Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović

What role does religion play in migration processes? What is the reason behind migration of religious minorities? Is religious affiliation a deciding factor in choosing emigration? Some of these questions have been the focus of The Untold Journey of the Nazarene Emigration from Yugoslavia to North America. As the field of migration history is very broad both chronologically and geographically, Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović focuses on the migration of religious minorities triggered by state repression and the socio-historical context of post-Second World War Yugoslavia. The history and development of the Nazarene communities is analyzed through the lens of religiously motivated persecution and migration from Yugoslavia to North America. The Nazarenes, known as Apostolical Christian Church (Nazarene) in North America, represents a fascinating case study which bring new insights into policies towards minority religions during the communist era, migration patterns, and integration mechanisms in the host country. This book is applicable to contemporary forced migration contexts and to the role of religious communities in supporting the integration of refugees and migrants across the world. The reasons for fleeing, migration paths, and routes, life in the refugee camps and settling into the new society are present in the narratives of present-day refugees and migrants fleeing from conflict or religious intolerance across the globe.

This unique interdisciplinary volume explores the complex history of cultural, diplomatic and religious relations between Serbia and Romania during the late nineteenth and twentieth century. The authors, scholars with a wide range of academic backgrounds, address these themes in the context of Austro-Hungarian imperialism, the interwar period and the Communist era. The essays in Part I examine diplomatic, political and military relations, while those in Part II explore intellectual and artistic links between the two countries, including religion, literature and the visual arts. This is a landmark publication, the first of its kind in English, and will leave readers with a more comprehensive understanding of cultural and political relations in Southeastern Europe.

"ROMANIAN RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN BANAT
A contribution to the study on multiconfessionality of Vojvodina

