The article considers the interaction of the Romanian Patriarchate with state authorities, medical and educational organizations to establish effective assistance to the population. This is, first of all, the dynamics of the Church’s efforts aimed at fighting the pandemic at various stages of its spread in social service, charity and spiritual care for doctors, patients, people in self-isolation and difficult life situations. Data on the volume of charitable collections and donations from the Church and related non-governmental organizations, associations, and individuals to combat the spread of Covid-19 are entered into scientific circulation. The article reveals the specifics of liturgical activities that combine compliance with sanitary and epidemiological norms and requirements of the authorities in a state of Emergency, on the one hand, and the performance of religious functions and liturgical actions on the eve of the main Christian holiday – Easter, during it and after, in conditions of easing the regime of self-isolation. It is concluded that the Orthodox Church of Romania has shown itself to be not only an active spiritual and moral institution, but also a developed, open part of civil society, taking joint with the state, necessary for the whole society, large-scale actions to combat the spiritual crisis and for the health and decent life of all citizens of Romania.

The journal Biserica Ortodoxă Română [The Romanian Orthodox Church] was founded on November 17, 1873, at the initiative of Romania’s Primate Metropolitan Nifon Rusailă (1789-1875). The aim of the publication – whose first issue was launched on October 1, 1874 – was to inform the clergy and believers about the activity of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In the 146 years since the publication of its first issue, the journal’s contributors have included outstanding personalities of the Romanian Orthodoxy, such as Priest-Professors Dumitru Stăniloae, Ioan G. Coman, Ene Branişte, Liviu Stan, Mircea Păcurariu, Ion Bria a.o. Church music was present in the journal’s pages both through articles, studies and reviews, and through scores of choral or psaltic works written by Church servants among whom Bishop Melchisedec Ștefănescu of Roman at the end of the 19th century, or Deacon Grigore Panțiru, Professor Nicolae Lungu, Priest-Professor Gheorghe Șoima, Archd. Sebastian Barbu-Bucur, Ph.D., Priest-Professors Constantin Drăgușin, Nicu Moldoveanu, Alexie Buzera a.o. in the 20th century. This paper summarizes these contributions and shows how the change of political regime in mid-20th-century Romania influenced the topics of the articles and the religious musical works published in the journal of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The Holocaust has become a globally recognized reference for suffering and has often been appropriated as a framework for (re-)understanding collective identities. This article examines the agenda of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) in relation to the memory of the Holocaust in post-Milošević Serbia. It focuses on the Jasenovac Committee of the SOC and the role of its head, Bishop Jovan (Ćulibrk), in the memorialization of Staro Sajmište, a distinguished place of the Holocaust in occupied Serbia. Based on primary sources encompassing Orthodox media, official statements, and interviews with mnemonic agents in the region, the author argues that the SOC has established itself as an acknowledged actor in the remembrance of the Holocaust in Serbia and beyond. Such a position allows it to point out Serbian martyrdom as part of the Holocaust imaginary, reinforce Serbian victimhood-oriented collective identity, and capitalize on the symbolic advantages of ultimate victimhood for its own regenerative ends.

Vojakovac is the centre of a small parish located north of Križevci, on the southern slopes of Kalnik. The Orthodox population settled in that area in larger numbers during the 16th century. The author offers an overview of the demographic development of the parish Vojakovac, and concludes that the number of Serbs in the parish fell during the 20th century due to World War II related deaths, migration to larger urban areas, assimilation, and ethnomimicry. He also presents information on the causes of death in the parish in various periods during the 20th century. This data was drawn from registers of deaths of the parish Vojakovac, which are kept in the Archive of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana in Zagreb. The author also examines customs related to death and dying in the foothills of Kalnik and in the Podravina region, among both Serbs and Croats.

