Post by Bozur on Feb 17, 2005 18:26:16 GMT -5
Serbs embrace Orthodoxy for good of nation, rather than God
AFP
Belgraders attend the Orthodox Christmas Eve liturgy in the St Sava Church in central Belgrade, on Thursday. The role of the Church has grown since the breakup of Yugoslavia.
By Ellie Tzortzi - Reuters
BELGRADE - Thousands of Serbs celebrated Christmas yesterday in one of the world’s biggest Orthodox churches, lighting candles for the dead and living, in an age-old ritual that was all but defunct two decades ago.
Saint Sava, a huge white marble church topped by a domed roof and a glittering cross visible from all over Belgrade, reeked of incense amid the murmur of chorused prayers.
Although after many decades it is still officially under construction, the church was full, though many in the congregation seemed not quite sure why they have come back.
“I have not yet decided if I am really a believer or not,” said 17-year-old Tanya. “But I like the tradition and ceremony, it is something that belongs to our nation. We almost lost it during communism and now we must try to preserve it.”
Yugoslav strongman Tito’s communist regime persecuted both the Serbian Orthodox and the Catholic churches after 1945. By the 1960s, religious ceremonies had been limited to funerals.
Revival started in the 1980s, and the Orthodox Church became stronger in the war-torn decade that followed, uniting Serbs stranded in the many regions of ex-Yugoslavia.
“The role of the Church has grown since the breakup of Yugoslavia and it is now stronger than at any time since World War II,” said Professor Thomas Bremer of the University of Munster in Germany.
In written comments to Reuters he said the Church was seen as “very clearly a Serbian institution, where the national element was always very important.”
Ancient Byzantine melodies blared from loudspeakers outside the church, while visitors threw their badnjak — a symbolic Yule log of young oak branches and grain — onto a roaring fire.
The Church found a voice in politics in the 1990s when Serbia was an isolated pariah state because of ethnic wars in Croatia and Bosnia, and ultimately a target of Western bombing in NATO’s first war, over Serbian actions in Kosovo.
It backed nationalist President Slobodan Milosevic but later came to the fore in pro-democracy protests against him.
It now comments at will on the most vexed issues of the day, such as the fate of Serbs in their monastic heartland in Kosovo, now surrounded by an Albanian majority demanding independence.
“Whenever there is some problem affecting national interests, most Serbian politicians compete to show their links with the Church,” said Slobodan Markovich of Belgrade’s Institute for European Studies. This was “an effective way to show attachment to an institution symbolizing national unity.”
But if most Serbs see the Church as a core part of their identity, true religious feeling is in short supply. A 1991 survey showed ethnic Serbs called themselves Orthodox, but only a quarter believed in God.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51508
AFP
Belgraders attend the Orthodox Christmas Eve liturgy in the St Sava Church in central Belgrade, on Thursday. The role of the Church has grown since the breakup of Yugoslavia.
By Ellie Tzortzi - Reuters
BELGRADE - Thousands of Serbs celebrated Christmas yesterday in one of the world’s biggest Orthodox churches, lighting candles for the dead and living, in an age-old ritual that was all but defunct two decades ago.
Saint Sava, a huge white marble church topped by a domed roof and a glittering cross visible from all over Belgrade, reeked of incense amid the murmur of chorused prayers.
Although after many decades it is still officially under construction, the church was full, though many in the congregation seemed not quite sure why they have come back.
“I have not yet decided if I am really a believer or not,” said 17-year-old Tanya. “But I like the tradition and ceremony, it is something that belongs to our nation. We almost lost it during communism and now we must try to preserve it.”
Yugoslav strongman Tito’s communist regime persecuted both the Serbian Orthodox and the Catholic churches after 1945. By the 1960s, religious ceremonies had been limited to funerals.
Revival started in the 1980s, and the Orthodox Church became stronger in the war-torn decade that followed, uniting Serbs stranded in the many regions of ex-Yugoslavia.
“The role of the Church has grown since the breakup of Yugoslavia and it is now stronger than at any time since World War II,” said Professor Thomas Bremer of the University of Munster in Germany.
In written comments to Reuters he said the Church was seen as “very clearly a Serbian institution, where the national element was always very important.”
Ancient Byzantine melodies blared from loudspeakers outside the church, while visitors threw their badnjak — a symbolic Yule log of young oak branches and grain — onto a roaring fire.
The Church found a voice in politics in the 1990s when Serbia was an isolated pariah state because of ethnic wars in Croatia and Bosnia, and ultimately a target of Western bombing in NATO’s first war, over Serbian actions in Kosovo.
It backed nationalist President Slobodan Milosevic but later came to the fore in pro-democracy protests against him.
It now comments at will on the most vexed issues of the day, such as the fate of Serbs in their monastic heartland in Kosovo, now surrounded by an Albanian majority demanding independence.
“Whenever there is some problem affecting national interests, most Serbian politicians compete to show their links with the Church,” said Slobodan Markovich of Belgrade’s Institute for European Studies. This was “an effective way to show attachment to an institution symbolizing national unity.”
But if most Serbs see the Church as a core part of their identity, true religious feeling is in short supply. A 1991 survey showed ethnic Serbs called themselves Orthodox, but only a quarter believed in God.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=51508