Pathfinder Online is providing a website with Christian News about Serbia & Montenegro in the Balkan, Central Europe. We are following up on questions as Religious freedom,
missions, church ministries, faith in Jesus Christ and Christianity in general. The purpouse is to make known the situation of the Evangelical communities in Serbia.
This page "archive" is providing you archived news.
Archive:
Restrictions for the Evangelicals...
10.12.2004
Text Provided By: Mission Network News.
Evangelical Christians, are
dismayed about the restrictions...
Believers in Kosovo fear their freedom will be fear their freedom will be hindered by a new draft law.
Kosovo (MNN)--We begin today in Kosovo, where there's a growing disquiet
over a new religion draft law. According to AMG International's[1]
Paul Jenks, religious minorities, including evangelical Christians, are
dismayed about the restrictions of the law that Kosovo's government wants.
"Apparently there is a movement there by some of the political figures
there to severely restrict the use of evangelism and religious content in
any of the work that is being done there for humanitarian purposes." Jenks
says AMG teams have been ministering in Kosovo for more than three years.
So they're very concerned about the potential impact of the law on
ministry.
"We've been ministering with an outreach to children, and
doing a technical training center, and we have an agricultural school.
We're especially concerned about the 'House of Laughter' school there
that, in fact, a law such as this might impact us to not be able to share
the good news of Jesus Christ with the children that we serve."
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM - "WILL BE SERIOUSLY HINDERED" BY DRAFT LAW
Religious minorities and the Kosovo office
of the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are seriously concerned by a draft
religion law being discussed by Kosovo's government. "I can tell you that
we have some concerns with what we've seen," the OSCE has told Forum 18
News Service. The Evangelical Movement of Kosova, representing several
Albanian-speaking Protestant churches, said that "We believe the rights of
religious freedom within the Protestant community of Kosovo will be
seriously hindered." Professor Xhabir Hamiti of the Faculty of Islamic
Studies in Pristina also expressed grave concerns to Forum 18. Asked why a
draft that seriously contradicts international human rights commitments was
sent to the government, he said that "we didn't have any influence.
Government people or others changed the text by themselves." One Protestant on the drafting group, Pastor Artur Krasniqi,
described the draft as
"totalitarianism". Fr Sava of the Orthodox Decani Monastery, the Seventh
Day Adventists, and the Jehovah's Witnesses all told Forum 18 that they had
neither heard of the draft law, nor been given copies of it.
In this personal commentary for Forum 18 News Service, a military chaplain,
who prefers not to be identified, argues from personal experience of the
violence in Kosovo that the KFOR peace-keeping force needs to defend the
Serbian population and its Orthodox churches more effectively. The chaplain believes that international
organisations naively did not understand the
minds of the people of the region - and so did not understand what was
necessary to provide religious freedom. The international community needs
to state clearly that independence will not be granted until minorities
have full rights and security. The big challenge is changing people's
mentality before independence can be considered - and this requires a
long-term commitment to genuine peace and genuine justice from both
Albanian politicians and the international community.
Text Provided By: Drasko Djenovic, Forum 18 News Service.
Another Church Demolition Planned, and
Metropolitan to be Jailed?
A Macedonian government official, Dr Cane Mojanovski, has refused to
confirm or deny to Forum 18 News Service reports that the government
intends to demolish the Serbian Orthodox Church in the village of Luzani.
The reports follow the surprise night-time destruction of the St John
Chrysostom Monastery in Nizepole, southern Macedonia - which contained
Metropolitan Jovan (Vranisskovski) and about 10 monks and nuns - by
approximately 500 police armed with automatic weapons, and demolition
workers with bulldozers. The monastery was the cathedral of the
Archbishopric of Ohrid, and was earlier this year attacked by a
paramilitary 'state security' unit armed with machine guns. Officials in Bitola have refused to discuss the monastery
demolition with Forum 18. Metropolitan Jovan is separately being threatened with an 18 month jail
sentence, and told Forum 18 that he expects his appeal against the sentence will be turned down...
"For the word of God is quick and powerful" Hebrews 4:12a.
First 50 Years Of Baptist Theological Education
Last half of century have proven the validity of this words.
Behind every new school year,
semester, exam, term pape... Behind every spoken and written word, professor's as well
as students, was the word of God - quick and powerful. According to such Word, this school
has been restored, reformed, persevered and stood against the winds of time, during each
one of these first fifty years. Theological seminary, Theological school,
Higher Baptist theological school, Bible theological
center "Logos" - these are the names of this educational institution throughout its past.
Today her name is Theological College - Novi Sad: contemporary, restored and chronologically
adjusted wellspring of that same Word which also has a message for the 21-st century...
Serbia: Nn religion law means a "dangerous legal void"?
23.09.2004
Text Provided By: Branko Bjelajac, Balkans Correspondent for Forum 18.
Macedonia: Serbian Orthodox "Will Never Get Registration"
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia
has again submitted a registration
application, but this is unlikely to succeed. Such communities "will never
get registration", Cane Mojanovski, head of the government's committee for
relations with religious communities, told Forum 18 News Service, as only
the Macedonian Orthodox Church can exist in the country. He said the law allows only one
organisation for any one faith. He could not explain why
Orthodox Christians could not freely choose their faith. Metropolitan Jovan
(Vranisskovski), who heads the Serbian Church in the country, has been
convicted of inciting religious hatred, while religious sites have been
raided. He complains the state is "in league"
with the rival Macedonian
Church. "They do not let us perform services, they harass me with these
trials, and they do not let foreign Orthodox priests enter or travel
through Macedonia," he told Forum 18. An interior ministry blacklist
reportedly lists more than 20 Serbian Orthodox bishops banned from entering
Macedonia.