Abstract

The Romanian ethnic minority in the Serbian Banat traditionally belongs to the Orthodox religion, but during the last decades of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century new religions appeared – first the Greek Catholicism, as well as several Neo-Protestant confessions, such as the Church of the Nazarene, the Adventist and the Pentecostal Church. The number of the Neo-Protestant believers within the Romanian community increased during the first half of the 20th century, but after that came to a standstill and even decreased due to the general decline of the Romanian population in the Serbian Banat. Affiliation with Neo-Protestantism does not hinder the preservation of the national identity of the Romanians in Banat, as these believers are constituent parts of the confessional reality of the Romanians of Vojvodina and Serbia.
After a detailed insight into the identity of the Romanians in Banat, the first chapter of the monograph offers an overview of their confessional life, followed by the history of the development of the Greek Catholic Church, Nazarene, Adventist and Pentecostal communities, with a brief outline of the Jehovah Witnesses. The confessional life of the Romanians in Banat is shaped by the fact that most of them belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church, but also, in smaller numbers, to Neo-Protestant and the Greek Orthodox Church. The Neo-Protestant confessions, which appeared with the Romanians in Banat in the last decades of the 20th century (the Adventists, Baptists and Pentecostals), led to the enrichment of the confessional life in the region, but also to the decrease in the number of Orthodox believers. The presence of these communities in the multiethnic and multiconfessional nowadays world has become a reality which does not obstruct the preservation of the ethnic identity of the Romanian minority in Banat, but, on the contrary, may stand for the expression of free choice of each and every citizen.
The second chapter is focused on the Nazarene community, the first Neo-Protestant community that had a great number of believers in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century among the Serbs and Romanians in Banat. In spite of the fact that, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Nazarenes used to be a very large community, due to unfavorable socio-historical conditions, their number has constantly decreased. This chapter puts emphasis on the position of minority religious communities, and debates the problem of the so-called double minorities, as well as hidden minorities. Through a brief outline of the creation of the Nazarene movement and its spread to the region of nowaday Vojvodina, certain basic Nazarene ideas are presented and the specific features of Nazarenes as first Neo-Protestants in the region are stated here. The second part of the chapter offers a short historical overview of the oldest confession of the Romanians living in Banat, i.e. the Romanian Orthodox Church, with a focus on the appearance of the evangelistically oriented movement of the Army of the Lord. According to the results of the field research conducted by the author, which are presented in the book as transcripts of conversation, elements of cultural identity of the Romanian Nazarenes are also analyzed. The basic assumption is that, due to double minority position the Romanian Nazarenes, they have remained more closed and conservative and therefore more numerous in comparison to Serbian Nazarenes. The problem of the “closed field” is also tackled here, as well as various forms of risks when working in the field with micro-communities.
The third chapter situates itself, from a methodological standpoint, at the crossroad of linguistic anthropology and pragmalinguistics. Such a methodological pluralism has imposed itself after a long field research practice of integrative recordings of maximally broad interview contexts. The researcher starts from the idea that the interviewed persons take part voluntarily in the research, since they want to be heard by others, but she agrees that this is only partially true and does not refer to all the subjects. Having in mind that it is grounded on the results of field work, this chapter incorporates integral transcripts of the appropriate parts of conversation, without any subsequent interventions of the author. Eight passages of conversations with the representatives of the Romanian language and culture in Vojvodina have been selected as the starting point and basis of the analysis. These are conversations with the Romanians in Banat, held between 2004 and 2008, and one interview in the Serbian language, made in 2011 with a Roman Catholic Bayash from Sonta, Bačka region. Аn attempt has been made for transcripts to preserve the specific features of the idiolect of the interviewed subjects as much as possible. Only epistemological elements of the applied field work methodology have been chosen, which reflect the concept of serendipity. As for the content of the interviews, the author opted for the analysis of the ideological Neo-Protestant elements, as well as of the local oral history regarding the age of interconfessional cohabitation in the village of Markovac.
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In this paper, our case study is the Serbian Baptist community in the Danube Gorge in Romania, from the settlements Radimna, Pojejena, Moldova Veche, Divici and Liubcova. The objective of the ethnographic field research was to collect data on non-Orthodox Serbs living outside the borders of their home country and having experienced conversion to one of the Evangelical communities during the second half of the twentieth century. One of the most significant elements of the narrative of the Serbian Baptists is the place of prayer in their daily life. This paper is analysing prayer in the wider context and more specifically using linguo-cultural analyses it provides several examples of Baptist prayer narrative, its main characteristics and patterns. The analyses focus on the question how the religious identity of Baptists can be defined or strengthened through prayer. From the aspect of linguistics and communicology, prayer is a speech act having a specific internal and external structure: it contains the beginning, duration and finalization, including the abundance of accompanying nonverbal acts. Based on the collected ethnographic data, we analyse several fragments of prayers among the Baptist Serbs which illustrate the modalities of communication through prayer.

Since the beginning of the “migrant crisis” in 2015, many European countries have been struggling with not only the influx but how to ensure cohesive integration into the host communities.  Whilst part of the challenge has been dealing with host communities that are polarised between ‘for’ and ‘against’ migration, the real challenge is the ‘Anxious Middle’ who are those who are not strongly against migration but have several concerns about the effect of migration on their society (Katwala and Somerville 2016).  Facts, figures and moral messaging appear to be ineffective in tackling these real concerns.  What has been found to be useful are programs that support a real connection between communities and create programs that build trust with each other (Moretti and Bozon 2017). Enabling more positive interactions between refugees and migrants and the local host community by coming together and learning from each other as well as about each other can provide the basis for a deeper relationship.  In this case local community-based organisations, such as faith-based associations and inter religious bodies, are well placed to bridge the communities, offer opportunities for volunteering and to offer these opportunities for connection and greater humanisation of the migrants (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 2011).  When such connections are based on interreligious and intercultural dialogue, these can foster empathy, understanding and mutual respect (Abu-Nimer and Smith 2016).  However the role of religion and dialogue in promoting social inclusion and migration has not been extensively researched, especially not from a comparative perspective.  There are often too few empirical studies that place a value on this unique perspective especially from a transnational context where across the migration trail, networks of religious organisations can work and coordinate with each other to support refugees and migrants (Mavelli, Wilson 2017). This paper focuses on the role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) and their grassroots work with refugees and migrants in building trust and social cohesion in several European countries, through exploring the experience of the Network for Dialogue, a European platform of organizations, including faith-based ones, set up by the International Dialogue Centre, KAICIID in 2019.  This paper will focus on the grassroots experiences of religious actors in refugee and migrant support in the past years from several European countries included in the Network, namely: Sweden, Serbia and Italy. The argument that will be put forward is that whilst interreligious and intercultural dialogue are vital, FBOs’ focus on two main aspects – building trust in the communities and creating safe space for dialogue.

