Visitor brings along new understanding

Sep 12 2008 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A RELIGIOUS figurehead from eastern Europe was the guest speaker at a series of services in Crieff.

The town’s Seventh-day Adventist base in Gwydyr Road was visited by Dr Radisa Antic, who was the head of the Adventist Church throughout Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro from 1994 to 2002.

Dr Antic told the Strathearn congregation that despite the turmoil caused by civil war in the Balkans, the Adventist church – the region’s largest Protestant group with more than 9,000 members – continued to grow throughout the conflict years.

Members adopted a stance of political neutrality during the war with the church’s humanitarian wing, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra), helping thousands of needy people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality.

“In fact, 70% of Adra’s massive aid programme in Sarajevo benefited the Islamic community,” said Dr Antic, who was also served a chairman of Adra’s board.

Since leaving the Balkans, Dr Antic has been a lecturer at Newbold College near Reading, one of the church’s major training centres for Europe.

His presentations at Crieff dealt with a range of theological issues and challenges currently facing the Christian church.