Text Provided By: Branko Bjelajac, Balkans Correspondent for Forum 18.
Macedonia: Serbian Orthodox "Will Never Get Registration"
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia
has again submitted a registration
application, but this is unlikely to succeed. Such communities "will never
get registration", Cane Mojanovski, head of the government's committee for
relations with religious communities, told Forum 18 News Service, as only
the Macedonian Orthodox Church can exist in the country. He said the law allows only one
organisation for any one faith. He could not explain why
Orthodox Christians could not freely choose their faith. Metropolitan Jovan
(Vranisskovski), who heads the Serbian Church in the country, has been
convicted of inciting religious hatred, while religious sites have been
raided. He complains the state is "in league"
with the rival Macedonian
Church. "They do not let us perform services, they harass me with these
trials, and they do not let foreign Orthodox priests enter or travel
through Macedonia," he told Forum 18. An interior ministry blacklist
reportedly lists more than 20 Serbian Orthodox bishops banned from entering
Macedonia.
Away With Legal Discrimination - Serbia Shouldn't Follow Austria
In this personal commentary
contributed to Forum 18 News Service, Dr.
Reinhard Kohlhofer, an Austrian lawyer specialising in religious freedom,
comments that the Serbian draft law on religion follows Austria's hastily
passed 1998 law in dividing religious communities into different categories
with differing legal rights, thus institutionalising religious
discrimination. The Austrian law is a bad example
for Serbia to follow, Dr.
Kohlhofer argues, having been severely criticised by international lawyers,
and also being the subject of a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) case,
with a decision expected in the next few months. In a 1993 case involving Greece,
the ECHR ruled that ""freedom of thought, conscience and
religion is one of the foundations of a democratic society" and that
"the pluralism indissociable from a democratic society depends on
it." Dr. Kohlhofer goes on to state that there is no justification for
states to legally discriminate between or against religious communities,
and that democracy demands nothing less than the elimination of all forms
of legal discrimination.
Bible Teams To Reach Out To Children In Eastern Europe.
Bible teams to reach Bible
teams to reach out to children in Eastern Europe.
Eastern Europe (MNN)--And, many Eastern European countries still suffer
economic, political, cultural and spiritual brokenness as a result of
decades under Communism. The International Bible Society[4] announces
plans to reach 42-thousand children with God's Word. These are children
who might otherwise never hear the Gospel in places like Kyrgyzstan,
Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. It costs less than two dollars to give a
Bible to a child in Eastern Europe.
Text Provided By: Branko Bjelajac, Balkans Correspondent for Forum 18.
Religious Freedom Survey Part 1
According to the latest state census
(2002), 96% of the Serbian population
of 7.5 million people claims a religious affiliation. Roughly 84% belong to
the Serbian Orthodox Church, 5.5% to the Catholic Church, 3.6% to the
Islamic Faith Community, and 1.1% to the various Protestant and Evangelical
churches and communities. There were more than fifty religion-based attacks
in 2003 known to Forum 18 [see list of attacks at the end of this article],
the victims being members of the minority religious communities. The attacks have continued in 2004.
For example, between 1st and 3rd August
this week, at least ten large and expensive windows were broken at the
Baptist Church and Christian Community Church in Novi Sad, which is
renowned as a tolerant city in Vojvodina (northern Serbia). Some
commentators blame the large number of attacks on the absence of a
religious freedom law in Serbia, but others blame adolescents and teenagers
engaging in irresponsible behaviour. There is no religion law in Serbia,
the previous communist law having been repealed in 1993.
Text Provided By: Branko Bjelajac, Balkans Correspondent for Forum 18.
Religious Freedom Survey Part 2
In its survey analysis of
religious freedom in Serbia, Forum 18 News
Service notes the problems caused by a proposed draft religion bill,
religious education in schools, and physical attacks on religious
minorities. However, alternative civilian service regulations have been
introduced, so conscientious objectors to military service are not now
prosecuted. In a listing of attacks on
religious minorities in 2003, Forum
18 records that Evangelical-Methodists, Jews, Seventh Day Adventists,
Serbian Evangelicals, Jehovah Witnesses, Lutherans, Romany Pentecostals,
Baptists, Hare Krishna devotees, Catholics, and Muslims were all victims of
different types of attack in 2003, ranging from hate speech and graffiti to
physical assaults. A noted church-state commentator, Mirko Djordevic, has
told Forum 18 that "we cannot say that the religious freedom of Serbian
citizens is threatened, but different confessions limit each others
freedom." Pavel Domonji, from the Helsinki Committee, observed to Forum 18
that "Small religious communities are often under attack. It is probably
because they form trans-national communities, where every believer is a
member, regardless of their ethnic background."
During a music concert organised
last week at Vrdnik (60 miles north-west of
Belgrade) by the local Church of God Pentecostal church and led by a German
Pentecostal band from Heidelberg, the power line was cut by an axe, someone
threw a hand grenade near the stage, and after the concert ended one person
drove his car in the park where spectators were, threatening organisers that
he was armed. No injuries were reported.