The theory of cultural transfer usually includes the field of intellectual history, literature, material culture, art, and science, but it can very well be applied to the religious sphere to examine the exchange and influence of religious ideas or religious practices. Religious transfers and the mobility of religious practices have been the subject of research in individual studies, although religious transfer is most often seen as a part of cultural transfer in the broadest sense of the word. This paper focuses on the emergence of Evangelical or neo-Protestant communities in the 19th century that developed in different parts of Central Europe. Due to their missionary efforts and the mobility of religious ideas, Nazarenes, Baptists and Methodists were the first neo-Protestant communities in South Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbia. They found new followers among different ethnic groups: Hungarians, Slovaks, Germans, Serbs, and Romanians, who had very diverse religious backgrounds: Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox, Lutheran, and Reformed. The most significant form of religious transfer in the 19th century was the appearance of the first translation of the Bible into the Serbian language. The paper underlines the important role of the British Bible Society in distributing and printing the Bible, making it available especially among neo-Protestant believers.

This chapter examines the role of humanitarian faith-based organisations in supporting migrants in Serbia. It draws on the reports on migration in Serbia published by national and international organisations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Medecins Sans Frontieres. The chapter presents their activities and relations with other civil society organisations, the general public and state authorities by addressing the following questions: ‘What is human?’, ‘What is human security?’, ‘What is endangering human, biological and social lives?’, ‘What is making people vulnerable’ and ‘What is empowering people?’ Other sociohistorical events had an impact on religious composition, such as the breakup of Yugoslavia, when ethnic and religious communities underwent significant changes. The chapter deals with the ways in which the changes of migration policies in Europe and Serbia influenced how humanitarian organisations operate.

En este artículo, se presenta por primera vez una investigación académica sobre las minorías religiosas en la antigua Yugoslavia basada en los archivos de la policía secreta. Al contrario que en otros países de Europa del Este, el acceso a los archivos de la policía secreta en la antigua Yugoslavia sigue siendo muy limitado. Basándome investigación etnográfica y de archivo realizada en Serbia, argumento que las minorías religiosas constituyen un gran objeto de estudio para analizar las relaciones entre el estado y los grupos religiosos durante el período comunista. Este es especialmente el caso de los nazarenos pacifistas y los adventistas del séptimo día, debido a su trabajo misionero y sus redes internacionales y transnacionales. Este artículo propone el uso de archivos privados para contrarrestar el limitado acceso a archivos estatales.

This paper presents the first attempt to review the possibility of using secret police archives as a source for scholarly research on religious minorities in the former Yugoslavia. Unlike in other Eastern European countries, access to the secret police archives in former Yugoslavia is still very limited. Based on archival and ethnographic research conducted in Serbia, I argue that religious minorities represent a valuable resource for analysing relations between the state and religious groups during the communist period. This is especially true with regards to the pacifist Nazarenes and Seventh Day Adventists, because of their international and transnational networks and missionary work. This paper will address the possibilities of using private archives as a possible way in overcoming limited access to some of the state archival sources. Keywords: religious minorities; secret police archives; Yugoslavia; religious studies; communism

The paper explores the ways religious grassroots actors in the borderlands contribute to the new understanding of cross border regions and religious groups in the space between the Serbian and Romanian Banat from the perspective of the anthropology of borders. The border region included in this paper was the place of interreligious and interethnic encounter, where religions and languages mixed and there was a continuous interaction between Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants. By studying the region that had strong cultural, historical and religious connections, the aim is to provide new insights on the borders and religious groups that are understudied. This article explores the "liminal" character of religious identities, development of renewal movements and crossing symbolic boundaries with the examples of the "home-grown" religious movement of the Lord' s Army (Rom. Oastea Domnului) emerged in the first decades of the 20th century.

