Literary-Orthodox lecture hall “To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book. Children's Orthodox magazine "Svirelka

1. Introduction

With the blessing of His Holiness, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', for the first time in the history of our Church, this anniversary year we are holding an Orthodox Press Congress.

The founders of the Congress are the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate, other Synodal Departments, the Ministry of Press of the Russian Federation, the Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation, Moscow State University, the Orthodox Society "Radonezh" and a number of other organizations. As of today, about 450 people from ten countries and 71 dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived at the congress, most of all from Russia (about 380 people from 52 dioceses), then from Ukraine (from 12 different dioceses), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Latvia, Estonia and from the Berlin diocese. Among the participants are representatives of the diocesan media, secular media writing on church topics, Orthodox journalists from the Local Orthodox Churches.

The goals and objectives of the Congress are:
- consolidation of the efforts of Orthodox journalists in the matter of Orthodox education and familiarization of the general public with the position of the Church on the main issues of social and political life;
- work to improve the qualifications of Orthodox journalists;
- strengthening the cooperation of the Church with secular journalists writing on church topics;
- creation of the "Union of Orthodox Journalists of Russia" and the formation of its regional branches.

We intend to consider at the Congress such aspects of journalism as freedom of speech and information in the modern world, the independence and responsibility of the press, issues of journalistic ethics from an Orthodox point of view.

Our congress is taking place in the jubilee year, on the threshold of the third millennium from the Nativity of Christ, so we inevitably have to not only talk about current problems, but at the same time keep in mind a broader perspective, sum up the results of a wider period of time. The last 10 years in the life of the Church turned out to be very important for the revival of all aspects of church life, including Orthodox journalism.

A few words should be said to clarify the main theme of the Congress. Two thousand years ago, the greatest event in the history of mankind took place: the appearance in the flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This event radically changed the world: as it became Christianized, people became more and more clearly aware that a person, being the image and likeness of God, is free: he has the inherent right to life, the right to freedom of opinion, and finally, freedom of speech in defending his convictions.

No matter what they say about the reforms of the last decade in our country, no one denies one thing: our society has gained freedom of speech. The only question is how we use this freedom.

The outgoing century was tragic for our long-suffering Fatherland. The world has witnessed confrontation, intolerance, anger in society, which led to civil war, bloodshed, the death of millions of people.

But even today, do we not feel that the spirit of division is beginning to take possession of our souls? After gaining the freedom to profess and preach any belief, a period of violent clashes immediately began. And again, people oppose "their own" to "alien", again "their" power, "their" ideas - they consider them more valuable than "foreign" ones, and not only ideas, but also lives! So, 1917 is not a random page in the history of Russia!

The power of the mass media is enormous, but, like any power, it can be both harmful to the people and beneficent.

Recently, many archpastors, clergymen and believers of the Russian Orthodox Church have increasingly expressed concern that the state remains indifferent to the propaganda of violence, interethnic, interfaith, social and other enmity, moral licentiousness, debauchery, as well as other phenomena that contradict both Christian and natural, universal morality, through print and audiovisual products, radio and television. As a rule, the press perceives such judgments as an encroachment on the freedom of the press. But after all, the activities of modern media can be seen as an attack on a person's freedom to live morally, since the imposition of a cult of immorality limits the freedom of human choice just as much as cruel censorship.

Therefore, conscious of being citizens of a great country, heirs of a great Orthodox culture, we can and must resist vulgarity, cynicism, lack of spirituality modern life, whoever we are, whatever we do, wherever we work: in a newspaper, in a magazine, on radio, on television. Not to let the human soul get bogged down in everyday worries, to remind it of its primordial vocation to reach divine heights is an important part of journalistic service to society.

And first of all, it is the Orthodox press that must be moral and responsible, free and independent.