As the Romanian Orthodox Church has declared the year of 2020 as “the referential year of parents’ and children’s pastoral”, aiming to continuously sacra- lize the family found under the constant influence of the actual secularism, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the cultic details of the Sacrament of Marriage by revealing a series of codices kept in the Christian liturgical archives. We strongly believe that, if we look in our past, through the light of the ritual of Marriage, we can unfold great themes which can be gathered in an authentic pastoral register for our priests. An active knowledge of the mutual sacrificial love shared between the two spouses may bring the family back to its iconic status given by God under the Church’s grace. This can turn into an actual and continuous reality only through a relentless pastoral acti- vity of Christ’s servants. Only by living such virtues coming from the joining of the two – man and woman becoming as “one” by assuming permanently the unseen cross – we can say that the entire pastoral effort of the Church reaches its purpose. Therefore, in the following pages we are going to introduce the grace of love to the contemporary pastoral, by emphasizing those details which have always defined the main horizon – through cult and by living the Orthodox directions in order to keep the Christian family in the light of the Resurrection.

The entry into force of the Act on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities (hereinafter: the Freedom of Religion Act) in January 2020 provoked reactions and protests from the Orthodox population of Serbian descent in Montenegro because some provisions of this Act allow for the confiscation of centuries-old real-estate property of the Serbian Orthodox Church dioceses in Montenegro. It should be noted that the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) is the only religious community in Montenegro with which the Montenegrin authorities have not concluded a Fundamental Agreement on the Regulation of Mutual Relations. In order to reach a compromise solution, negotiations have begun between the dioceses of the SOC in Montenegro and the Montenegrin authorities. In this article, the author discusses the history of relations between the SOC and the Montenegrin state in the period from the beginnings of Montenegrin statehood in the 15th century to the enactment of the the Freedom of Religion Act in early 2020. In particular, the paper focuses on the regulation of real-estate property issue in that period, the factors that influenced the adoption of this Act, the adoption process, the analysis of provisions related to real-estate property issues, and the recommendations of the Venice Commission. The author uses the structural-functional analysis, induction and deduction methods to prove the basic hypothesis that the Montenegrin authorities will not be able to ignore the legitimate rights of the SOC's dioceses in Montenegro regarding the regulation of real-estate property issues, and that the two sides will find an interest to reach a compromise during the negotiations on the disputed Act and conclude the Fundamental Agreement in order to permanently resolve the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro.

In the “Homage Year of the Pastoral Care of Parents and Children” and the “Commemorative Year of the Romanian Orthodox Philanthropists” we proposed a study on the “culture of philanthropy” in the Orthodox space, because we consider it closely related to pastoral care and education. The etymological meaning of the concept of philanthropy is very complex and simple at the same time. Its significance is: God’s love for people, but also a manifestation of people’s love for their fellow men, a virtue that every Christian should have. We owe to the Cappadocian Fathers (St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory of Nazianzus), St. John Chrysostom – with the “Mystery (Sacrament) of the Brother”, the imposition in Orthodoxy of the idea that philanthropy is a model of to Christ, who loved men, the merciful being thus partaker of the divine philanthropy, for “No one has greater love than this, that he may lay down his soul for his friends” (Jn 5:13). Thus, the Orthodox Christian knows that “he who helps the poor, lends to God” (Proverbs 19:17), and the model of the Christian life is based on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ – “I give you a new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13: 34-35). In time, a true “culture of philanthropy” was established in the Orthodox space – as His Beatitude Father Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church – observed which is the basis of communion in the Church through faith, and in society, through education. The promoter of the values of this culture is undoubtedly the priest, about whose mission Metropolitan Antonie Plamadeala wrote that “it is a divine command”. At the same time, Father Dumitru Staniloae establishes interdependencies between the concepts of communion, love, sacrifice, philanthropy, generosity, race, identity,dignity. In the history of Romanians, Orthodox spirituality, based on the “culture of philanthropy”, made possible a rich philanthropic activity that had several hierarchs of the Orthodox Church, rulers and boyars, who understood that Christian freedom implies responsibility to others. Let us not forget the institutional philanthropic activity of the Church, which is “a community self in Christ” (Fr. Dumitru Staniloae), brutally interrupted for almost half a century, with the installation of the communist regime (1946-1989), but resumed immediately after his fall. At present, the pastoral care of parents and children can pass on, over generations, the values of the “culture of philanthropy”, which should not be confused or replaced with modern practices of social assistance, the latter being more a strictly professional form of helping each other often without real personal involvement.

