Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one. I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking. This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.
Writing on a day when the 2021 Census revealed that slightly less than half the population of England and Wales identified as Christian, it might be tempting to think of Serbia as an antidote. In Serbia over 91% identify as Christian, a remarkable figure for a (small) European state.
Unfortunately, this is not necessarily a sign of a deeper Serb spirituality. The Serbian Orthodox Church is regarded as nearly synonymous with being Serbian. This part of Europe has been through centuries of turmoil of all kinds, as anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of the Balkans knows. For two centuries the area was Islamic within the Ottoman Empire, and a significant factor in the nationalism associated with the Serbian Orthodox Church is the sense that it was and is a bastion against Islam.
This leaves all other religions and denominations firmly on the margins, but one interesting margin has the Basilica of St Demetrius in Stremska Mitrovica. Despite its very Orthodox-sounding name (Demetrius was a soldier saint from Thessaloniki in Greece) it is a Catholic Church.
Why is it interesting? Because it represents something about Stremska Mitrovic which long predates the existence of Islam or the Orthodox Church. This was once Sirmium and this ancient Roman city became one of the Capitals of the Roman Empire when the administration was shared out upon Rome's decline. In the third century ten of the Roman Emperors came from the area around the city.
As the Empire turned Christian Sirmium naturally became important in the Church too and to cut a very long story short that is why it hosted no less than four (some think three) Church Councils. Yet strangely anyone may have heard of the Council of Nicea and/or the Nicene Creed. Or even the Council of Constantinople (more nerdy that). But few have heard of any of the four Councils of Sirmium.
The reason is quite simple. These were councils called to try and incorporate a heresy - Arianism - in the Church. (Arius himself had been previously exiled to this area from Alexandria).
Next week we'll be singing carols in the street about God becoming Man. Over the road the Jehovah's Witnesses will be proffering their literature - but no carols of course. Their views are somewhat like those of the Arians regarding Jesus - a man not God. When we talk of the Grinch that stole Christmas, that Grinch might easily have been Sirmium!
