The vandalism of a small Seventh-day Adventist village church in Serbia has caught the attention of the country’s president, Boris Tadic. In his comments to the nation President Tadic said the January 8 incident was hooliganism and such acts must be stopped. The president also publicly requested that the police speed up the investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Unidentified people broke into the Adventist church between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. in Stapar, in the municipality of Sombor, Serbia and set fire to the building, destroying the pulpit, several church benches and the floor.  Neighbours alarmed the fire brigade and information about the attack reached the members in the village.

Church officials say that since the fire many Adventist church buildings and institutions in Serbia have come under police observance and protection, Adventist News Network learned.

They also noted that news of the fire was broadcast on many of the national TV channels, as well as in several newspapers. Several government officials also expressed dismay at the incident.

Prior to this incident, Pastor Miodrag Živanovic, president of the Adventist church in South-East Europe, had written an open letter about religious freedom in Serbia and sent it to the government, including the Ministry of Religion and Internal Affairs and the media. Pastor Živanovic’s letter was a reaction to the sermon of His Excellency Archbishop Pavle, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who in his Christmas sermon called for peace and tolerance.

The church’s pastor, Dragan Kanazir told Adventist News Network that he was surprised that an incident on such a scale would occur. “Even though, there were many similar incidents in the region, nothing of this magnitude was expected. What was painful in the whole story was that what happened, happened during the Orthodox Christmas period, when we were all sending best wishes around,” said Pastor Kanazir.

The president of the Municipality of Stapar was also surprised and said that he couldn’t understand who would attack a church that is so well respected in this village. The village president continued asking, “Who would have anything against such a peaceful and pleasant group of people?”

There is also an Orthodox church in the village that was not harmed.

This is not the first time an Adventist church in Serbia has been targeted by vandals. In April 2003 an Adventist pastor was severely beaten and 11 churches were vandalized. Church officials then called the string of attacks an “orchestrated campaign against a religious minority” in a predominantly Orthodox country.

“Serbian society has had to face many acts of religious intolerance for the last 10 years ... mixed with religious nationalism,” said Dr. John Graz, secretary general of the International Religious Liberty Association of the incident. “The strong reaction of the authorities in this case against such an act is encouraging.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Serbia has 177 churches, and 7,950 members. The Stapar church has 30 members.