In our paper we propose a historical analysis of two European models of putting into practice the care for the other: Philanthropy and social assistance. We will present the role of philanthropy – “working faith through love” (Galatians 5, 6), through the Church, in Romanian spirituality and how it can be associated with social assistance. Although the concept of social assistance may seem somewhat opposite to that of philanthropy, if not at least incomplete and restrictive, the Romanian Orthodox Church has managed to give it philanthropic attributes, achieving a harmonioussynthesis between the Christian life based on love and the model offered by itself. The creator of everything and everything, God and respectively the standards of specialization promoted by the professionalism imposed by Western European culture. Both are European models, representing the result of the different evolution in time of the Orthodox Church, respectively of the Catholic Church, but also of the two spaces, Eastern and Western Europe.

At the end of 2019, the Law on the Freedom of Religion was adopted in Montenegro, causing protests and mass litanies from December 2019 to March 2020. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the authorities in Podgorica actually abolished the freedom of assembly and the freedom of religion. Thus the authorities in Montenegro, under the pretext of the urgent social need or public health protection, acted disproportionally and inappropriately during the epidemic. That was the violation of the international conventions guaranteeing universal protection of the freedom of religion and the regulations prohibiting discrimination. The COVID-19 epidemic was used by the authorities to clamp down on the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro for the purpose of establishing the non-canonical Montenegrin Orthodox Church, expropriating the church property and imposing the provisions of the illegitimate and illegal Law on the Freedom of Religion.

The aim of this paper is to show the extent to which the discourse in the inaugural sermons of the newly elected Serbian Patriarchs contains religious and ideological elements, as well as the reflection of the social and political circumstances of the time they were created in. The corpus are all seven sermons of the heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church since the re-establishment of the Patriarchate of Pec in 1920. The research covers the analysis of the citations in the authorial texts. The analysis has shown certain similarities as well as the differences in the structure of the speeches. All the sermons contain the so-called topos of modesty as a suitable way to address people in such occasions

Looking at the history of Orthodox Christian monasticism, one cannot help noting that women monastics do not stand as visibly as their brother monks in the history of the Church. Their story still remains, for the most part, untold; that is, not recorded in writing since textuality was historically not a domain of women. If monasticism in the past provided women with an alternative to married life, in this paper we examine what appeal it has today given a variety of lifestyles that exist for women in contemporary society. While the illustration of how female monasticism operates today is mostly based on an ethnographic study done in the monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church, sporadic references to some prominent nuns from the past help highlight the continuity of their underrepresentation in the history of the Church and beyond. Emerging after centuries of neglect, these nuns’ stories give them voice and empowerment both as monastics and as women.

How early human foragers impacted insular forests is a topic with implications across multiple disciplines, including resource management. Paradoxically, terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene impacts of foraging communities have been characterized as both extreme-as in debates over human-driven faunal extinctions-and minimal compared to later landscape transformations by farmers and herders. We investigated how rainforest hunter-gatherers managed resources in montane New Guinea and present some of the earliest documentation of Late Pleistocene through mid-Holocene exploitation of cassowaries (Aves: Casuariidae). Worldwide, most insular ratites were extirpated by the Late Holocene, following human arrivals, including elephant birds of Madagascar (Aepyornithidae) and moa of Aotearoa/New Zealand (Dinornithiformes)-icons of anthropogenic island devastation. Cassowaries are exceptional, however, with populations persisting in New Guinea and Australia. Little is known of past human exploitation and what factors contributed to their survival. We present a method for inferring past human interaction with mega-avifauna via analysis of microstructural features of archaeological eggshell. We then contextualize cassowary hunting and egg harvesting by montane foragers and discuss the implications of human exploitation. Our data suggest cassowary egg harvesting may have been more common than the harvesting of adults. Furthermore, our analysis of cassowary eggshell microstructural variation reveals a distinct pattern of harvesting eggs in late ontogenetic stages. Harvesting eggs in later stages of embryonic growth may reflect human dietary preferences and foraging seasonality, but the observed pattern also supports the possibility that-as early as the Late Pleistocene-people were collecting eggs in order to hatch and rear cassowary chicks.

Intrinsically linked to the power-sharing Maronite Catholic community, and historically tied to the fate of Lebanon, the Maronite Church was deeply involved in, and affected by, the 1975–90 Civil War. This study seeks to understand the changing role of the patriarchs during this time, recognizing that their relative withdrawal from politics – declining to assert the temporal authority of their predecessors – does not equate to the marginalization of the church as a whole. Analysing the internal politics of the church as a microcosm of the community's struggle, the study examines in detail a threefold relationship between the patriarchate, the papacy, and the monastic orders.

