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Glasnik Etnografskog instituta, 2014

The official name of the Methodist Church in Serbia is "Evangelička metodistička crkva" translated directly into English would be Evangelical Methodist Church. This Church is part of the worldwide denomination called "United Methodist Church" (UMC), so I use this term in the text.

A large accession of traditionally Muslim, Turkish speaking Roma (known as Millet) to Christ occurred in the early 1990's, but this church movement began to decline in the second half of the 1990's. This study explores the factors that people who left Millet churches, people who stayed in Millet churches, and Millet church leaders perceive to be involved in the stagnation and decline. A descriptive, qualitative, and ethnographic approach was used, and in-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted with twenty active members and twenty people who had defected from four Millet churches to elicit their personal narratives of the processes of coming to faith, staying in the church, and leaving the church.

Challenge of Immigrants in Old Israel Cross-cultural Learning - Issues of the second generation of immigrant churches Case Study from Germany: Immigrant Churches in the German Baptist Union

While Russia is often perceived as a religiously homogeneous entity with the Russian Orthodox Church dominating the country, in reality, it has a long history of coexistence with different religious traditions. There have always been provinces with majority Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, or shamanistic populations as well as those characterized by religious diversity. The Ural region has always been multi-religious and is currently home to representatives of more than 50 ethnicities among a population of four million in Sverdlovskaia oblast' (a contemporary administrative unit). It is located in the middle of the Eurasian continenton the border between Europe and Asia with Ekaterinburg (at 56°5´/60°4´) as its capital. Ekaterinburg was founded in 1723 by Peter the Great as the main metal-copper, iron, and cast iron-producing plant in Russia. It also got its wealth from rich gold deposits discovered in the mid-nineteenth century. As a booming center of metal production in the eighteenth century, Ekaterinburg needed engineers and managers and since there were not enough Russian specialists, foreigners were brought in to fill the jobs. Many Europeans, either exiled prisoners of war or workers contracted by the state, were employed at the Ural metal plants and composed the nucleus of the Lutheran and Catholic communities, which developed into established religious institutions in the city by the late nineteenth century. This paper focuses on the evolution of Catholic institutions in the Urals, represented primarily by ethno-confessional communities of Poles, who were exiled or had migrated from the European part of the Russian Empire throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The paper is based on documents from local archives, sociological surveys conducted in 2008 and 2012, censuses and census-like materials, field observations, interviews, and materials from the Roman Catholic Church's official websites.

Missiology: An International Review, 2021

International churches in Europe are growing. Yet there is concern that the European international churches only attract immigrants and refugees, not Europeans. In a first-of-its-kind study, the authors examined the demographics of the Fellowship of European International Churches. It is the largest network of international Pentecostal churches in Europe. The authors found it to be incredibly diverse, with 152 nationalities represented in the international churches. Europeans from various countries made up 27% of the population within the Fellowship of European International Churches, and 61% of the churches reported the presence of refugees. The authors conclude their study by offering suggestions on how European churches can better engage refugees and immigrants by examining the international churches' praxis.

Contemporary Migration Trends and Flows on the Territory of Southeast Europe, 2019

Considering two case studies, this article presents the functioning and attitude toward local religiosity in the context of migration. The first case study examines permanent internal migration of the Greek Catholics from the region of Žumberak in Croatia and the second one temporary labour migrants from ex-Yugoslavia, particularly from Eastern Serbia and Western Macedonia. Searching for answers to the questions of the migrants’ attitudes toward local religiosity, its role in the construction of identity and the impact of migration on it, we cannot but consider the “laws” to which these processes submit in social life.

Acta Theologica, 2016

This article 2 aims to determine the reasons why members of one congregation migrate to another, and to identify factors that play a role in this process. These are determined by the nature and functioning of congregations. This qualitative research involved members of three different congregations that had recently experienced a positive growth in membership numbers. The effects of secularisation and the Enlightenment, and their consequences at various levels, as well as the theories of McDonaldisation and Consumerism were taken into consideration to explain the migration of church members between congregations. The answer is not simple in the sense that two tendencies can be identified: 'push' factors that activate the tendency to move out of the previous congregation, and a drawing or 'pulling' tendency, representing those factors that attract people. It can be stated that the reasons for migration can, to a large extent, be traced to the nature and functioning of the congregation. In addition, clear tendencies can be identified in terms of 'push' and 'pull' factors. 1 Read: "the changing of members' church affiliation". 2 Part of this article is based on "Redes vir die migrasie van lidmate van een gemeente na 'n ander-'n praktiese teologiese studie by enkele Bloemfonteinse Christen gemeentes", an unpublished MTh dissertation, Bloemfontein: University of the Free State by I.M. Bredenkamp, 2014.

A rapid increase in the number of Christians and churches among traditionally Muslim Roma in Bulgaria that occurred after the fall of Communism was quickly followed by stagnation and decline in the movement. This article explores the reasons for the decline, and in particular the reasons why large numbers of people left churches. The results of in-depth interviews with people who stayed, people who left, and church leaders are reported and discussed. Implications for the Millet churches in Bulgaria, and for missionaries and local Christians in other contexts are outlined.

2018

Though in size resembling a sect, the Methodists of the former Yugoslavia functioned as a Protestant “Free Church” due to its international structural connection with a large worldwide Methodist Church. After disparate beginnings in the two locations, the Methodist of Vojvodina began to function in 1898 while in Macedonia, the former Congregationalist (called Evangelical) began their work in 1870 but were transferred to the Yugoslavia Methodist Mission Conference after World War I. In Vojvodina, most of the members were of German and Hungarian ethnicity who had already been Protestants before they joined the Methodists while in Macedonia, the members were ethnic Macedonians, formerly Orthodox Christians. In both localities, they sporadically experienced harassment and unequal legal status. When Yugoslavia became a communist country after World War II, ironically they obtained equal legal recognition as the other religious communities, but experienced various levels of persecution th...

