A Balanced mutual relationship between Churches and religious communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the focus of the Interreligious Council (MRV) in BiH and by the imperative of its vocation, it promotes peace and goodwill among peoples and ethnicities, said MRV BiH Chairman Metropolitan Dabrobosanski Hrizostom in an interview with Fena news agency.

Recalling that the Interreligious Council in BiH, founded in 1997, began its work in the difficult post-war period, Hrizostom emphasizes that the work began in very difficult and complex circumstances.

“And if we need to define something as the greatest merit of the MRV in its many years of operation, then it is the fact that it was founded and stabilized and that it has been functioning continuously for so many years,” Hrizostom noted.

He added that the Interreligious Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be the spiritual support of the citizens of different religions in BiH.

“We would like that to be the case, but we are afraid that many BiH citizens have not even heard of the MRV BiH because its activities are completely “obscured” in the vague image of BiH,” Hrizostom said in an interview on the MRV’s work.

It is a great thing, he added, that the MRV members meet regularly, discuss, pass certain conclusions and propose concrete proposals to their churches and religious communities and suggest positive steps in inter-religious relations of BiH citizens.

“Churches and religious communities should be an example to follow, both for their believers and for all those who are not. By their example, religious leaders in the MRV BiH show the faithful how they should respect each other, respect others, help and act with the laws and teachings of their Churches and religious communities. This is the basic function of the MRV in BiH, and everything else has been added over time,” said the Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia.

The Interreligious Council in BiH was established in 1997 by the joint efforts of the then Reis-ul-Ulema, (the BiH Grand Mufti) Mustafa ef. Ceric from the Islamic Community in BiH, the then Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia Nikolaj from the Serbian Orthodox Church, Vinko Cardinal Puljic from the Catholic Church and Jakob Finci from the Jewish Community of BiH.