The article contributes to the development of knowledge on the social-philanthropic activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The article gives a secondary analysis of the data obtained in the doctoral research, with the purpose of creating a specific framework of the charitable activity and of the social work in Romanian Orthodox Church in the professionalization process. The article is based on a qualitative Grounded Theory methodology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with several social actors that have a direct connection with the institutionalized practices (Hunea et al. 2017: 17-25) or not institutionalized of social work: priests offering professional services licensed and accredited; priests and abbots who offer institutionalized charitable and social work services and who are not licensed or accredited, but who possess all the operating notices; social workers who work in the social work programs carried out by the Church. The research has as aim the study of social work and charitable activities carried out in institutional regime (accredited or uncredited) and those informally implemented which are not institutionalized, in the Archdiocese of Iasi. As a result of the analysis we could conclude that the social work carried out by the Romanian Orthodox Church respects the quality standards of the social services and, respectively, the ethical norms specific to the social work in general, to which is added a spiritual dimension related to the values of the love and of carring for the others. The characteristics of the social-philanthropic activity of Romanian Orthodox Church they are still under construction and customization, as long as part of the services are already licensed and part is in the intermediate stage between licensing and traditional philanthropy.

Within this present paper we reviewed a series of particularities of the process of professionalization of charity and of formation of social work were reviewed, and also we highlighted the differences between the specificities of the social work carried out by secular organizations as compared to that carried out by organizations with a religious profile. A model of social Christianity was discussed, highlighting the Christian, historical foundations of social work. We started our analysis from the theory expressed regarding the post-secular society by Jurgen Habermas, in order to outline the model of social Christianity and the manner of its manifestation in faith-based social work organizations, so that in the end we were able to draw a series of theoretical conclusions regarding the types of faith-based organizations identified in the literature. The empirical research consists of a qualitative study, based on the application of semi-structured interviews, with 25 persons, priests, social workers and monks involved in the social-philanthropic activity of the Orthodox Church. The interviews were conducted between October 2018 and January 2019 within the Diocese of Iasi and were analysed using Grounded Theory. After analysing the results, emerged a theoretical model regarding the specific activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) as a faith-based organization providing social philanthropic services.

Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta (1698–1748) was one of the last leaders of the Peć Patriarchate. The period of his service coincided with the so-called Second Great Migration of the Serbs, i.e. the migration of portions of the Serbian society from Kosovo and Metohija to the southern territories of the Habsburg monarchy. This event majorly determined the actions of the patriarch at the end of the 1730s. The article outlines the political ambitions of Arsenije IV, which he tried to realize around that time. Particular focus is given to his vision of the Serbian community under the Habsburgs and to his efforts to retain the privileges which the Serbs had been granted by emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI. Additionally, the analysis covers the internal dynamics of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the territories of the Habsburg monarchy. The paper also touches upon the military issues and discusses the role of Serbian soldiers in the political plans of Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta.

The paper follows the correspondence between Gligorije Jeftanović and the Great Administrative and Educational Council in the year 1919. The first part of the text presents the correspondence where the Great Administrative and Educational Council requests an opinion from Jeftanović about the secession of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Constantinople Patriarchate and merging with the Serbian Patriarchate. The second part of the text presents the correspondence that concerned Jeftanović’s membership in the Great Administrative and Educational Council and his pre-war position as the Deputy Chairman of the Great Administrative and Educational Council, from which he was removed by the occupation Austro-Hungarian authorities during the First World War and, as he claimed in the correspondence, with the assistance of people from the Great Administrative and Educational Council.