2015

The paper is devoted to issues of emigration to overseas countries the United States and Canada, and of integration of Romanian neo-Protestants from the Serbian Banat into the Diaspora. Since the position of neo-Protestant communities in different social and political circumstances was unfavorable, neo-Protestant believers began to emigrate, not only for economic reasons, but mainly in search of religious freedom. The emigration of Romanian neo-Protestants was particularly intense from the mid-sixties, when the Yugoslav communist regime allowed its citizens to travel abroad. By going to the New World, now a triple minority, the Romanians originated in the Serbian Banat joined existing neo-Protestant communities or established new communities, which would greatly affect their integration into the new environment, but also the creation of a separate and in many ways specific identity.

2015

humangeographies.org.ro

The quantification and analysis of international migrations have always represented difficult approaches especially because of the lack of some reliable statistical data. Consequently, alternative sources of information (such as religious institutions and administrative boards of different Christian cults) are not to be neglected. However, from this point of view, significant differentiations can be highlighted: the Catholic Church has always been keen on good quality statistical registrations (more or less Neoprotestant cults fit this pattern, too); in its turn, Orthodoxy tries to catch up on the lost ground by means of a considerable administrative organization. Thus, from the different incidence of religion-triggered emigration to the geographical distribution of the cult edifices abroad the country, the connection between migration and religion is a very powerful one. In this sense, our analysis is meant to spot the most important features of the Romanian diaspora.

Europe as a Multiple Modernity: Multiplicity of Religious Identities and Belonging, edited by Martina Topić and Srdjan Sremac, 228–251.

Danubius, 2017

At first, the paper outlines the advancing secularization of society in the Czech Republic in the last 25 years. This movement shows itself especially by reducing the number of believers of the traditional churches. This rapidly declining trend occurs nowhere in the world in this scale as neither evangelicals nor new religious movements achieve any great success. Since 1990s, there has been a noticeable intensive increase in numbers of members of these communities and since the beginning of millennium, there is only modest growth, stabilization, or even a loss of membership bases. Some more permanent growth in the number of believers records only the Churches that are spiritually related to immigrants. Unorganized spirituality becomes gradually religious mainstream. The vast majority of the population, however, accustomed to look for social identity outside the realm of religion. The paper draws on data mainly from the statistics of the last three censuses in the Czech Republic in 1991, 2001 and 2011. It sees main reasons in the troubled past, which is burdened with many misinterpretations. Vague and negative perceptions of religious past create a barrier to social identification with tradit nal and e io n w religious communities.

Congregations in Europe, Cham: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-77260-8, 2018

This volume describes and maps congregations of Christian confessions and denominations, as well as groups with Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, and various other spiritual faiths, in different European countries. Consisting of three parts, it presents concrete sociological studies addressing how established and not established, old and new congregations of various faiths create a new kind of religious diversity at the country level; how religious congregations are challenged and thrive in large cities; and how religious congregations change in the 21st century. The book enlightens by its descriptive analysis and the theoretical questions it raises concerning the religious transformations happening all over Europe. It addresses issues of religious diversity in the cities of Europe by presenting large studies conducted in cities such as Barcelona in Spain, and Aarhus in Denmark. By means of large-scale censuses taken in areas such as North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany and in countries like Switzerland and Italy, the book shows how the historically established churches restructure their congregations and activities. It clarifies for the new gatherers where and how a new diversity of religious congregations is in the process of being established. Finally, the book covers two important topical issues: pluralisation and secularisation. It provides new data on religious diversity, painting a new picture of secularisation: the impact and structural consequences of the long-term decrease of membership in the established churches.

2004

The origins of collectivistic religions in a number of former communist countries have commonly been traced to the post-communist revival of nationalism. Contrasting the Roman Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, I will argue that the elucidation of the collectivistic features of religion in some ex-communist societies may not be attained by addressing their similarities but rather their differences; specifically, by asking why collectivistic traits characterize religions in some and not in all post-communist societies.

Theorists of social capital have emphasized the catalyzing role that churches may play by strengthening community involvement and facilitating the development of personal networks. Churches that serve immigrant communities are viewed as pillars of stability, able to alleviate the cultural shock that many newcomers experience upon settling into their countries of adoption. However, this normative ideal is not always matched by reality. Building on thirty ethnographic interviews that I conducted with Romanian immigrants in Toronto, I aim to demonstrate that churches are not infallible in their cohesive efforts. They cannot compensate for the absence of interpersonal trust – a caveat inherited from the pre–1989 totalitarian era, and thus can hardly contribute to the consolidation of intra–community ties.

2019

The present presentation includes the findings of a field sociological research in 2015 in Murgeni - a small provincial town in Romania located at the eastern border of Europe, with a Roma community of over 2,000 inhabitants. The study presents for the beginning a brief description of the locality.The central theme of the research was the role that the conversion of Pentecostal worship had in the life of the Roma community. Within this framework, research has attempted to answer a set of questions as follows: To what extent have some traditions of the Roma population changed? How has the local Pentecostal Church developed to this day? How did the authorities get all these changes? How does the Romanian population report to the mass conversion of the Roma community? In order to answer these questions, sociological research was based on various techniques: a survey of a sample of 300 subjects, participatory field observation, focus groups with ethnic Roma, interviews with local decisi...