The forced displacement of people was one of the most signifijicant social consequences of the wars (1991-1995) which followed the dissolution of communist Yugoslavia. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and particularly Serbia, has been widely afffected by this process. Studies show that over 650,000 people (mostly from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia) were forcibly displaced to Serbia. This chapter explores how the state and diffferent religious communities responded to the forced displace- ment of populations in Serbia (1991-1996). It focuses on the responses of the state, through the work of the Commissariat for Refugees, as well as case studies of three faith-based humanitarian organisations, namely Philanthropy, Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA), and Bread of Life. The research methods used for the purposes of this chapter include content analysis and a series of semi-structured interviews. The chapter concludes that the Serbian state failed to recognise the potential of faith- humanitarian organisations, even though these organisations were key actors in helping the population in need.

Research on the position of women in the Eastern Orthodox churches is still scarce. Some recent studies show differences among the various Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe regarding women’s issues. The position of the women in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) was addressed as late as in the 1990s, but this is still an insufficiently examined field. Eastern Orthodox theologians have rarely discussed the problem of the position and role of women in the SOC. During the socialist era, they did not engage this topic, except in studies related to female monasticism. On the other hand, sociological and anthropological studies have only recently started to include the topic of women in religion and in the church in their research on religiosity in Serbia. However, serious empirical research is still insufficient.

Мањинске заједнице у Србији се врло често посматрају из угла једног типа мањинског идентитета – етничког. Када је реч о религијском идентитету мањинских заједница, још увек је недовољан број студија и истраживања посвећених сложеном односу између етничког и религијског идентитета. На основу
вишегодишњих теренских истраживања Румуна који припадају неопротестантским заједницама у Војводини, у овом раду анализирам етнички и религијски
идентитет мањинских заједница кроз призму концепта двоструких мањина. Полазећи од хипотезе да границе етничког и религијског идентитета нису унапред дефинисане и статичне, анализирам наративе прикупљене теренским истраживањем у четири неопротестантске заједнице. У раду, пример Румуна неопротестаната показује каква је улога конверзије (обраћења) у етничким и религијским мањинским заједницама, као и колико религијски идентитет постаје хомогенизујући чинилац у наднационалним верским заједницама.

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 theclosure  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.

The Nazarenes were founded by a former Reformed minister Samuel Fröhlich about 1830 in Switzerland, but they soon expanded to Central and Eastern Europe. Because of their pacifist beliefs and refusal to swear and to take an oath a large number of the Nazarenes were condemned to severe prison sentences. This religious community was persecuted primarily during the communist era in Southeastern European countries (Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia) since they were considered disloyal citizens and a threat to the government. From 1945 until 1960 the Nazarene illegal border crossing from Yugoslavia to Italy or Austria was highly present. Rejecting one of the essential components of Yugoslav communism, so-called " nationwide defence and social self-protection " , the Nazarenes were perceived as anti-communists and their existence was seen as illegitimate. The repression of this religious minority in communist Yugoslavia is the subject of this paper. The material collected for the purposes of this paper came to be the result of empirical research, conducted in Serbia (2009–2013) and the United States (2015), on the Nazarene community and their emigration to North America. Based on qualitative interviews and archival research, this paper aims to analyse community members' narratives of their lives during communism and emigration of this religious minority across the Atlantic.