While the Neo-Byzantine style was in 19th - century architecture in Croatia exclusively used for architectural projects funded by the Serbian Orthodox Church (such as parochial churches in Zagreb, Dubrovnik and many other towns and places), in the period shortly before the First World War, it also started to be used in the architecture of the Catholic Church. The crucial role in spreading the use of the style was played by the pioneer of Croatian modernist architecture Viktor Kovačić and his design for St Blasius' Church in Zagreb (built in 1910- 13). Neo-Byzantine appeared primary due to ideological and political reasons, because it served as a reference to the period of Croatian political independence. Along with political reasons, the Neo-Byzantine style emerged also as a response to the extreme ornamentalism of the Vienna Secession. Early medieval architecture in Croatia, or more precisely Dalmatia, and Byzantine architecture in general, featured elements whose simplicity matched the sensibilities of increasingly permeating modernism. During the 1920s the Neo- Byzantine style became dominant in church architecture, primarily owing to architect Stjepan Podhorsky who applied the style in his numerous church building designs. The popularity of the style flourished especially in relation to the millennial celebration of the Croatian kingdom (925 – 1925), connected to which a large Neo-Byzantine church was built in Duvno (present Tomislavgrad in Bosnia and Herzegovina) sponsored by the Yugoslav Karađorđević dynasty. The Neo-Byzantine style at the same time turned into the main national style of Serbs in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. However, it appropriated motifs mostly from late medieval Serbian church architecture, which was characterized by much more lavish decoration than early medieval architecture in Croatia. The last Neo-Byzantine churches were built during the 1930s and in the early 1940s. Since modernism began pervading Croatian architecture, the majority of architects turned to designing modernist or some sort of mixed Neo-Romanesque, Art-déco and modernist church buildings.

During the last 30 years Romania has experienced a revival of church attendance, and a significant increase in the number of houses of worship, having the highest rate of construction in Europe. The paper provides theoretical arguments that support the idea that the increase in church attendance has roots in the fast growth in the number of houses of worship, which provide easier access to religious services, and help the development of parish communities, which are highly relevant for Eastern Orthodoxy. This growth is the outcome of the privileged position of the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC), which received funding from the central government and in-kind support from local authorities to extend the ROC’s infrastructure, in exchange for active support in the political arena granted by the ROC to the party in power. Different from other religious organizations in Romania or other Orthodox churches in post-communist societies, the ROC is a powerful organization, and played its cards to get privileges from the political power during the communist and post-communist eras, which made the ROC more visible and attractive to the Romanian public. The research uses a composition of pooled datasets derived from 18 national and international surveys in Romania, covering a time span of 27 years, from 1991 to 2018, and employs multilevel logistic regression. The hypothesis regarding the relationship between the growth in church attendance and the increasing number of houses of worship is supported by the empirical data. Data have shown that growth in the number of houses of worship may fuel religious revivals, even if the offer is homogenous, and comes from nearly only one religious provider.

The Serbian Orthodox Church has been described in scholarship as having had a significant impact onto the social and political life of Serbia, especially since the wars of the nineties. With the coming of the age of the Internet and social science automation, however, more options have gradually become available to researchers in the recent years. For this reason, this article will tackle the official rhetoric of the Serbian Orthodox Church in relation to the sociopolitical with the assistance of social science automation. Forming an examination via the methodological lens of Operational Code Analysis, this article delves into the Church’s discourse on Kosovo, via heavy vetting of all official statements given on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It also expands upon the initial methodology – Operational Code Analysis – to an analysis of an institution with a uniform discourse, which has so far not seen light in scholarly production.

During the interwar period, as well as the communist dictatorship, a number of miraculous apparitions occurred in Romania – both theophanies and Marian apparitions. They generated „spiritual awakening” movements among the members of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Such instances were the visions of shepherd Petre Lupu of Maglavit (1935), the visions of Mother Veronica of Vladimirești Monastery (1937), and those of sister Virginia, respectively, which resulted in the establishment of the „New Jerusalem” Monastery at Pucioasa (1955). Like similar phenomena within the Roman-Catholic world, theophanies and Marian apparitions in Romania divided the lay and ecclesiastic elites by generating divergent opinions. This study presents the position of Father Dumitru Staniloae on these unusual phenomena and their adherents. It is a very difficult issue, generally avoided by theological research as it presupposes a nuanced interpretation, like the one offered by the great theologian on the grounds of his vast erudition and deep theological insights, as well as his personal religious experience. Keywords: Dumitru Staniloae, Theophanies, Marian Apparitions, Romanian Orthodoxy