2. The state of Orthodox periodicals before the revolution

The question arises: is not what has been said a mere declaration, are free and independent Orthodox media possible in reality? I must say that on the eve of this congress, a series of publications took place in the secular media aimed at casting doubt on this possibility. The newspaper "NG-Religions" did its best here, devoting a whole selection of materials to the forthcoming Congress; except for an interview with a member of the Organizing Committee of the Congress, priest Vladimir Vigilyansky, apparently placed "for objectivity," everything else is sustained in a sharply critical tone, as the very titles of the articles indicate: "Strangled word", "Closed nature of activity", "Deal with everyone", "Is church journalism possible?" Of course, it is impossible if one understands the freedom of journalism in the way that is convenient for most secular journalists today. But today we have already heard the answer to such questions in the Word of His Holiness the Patriarch, who reminded us of the Orthodox understanding of freedom. Another answer to the same question is given by church life itself - both present (the existence of many Orthodox periodicals) and past, our church history, to which we must constantly refer, comparing our actions with church tradition. Therefore, I think it appropriate to give a short historical background on the state of Orthodox periodicals before the revolution.

Its beginning dates back to the first quarter of the 19th century, when the reforms of the Spiritual and educational institutions gave a new impetus to the development of our Theological Academies. In 1821, the St. Petersburg Theological Academy was the first to publish the magazine "Christian Reading". But it was a scientific, theological journal, and the first popular, public publication was the Sunday Reading weekly, which began to appear in 1837. It contained articles of an instructive nature; it was published by the Kyiv Theological Academy. The first seminary periodical was the Riga journal School of Piety (1857). Thus, we see that the beginning of Orthodox periodicals is closely connected with our Theological School. It should be noted that before the revolution, our four academies published 19 periodicals, Theological Seminaries also published about a dozen journals, of which the most famous is the Kharkov theological and philosophical journal "Faith and Reason", founded in 1884 by Archbishop Ambrose (Klyucharev).

In the second half of the 19th century, in addition to academic journals, many other spiritual journals appeared, which can be called theological journalism. Along with theological articles, they published sermons, reviews of current events in the Orthodox Churches and the non-Orthodox world, criticism and bibliography of current book and magazine publications, essays on remarkable church figures, biographies of ascetics of piety, stories from church life and spiritual poetry. Of the most famous journals of this kind, we note the St. Petersburg "Wanderer" by Archpriest Vasily Grechulevich (in the appendix to it the "Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia" was published in 1900-1911), the Kiev acutely polemical "Home Conversation for People's Reading" by Askochensky, the Moscow "Emotional Reading" and many others. All these theological and journalistic publications of the 1860s and 1870s were characterized by a bold discussion of ecclesiastical and ecclesiastical social issues.

Speaking about official publications, it should be noted that before the revolution, each diocese had its own printed organ - Diocesan Gazette. The initiative to found them belongs to the famous hierarch of the 19th century, the outstanding preacher Archbishop Innokenty (Borisov) of Kherson, who developed their concept in 1853. Its main element was the division of the magazine into two parts: official and unofficial. The official part was intended for decrees and orders of the Holy Synod, news from the highest state authorities, especially for a given diocese, for orders from the diocesan authorities, for messages about movements and vacancies, for extracts from the annual reports of various diocesan institutions. In the unofficial part, excerpts from the works of the holy fathers, sermons, edifying articles, local historical, biographical, local history and bibliographic materials were printed.

However, only six years later this concept was presented to the Holy Synod for approval by Vladyka Innokenty's successor in the cathedra, Archbishop Dimitry (Muretov). The synod not only approved it in 1859, but also sent out the proposed publication program to all diocesan bishops. The following year, according to this program, diocesan bulletins began to appear in Yaroslavl and Kherson, and 10 years later they were already being published in most dioceses. It is interesting to note that the remote dioceses acquired their own magazines before the metropolitan ones.

Even later, central organs of the Russian Orthodox Church appeared, that is, published by the Synod or some Synodal department, - in 1875 the Church Bulletin began to appear, and in 1888 - Church Gazette.

Toward the beginning of the 20th century, the number of publications increased, in which the main place was occupied by publicly available religious and moral articles for edifying reading, such as "The Russian Pilgrim", "Sunday", "The Pilot", "Christian's Rest". Of the popular edifying pre-revolutionary journals, 30 were published by Orthodox monasteries. In particular, "Trinity Leaflets" published by the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra enjoyed great popularity. There were also special church magazines devoted to apologetics, public education, the fight against schisms and sects, naval clergy, bibliography of theological and church-historical literature. As for parish periodicals, before the revolution there were few of them, only about a dozen.

