Sekulić: The church in Rumija should be redesigned to include Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim prayer spaces

The church in Rumija could be redesigned to include two autonomous Christian liturgical spaces, Orthodox and Catholic, while a corresponding Muslim prayer space with a minaret would be formed immediately next to them.

This was announced by Dragana Sekulić from the informal civic movement - STEGA.

"There are places whose value lies not in the stone, building or individual religious symbol, but in what people have done together for centuries. Rumija is one of such places. The centuries-old custom of carrying the cross of Saint John Vladimir to Rumija transcended the boundaries of one confession. Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Muslims from the Bar region participated in the pilgrimage, so Rumija became a historical space of their encounter and shared tradition. The essence of the Rumija phenomenon is precisely this: diversity did not nullify the sacred place or the community around it," the statement reads.

STEGA points out that the claim that there was a church of the Holy Trinity at the top of Rumija, which the Ottomans destroyed during the conquest of Bar in 1571, is important for the modern justification of the metal object - the church placed at the top.

However, according to them, its historical validity is questionable. If there is any archaeological, cartographic or other relevant evidence that a church existed on the site before the Ottoman conquest, it would be important for those who advocate this claim to present it to the public.

"The absence of reliable historical confirmation was also pointed out by historian Zvezdan Folić, referring, among other things, to Venetian cartographic material from the time of the Ottoman conquest of Bar. In the text "There Never Was a Church on Rumija", published on the Montenegrina portal, it is also pointed out that records of the alleged church appear much later, in sources and traditions from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Historical science, of course, cannot prove that there could never, in any period, have been any sacred object on the top of Rumija. Such categoricalness is not even necessary because it is historically relevant that there is no reliable contemporary confirmation for the thesis that in 1571 there was a church on the top of Rumija that the Ottomans demolished at that time. A later myth cannot be retroactively turned into an irrefutable historical fact. In 2005, a metal object - the Church of the Holy Trinity - was transported to the top of Rumija by helicopter of the Serbian and Montenegrin Army and installed. "This gave the space of common worship the dominant feature of one confession and changed the symbolic character of the place, whose uniqueness lay precisely in the centuries-old tradition of several religious communities," said Sekulić.

As she added, Rumija's real problem is actually the question of whether a tradition that has survived as a symbol of coexistence can subsequently be turned into proof that it belongs to only one community.

"When the complex historical and cultural heritage of Montenegro is attempted to be reduced to a single national or confessional interpretation, interfaith harmony becomes one of the first victims of such appropriation. Criticism should not be directed against Orthodoxy or against Orthodox believers, but rather the Serbian Orthodox Church in Rumija can make a gesture to show that the greatness of its own tradition does not depend on the suppression of someone else's. There is also a different response to the dispute over the metal object - the church. Don't demolish it! Transform it!", it states.

Sekulić said that the demolition would produce a new symbolic victory of one over the other and open another round of identity conflict, and that it would be much more powerful to actually turn the existing building into a symbol of what, they add, Rumija was before it became the subject of the dispute.

"The Serbian Orthodox Church could show understanding towards the centuries-old tradition of the Bar region and open up space for an agreement with the Bar Archdiocese and the Islamic Community. The existing church could be architecturally redesigned to include two autonomous Christian liturgical spaces, Orthodox and Catholic, while a corresponding Muslim prayer space with a minaret would be formed right next to them. There is no need to create an artificial "super-religion". Each of the three communities must maintain its identity, worship and rules, but they can all share the same place, exactly what they have done in Rumija for centuries," the statement reads.

Sekulić said that "Berlin is building what Bar has had for centuries."

"The idea of ​​different religions sharing one architectural complex is not utopian. The Berlin project House of One connects Judaism, Christianity and Islam through three separate sacred spaces: a synagogue, a church and a mosque, and all are connected by a common meeting space. Each religion remains autonomous, and the common space does not erase differences but brings them into conversation. In Berlin, these are Jews, Christians and Muslims. In Rumija, these would be the Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims of Bar, precisely the communities whose coexistence has shaped the cultural identity of this area. Such an architectural solution would represent an extremely rare model of contemporary sacral architecture, but its greatest value would not be in its architectural unusualness, but in the fact that it would represent an architectural interpretation of the centuries-old Bar tradition, transforming a symbol of division into a symbol of reconciliation," it was announced.

She added that perhaps an object that "has become a symbol of the dispute could also become a symbol of overcoming it."

"The Orthodox altar does not have to disappear for the Catholic to have its place. The Catholic altar does not threaten the Orthodox. The minaret does not nullify the cross. All three communities would thereby recognize each other's right to stand together where they have stood for centuries, on Rumija. Such a solution would require a serious architectural project, the agreement of the three religious communities and full respect for their rules. But, much more than a political gesture, it would be proof that interfaith harmony is something we are ready to build into the space, and not just a slogan or a memory of a former common cult. For centuries before us, people of different faiths climbed to the same peak and did not have to have the same faith to respect the same sacred place. Let's return Rumija to Rumija - Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim, as the generations before us knew how to share it," it states.