As a result of the Decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 2019 year gives us the opportunity to honor Patriarch Justin Moisescu. He was a special hierarch due to his Olympic profile, to his complex personality and to his ministry and work, providential for the Romanian Orthodoxy of the 80’s of the last century. He was a professor of theology of high moral and scientific value, who taught the students during the communist era, at the Faculties of Theology in Warsaw and Bucharest, fundamental disciplines such as “New Testament Study”. Concerned with translating reference works into Romanian, he is the initiator of a monumental work: the translation into Romanian language of the Holy Fathers’ works. Due to his programmatic idea, more than 100 volumes have been produced so far, which are part of the collection “Parents and Church Writers” ( “P.S.B.”). The present study seeks to highlight and bring to light the texts of theb “Pastoral” which the hierarch Justin Moisescu, during his 30 years of ministry, addressed to the clergy and to the people, as: 1. Archbishop of Sibiu, 2. Archbishop of Iasi and Metropolitan of Moldova and Suceava and 3. Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Ungrovlahia and Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The present work is intended to be a retrieval of the history of the contribution of personalities that have marked the history of the Romanian Orthodox Church and, implicitly, the history of Romania. Thus, In the “Commemorative Year of the Patriarchs Nicodim Munteanu and Iustin Moisescu and of the translators of church books” in the Romanian Patriarchate, addressed to the Romanian Orthodox hierarchies and eparchies in the country and abroad, we set out to talk about the Patriarch Iustin Moisescu for understand the role it played in promoting living theology as a model, based on prayer, experience and life, even if the historical times were very difficult for the Church, the communists wanting to destroy it, because it maintained the consciousness of national identity and a hierarchy of authentic values, that opposed the atheist ideology promoted by them. Thus, starting from a brief biography of the one who was the fourth Romanian Patriarch, we were interested in the perception of contemporaries, as well as those who succeeded him, as I have not neglected his quality as a theologian, teacher university and publisher. Iustin Moisescu was an intellectual, theologian, who devoted all his energy to maintaining the right faith, to support the monastery life, to relieve the people and to give cultural brilliance to the Church, as he alone confessed.

The study highlights the main internal and external directions for the promotion and execution of the Christian and Social Apostolate, which Patriarch Iustin was concerned about, notably the ones presented in 1977, his first year of being patriarch. It was a very eventful year, with many events carrying a strong spiritual and social burden. We mention here the passing away of Patriarch Justinian and then earthquake of March 4 – two events that happened within a few weeks of each other. There are two additional events: the enthronement of the Iustin, archbishop of Moldova and Suceava as the patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and the Centenary of Independence 1877-1977. All these events were coordinated with wisdom and balance by Patriarch Iustin. He always showed through his actions that good understanding, faith, sacrifice, the love of nation and country, pace and brotherly love are the main guidelines of realising a true Christian and Social Apostolate in the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The willfully conscious whitewashing of Orthodox Church involvement in the Holocaust is the central theme of Ion Popa's study on the shaping of Holocaust memory in Romania. Spanning seven decades f...

The article presents a research based on a sociological inquiry through a questionnaire regarding the views of the persons involved - priests, social workers and volunteers - in the socio-philanthropic activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church as a faith-based organization, on the social and spiritual dimensions of their own social-philanthropic and social assistance practice, and on the perceived impact of their professionalisation on the specificity and quality of the services provided. The research was carried out between September 2018 and February 2019 in the Archdiocese of Iasi, which consists of 13 deaneries and 1221 parishes, disposed on the territory of Iasi, Neamţ and Botosani Counties. The most important results of this research show that the social-philanthropic activity of the Orthodox Church is correlated with the liturgical one, the spiritual dimension being added to the assistential one, while the philanthropic and assistential activities are seen by the professionals as a continuum of the active practice of Orthodoxy in the form of Christian social assistance, which can make us conclude that the assistential organizations within the Orthodox Church in Romania may be, in general, with the exception of certain peculiarities, framed within the faith-permeated organizations typology.

