Thursday 14711

on this day we visited Radovan Bigovic, a orthodox priest, Mladen described him as some kind of televangelist time guy? he seemed alot cooler, and more down to earth than any televangelist ive ever seen...

anyways he had a very neat perspective on the state of the church today and its relations with the people and politics. he recognizes the secularity of the state, but sees that many politicians have a good relationship with church communities. Bigovic claims that interrelgious dialogue is prevalent despite the divisions caused by the wars. of note that surprised even me was the inclusion of faith studies in state school, in that everyone learns some about all the primary faiths here, and that that educational program has to be okayed by the various faiths to ensure accuracy/fairness. this will certainly help to prevent violent divisions like those of the past.

he is worried about what will happen when the west pulls out of Kosovo. Kosovo is the cradle of Serbian Orthodoxy, and now the region is dominated by Albanians, and though many of the monasteries and churches still function it is only under protection by Western forces.

also during the wars he claims to have had a number of dialogues with religious leaders across the Balkans, and helped to lead their appeals for peace, but being religios institutions in secular states there wasnt much they could do.

he also commented on how he doesnt blame the Vatican for supporting the Croats, while the Orthodox church got support by Russian orthodoxy and to a lesser extent Greek, and the Muslims got support from "Muslim" nations, in that each faith supported its own kind, which was to be expected.

he ended with saying that he thinks religion should be independent of national identity, because it can and has led to atrocity, reaching back into history beyond the atrocities of the 90s to the Crusades and whatnot.

after this even we chilled out some, and eventually went out to a vary cool swanky nightclub on a boat, lots of loud music and bright colors and beautiful people. again those of us able to enjoyed drinks of various kinds in a (no sarcasm here) responsible way payment was another matter, my niceguy syndrome kicked in and i end up picking up a large...very large portion of the tab, but all is well, im with these people for another 2 weeks, ill be able to get my money back. all told it was a great time.