u/Sowa96

Mixed wifi and 5g along with 2h of hotspot sharing.

All of a sudden a huge improvement which surprised me. The first 1% took 1h.

Just want to share this magnificent band cuz I dunno where else to. Saw them at Dynamo and managed to grab a selfie with the crew(except the drummer I think).

I had to move a bit back cuz I couldn't heat the vocals and the guitar,but overall good sound and I wish luck to this band to get more reach.

Definitely a band to look at and not to circle pit. Them and Castle rat were my highlights on the kink stage (2nd stage)

So far the highlight of the festival for me. Fucking amazing. Didn't expect that of a spectacle. The sound was great, great energy, even bigger charm. And how it ended and the whole lore felt so nice. I wish they played longer than 40 minutes.

I'm a Serb from Bosnia, grew up orthodox, had atheist phases by being sceptical against the church(any church) and not understanding any of the theological concepts. Probably more against corruption and propaganda. Then I had a phase of reading more about it and trying to understand it and feeling it more (whatever this means). I understood that rituals can give people meaning, not all tradition is inherently bad, but being a sceptic is healthy.

I don't consider myself a believer(edit: translating directly from Serbian, I believe in Christs' values 100%, but more in an universal aspect of it, not necessarily in the church is the divine authority aspect) since I don't feel it 100% and it would feel hypocritical, but I don't mind going to the church, listening to prayer (at least from a selfish musical enjoyment) and not rejecting a ritual (I did this before).

Where I did stay the same is being sceptical against priests and patriarchs in general. I see political bias in them, especially since the Serbian Orthodox church aligned (or is hijacked) by the current regime in Serbia. Even plenty of priests are divided with this political situation, so all hope doesn't seem lost.

That being said, a lot of balkan orthodox "vibe" is ethno-centrist unfortunately, but I'd put that on the hardcore propaganda post-communism. Well educated priests see above this, others are just nationalists.

Where I don't echo the sentiment on this sub is the presence of neverending dread in orthodoxy and that smiling is forbidden. When I think of Easter, I have this song in my mind:

Christ is Risen - Brings Joy

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With the above said, I got the feeling that most of this sub is consisted of Americans, feeling dissapointed by a bad priest (happens here too), self-guilt aspect of itand lack of a liberal approach in thinking about orthodoxy. Am I right in feeling this or there are non-american ex orthodox people here?