Different historical and socio-political circumstances often were the cause of migration, especially in the countries of Southeastern Europe. Migration was also triggered by religious persecution of particular religious minorities by different political systems, one of them being the Nazarenes. The Nazarenes were founded by a former Reformed minister Samuel Fröhlich around 1830 in Switzerland, but they soon expanded to Central and Eastern Europe. Because of their pacifist beliefs and refusal to swear and to take an oath a large number of the Nazarenes were condemned to severe prison sentences. Defending their religious identity and escaping religious persecution, thousands of Nazarenes started to emigrate especially during the First World War and in the interwar period to North America. In North America they joined the Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarene), which was the official name of the Nazarene community in the United States and Canada. The material presented in this paper results from empirical research, conducted in Serbia and the United States, on the history of the Nazarene emigration to North America. The aim of this paper is twofold: to analyze how early migration is remembered by the Nazarenes today and how the Nazarenes, as a religious minority from Southeastern Europe, became a transnational religious community that developed in several branches. The paper shows how religion could be a 'channel for migration' and how immigrants used religion in processes of migration.

A strong link between religion and national identity has been particularly
important in the study of Eastern and Southeastern Europe during the 20th century.
The study of religion and its changes came into the focus of anthropological
and sociological research especially after the communist period. One of the most
important aspects of change was “religious revival” which also included conversion
to new forms of religiosity such as the Evangelical communities, the
Nazarenes, Baptists, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and
Pentecostals. The majority of Serbs living in Romania belong to the Serbian
Orthodox Church, but during the last decades a number of Evangelicals appeared
among the Serbian minority. This paper is based on the results of qualitative
ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2010 among the Serbian Evangelical communities
in Romania. The research focuses on the influence of conversion from
Christian Orthodoxy to Evangelicalism among Serbs, focusing on the Evangelical
response to religion and nationalism discourses, changes in collective and personal
identity of newly converted believers, and perception of converted co-ethnics
by the non-Evangelical community. In addressing these issues, this article explores
the role of religious traditions which do not overlap with any particular national/ethnic
group, the relationship between religion and nationalism, and the
presence of supra-national narrative emphasized in Evangelical communities

The question of religion under Communism has been widely discussed by many
scholars, along with the processes of secularization and desecularization in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. According to many anthropologists and sociologists, the collapse of Communism in a number of post-communist countries resulted in a “religious revival” (Barker 1999; Tomka 2011; Borowik 2006; Fosztó 2009). Following the collapse of Communism in Romania, the number of those declaring themselves to be believers increased considerably. Major role in this upsurge in post-communist religious life have had neo-Protestant communities – Adventist, Pentecostals, Baptists, Nazarenes, Christian Brethren and others. Even though majority of neo-Protestant communities were founded in the beginning of 20th century, their number increased during last decades due to strong missionary activities from the West. This contribution is based on ethnographic field research conducted in several neo-Protestant communities in Western Romanian region of Banat (Nazarene, Baptist and Pentecostal) with the main aim to explore modes of the intensification of public expression of neo-Protestant religiosity. Beside interviews and participant observation methods, during my research I analyzed public presence of neo-Protestants and their religious activities. For many years these communities functioned as hidden, performing their services and rituals far away from any public places. Gaining new legal status in present-day Romania, some neo-Protestants have grown their visibility by building new modern churches, religious schools, organizing evangelizations and baptisms in public places and even musical concerts. Conversion to neo-Protestantism in predominantly Orthodox country such is Romania has often been seen as “foreign”, “different” or “new”, since neo-Protestant religious practices and worship differ from “traditional” churches. New style of their church buildings as well as other forms of visualization of their religiosity (websites, Facebook, etc.) are more comparable with their American or European “sister communities”, indicating how transnational links between neo-Protestants outside South-Eastern Europe strengthen in the last decades.

According to many anthropologists and sociologists, the collapse of communism and the emergence of a new nationalism in a number of post-communist countries resulted in a religious revival. In the post-communist period, in 1989/1990 in Romania and Serbia the number of those declaring themselves to be „believers” considerably increased. This religious growth also meant moving away from traditional forms to new ones. Focusing on conversion to neo-Protestantism in the post-communist era up to the present day, this article presents the results of ethnographic fieldwork conducted since 2008 in various Romanian villages in Vojvodina Province, Serbia. The article explores how different religious groups, such as Nazarenes, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals and Baptists, often stigmatized in public discourse, influenced religious change in the last decade. Even though these religious communities were already established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they are often perceived as new forms of religiosity in the area, becoming more visible and numerous in the post-communist period, especially among ethnic minorities. In adressing these issues, this article explores the role of new religious identities that have emerged in the region, the historical continuity of neo-Protestant communities and the question of conversion to neo-Protestantism.

