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Demonstrates Unity in Faith

November 19, 2000
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

Adventist Pastors Meeting in Sarajevo Demonstrates 
Unity in Faith

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.      Seventh-day 
Adventist pastors from across the former Yugoslavia 
met together for the first time in nine years for 
two days of professional training and Christian 
fellowship. The event, held October 19 to 21 in 
Sarajevo, brought together 140 pastors including 
Bosnians, Croats, Kosovar-Albanians, Macedonians, 
Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenians, and Hungarians 
from Vojvodina. For nearly a decade, war and ethnic 
conflict in the region had prevented gatherings of 
this kind. 

"This meeting makes an important statement to the 
world around us," says Bertil Wiklander, one of the 
initiators of the meeting and president of the 
Adventist Church in the administrative region known 
as the Trans-European Division (TED). 

"It demonstrates the unity that holds Adventists 
together despite ethnic, political, and cultural 
borders. The spirit of fellowship and Christian love 
during these meetings was something extraordinary.  
It has re-invigorated our faith and commitment to 
our Lord."

Speakers noted that the unity of the Adventist 
community in Sarajevo--which includes people with 
Muslim, Croat, and Serbian backgrounds--had been a 
powerful witness of spiritual unity in a place torn 
apart by conflicts. "This meeting is a significant 
reminder of that spiritual unity," said Rade Nikulic, 
a pioneer leader in the Sarajevo Adventist 
congregation.

The meeting included two days of teaching and 
training in leadership and personal relationships, 
presented by Wiklander and Miroslav Pujic, TED 
communication director. Participants decided to make 
the meeting a regular event. The next meeting is 
scheduled to take place at Marusevec, an Adventist 
college in Croatia, in the autumn of 2001.