This article presents the results of a sociological survey through a questionnaire aiming to investigate the perception of the beneficiaries of philanthropic and social assistance services offered by the Romanian Orthodox Church in the Archdiocese of Iasi, for different categories of people in difficulty. The research envisages the way beneficiaries see themselves in connection with the specificity of faith-based social services, as well as their degree of satisfaction with these services. The research was carried out between September 2018 and February 2019 in the Archdiocese of Iasi, which consists of 13 deaneries and 1221 parishes, disposed on the territory of Iasi, Neamţ and Botosani Counties. The most important results lead to the conclusion that the services offered by the Orthodox Church are not conditioned by the membership and participation of the beneficiaries in the Christian religion, that in many situations, but not all, the assistance received from the Church is complementary to that received from the state, philanthropic and social assistance activities are regarded by the beneficiaries as a continuum of services, and the priest plays a central role in initiating the provision of social and philanthropic services within the Church.

‪L’article retrace le developpement economique de l’Eglise orthodoxe bulgare de la liberation de la Bulgarie (1878) a nos jours. Une attention particuliere est portee aux activites economiques et au statut de l’Eglise dans l’entre-deux-guerres. L’etude des archives offre une base de comparaison stimulante avec les transformations de l’economie de l’Eglise pendant le regime communiste ainsi qu’avec le retablissement du potentiel economique de l’Eglise orthodoxe bulgare apres l’effondrement du regime totalitaire en 1989. De meme, l’article examine les sources majeures de revenues de l’Eglise et les modalites de leur depense au temps de l'Etat bulgare moderne. Considerant la croissance economique comme une garantie de son autonomie institutionnelle dans ses relations avec l'Etat, l'Eglise a toujours essaye de rationaliser et de moderniser ses activites economiques afin de garder intacte son influence dans la societe.‪

According to William Robertson Smith’s and Paul Florensky’s thesis that the ritual as a cult foundation is the base of every religion and culture, this paper explores the interdisciplinary structure, dynamics and understanding of the sacral space in which the Holy Liturgy is practiced within the Serbian Orthodox Church. With the theoretical and methodological guidelines of the anthropology of Christianity, this paper studies the liturgical and theoretical function of the temple with the goal to analyze the liturgical ritual in a concrete space in relation with the posturing and positioning of the body, the orientation, direction and kind of movement of the liturgy participants. The author claims that it is necessary to place the operative focus on the naos, the part of interior intended for participants, since its use is most susceptible to variations which can be relevantly empirically monitored. Thus the subject focuses on the spatial behavior in the mentioned part of the temple and its border zones, both during the Holy Liturgy and individually, passing from doctrinal into the sphere of folk Christian orthodoxy.

This study is an endeavour to reconstruct major ktetor activities of Grand Duke Stephen Nemanja by analysis of sources and relevant literature which were connected with the Serbian Orthodox Church autocephaly, ensured by St. Sava. It turns out that Stephan Nemanja had prepared the grounds for the formation of the autocephalous Serbian Church through his extensive endowment activities, as well as other activities in the field of religious politics. So far, in science, the decisive importance of Nemanja's ktetor activities as the cornerstone of the Serbian Church in the Middle Ages has not been emphasized sufficiently.

У овом тексту изложићемо наративе представника верских хуманитарних организација које су активне при Српској православној цркви, Римокатоличкој цркви и Хришћанској адвентистичкој цркви. Наративи дају опис активности ових организација у вези са едукацијом миграната у Србији после 2016. године када – након затварања формализованог миграцијског коридора и секуритарног заокрета миграцијске политике – програми интеграције миграната добијају превагу над онима који се фокусирају на ургентни прихват. Грађа је добијена полуструктурираним интервјуима и биће подељена у два дела – активности верских хуманитарних организација у образовању деце основношколског узраста, као и активности верских хуманитарних организација у образовању средњошколаца и одраслих. In this paper we will present narratives of the representatives of faith-based humanitarian organizations of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The narratives provide description of the activities of these organizations regarding education of migrants in Serbia when, from the year 2016 – after the closure of the formalized migration corridor and new securitarian turn of the migration policy – migrants’ integration programs took primacy over those focused on urgent reception. The material has been obtained through semi-structured interviews and will be presented in two sections, the activities of the faith-based organizations in relation to the elementary school education, as well as the activities related to high-school education and education of the adults. Тема броја – Истраживање миграција (ур. Сања Златановић и Јурај Марушиак) / Topic of the Issue – Research of Migrations (eds. Sanja Zlatanović and Juraj Marušiak)