The paper looks at the role of religion in the ethnic identity of the Serbs in Romania, based on the fieldwork conducted in August 2010 among the Serbian communities in the Danube Gorge (Rom. Clisură Dunării; loc. Ser. Banatska klisura), western Romania. A historical perspective being necessary in studying and understanding the complex identity structure, the paper offers a brief historical overview of the Serbian community in Romania. Serbs have been living in the Banat since medieval times, their oldest settlements dating back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Today, they mostly live in western Romania (Timiş, Arad, Caraş-Severin and Mehedinţi counties), Timişoara being their cultural, political and religious centre. Over the last decades, the community has been numerically declining due to strong assimilation processes, as evidenced by successive census data (34,037 in 1977; 29,408 in 1992; 22,518 in 2002). The majority belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church (Eparchy of Timişoara), but a number of neo-Protestant churches have appeared in the last decades. The research focuses on the role of the Orthodox religion among the Serbian minority in Romania and the role of new religious communities in relation to national identity. The role of the dominant Serbian Orthodox Church in preserving and strengthening ethnic identity is looked at, but also influences of other religions, which are not identified with any particular ethnic group, such as neo-Protestantism. With regard to the supranational nature of neo-Protestantism, the aim of the study is to analyze the impact of these new religions on assimilation processes among the Serbs in Romania and to examine in what ways different religious communities influence either the strengthening or the weakening of Serbian ethnic identity.

... 5, br. 1, str. 231-235. jezik rada: srpski prikaz knjige. Antropologija i teologija - Douglas J. Davies: Anthropology and theology, Berg, Oxford/New York, 2002. Đurić-MilovanovićAleksandra. nema. Sažetak. Članak nema sažetak. © Copyright 2011. ...

This panel will explore transformations in Orthodox Christian movements in the 20th century. The relationship between political ideologies, state systems and the agency of majority Orthodox Churches across Eastern and South Eastern Europe is an enduring topic of academic investigation. Less well explored and understood are the dynamics of change within renewal movements, their scope for agency and the repertoire of religious and spiritual resources deployed by movements that arose from within an Orthodox Christian milieu. In a region arguably defined by its experience of authoritarian and totalitarianism state systems and of changing border and state jurisdictions, the papers in this panel situate religious renewal within the context of political, social and economic dislocations and relocations addressing the dialectical relationship between religious renewal and regulation and control by the state and Church hierarchy. Themes explored include the significance and role of charismatic leaders, women’s agency, discourses on morality and materiality, new religious practices and rituals and similarities across Orthodox Christian Movements.  Papers will explore emergence, development and transformation of movements from the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Communist period, tracing different phases and changes in different socio-political contexts.

Abstract: The triad Zeus, Herakles and Dionysos has been attested in Upper Moesia by the relief from the village of Bukovo near Negotin, eastern Serbia. The Roman su-preme god was frequently shown in association with other deities, but the presence of Bacchus and Hercules in such associations is Greek rather than Roman in origin. The association of Liber and Hercules was promoted by the emperor Septimius Severus, a native of the city of Leptis Magna whose patron gods were concurrently Liber and Hercules. Septimius even granted the dii patrii a sort of official recognition as patrons of the dynasty he founded. The village of Bukovo where the relief was found had not been known as an archaeological site. There is no specific evidence for the worship of Jupiter in that area, while the worship of Herakles is attested on the sites of Rovine and Tamnič near Negotin. The relief is close to north-Macedonian reliefs in style, and reflects Hellenistic and Thracian influence in associating the...