3. Church journalism in the Soviet era

However, all these Orthodox periodicals (about four hundred titles) ceased to exist already during the first five years of Soviet power - just like the publications, mainly renovationist, that arose after 1917. True, émigré Orthodox publications still remained, for example, Vestnik RSHD, Pravoslavnaya Mysl and others, but in the former USSR they were practically inaccessible to the average reader, being the property of special depositories.

For many decades, the only periodical publication of the Russian Orthodox Church was the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy. We also had some other periodicals that were published abroad and were designed for a Western audience, for example, "Bulletin of the Western European Exarchate" in France (in Russian and French), "Voice of Orthodoxy" in German.

As for our oldest journal, ZhMP, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year (it began publication in 1931, was closed in 1935, and resumed again during the Great Patriotic War, in September 1943), then, despite the well-known restrictions of the era of totalitarianism, the magazine still played a very important role in the life of the Church. Of course, in terms of its level, it was incomparable with pre-revolutionary publications - neither in terms of volume (suffice it to recall that in the 30s it had 8-10 pages, in the 40s - 40-60, and only since 1954 - the current 80), nor in terms of circulation (it was almost impossible for an ordinary believer to get it), nor in terms of content. And yet it was that small flame that the hostile winds of the era could not extinguish. All the few theological, literary church forces at that time were drawn to him, around him gathered. Worked in the Journal at various times, outstanding Russian theologians, liturgists, church historians, and Slavic scholars collaborated with it. This tradition continues today. Its editors carefully preserve and promote church traditions, maintaining the high culture of Orthodox journalism.

During all these years, the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate has been the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church, carrying the word of the gospel to the believers of Russia, an invaluable source of information about the events of church life. He made a significant contribution to the training of future Orthodox pastors, to the Christian upbringing and enlightenment of church people, to the preservation of the purity of our faith.

During the entire period of its existence, the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, in fact, was a chronicle of the labors and days of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarchal messages, greetings, statements and decrees, the Resolutions of the Holy Synod, Acts of Councils and Bishops' meetings, official reports on important events in church life were regularly published on its pages. Materials were also published on the naming and consecrations of newly appointed bishops - from these publications one can trace the path of service to the Holy Church of each hierarch. Since the basis of the spiritual life of the Church is worship, the Journal has always contained messages about the services of the Primate of our Church. The Journal of Parish Life paid much attention to monasteries and theological schools, constantly told readers about the life of other Local Orthodox Churches, and paid great attention to the development of fraternal inter-Orthodox relations.

Over the past decades, the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate has published many hundreds of sermons on Orthodox holidays, doctrinal and moral topics; hundreds of articles devoted to the interpretation of Holy Scripture, Orthodox dogma, moral and pastoral theology, liturgics, canons, church history, patristics, hagiology, church art. Services, akathists, prayers to saints were published; some liturgical texts were printed for the first time from handwritten monuments.

Recently, the volume and proportion of articles devoted to understanding the historical past of our Church, the ways of reviving the Orthodox Fatherland, and other church and social problems from Orthodox positions have begun to increase. The journal began to regularly publish materials about the martyrs, confessors and ascetics of piety of the 20th century, to acquaint readers with the religious views of figures of Russian culture, with the theological heritage of the Russian emigration. The Journal reflects all spheres of modern church life, including the problems of spiritual education, pastoral care, social service of the Church, its interaction with the Armed Forces, and missionary work. On the pages of the Journal one can read both about the primatial trips of His Holiness the Patriarch and about the labors and concerns of a small church community. It publishes articles on all sections of theology, sermons, church history works, bibliographic reviews. Materials from the richest heritage of representatives of Russian theological and religious-philosophical thought of the XX century are devoted to the section of the Journal "Our Publications".

In the new conditions, when the resurgent Russia, not only with ever-increasing interest, but also with hope, turns its gaze towards the Church, when church life arouses ever greater interest in society, there is a growing desire to understand it, to understand its features, in order to then join it, a periodical organ is especially needed, promptly and in full informing about everything that happens in the vast church organism. Such an organ is the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy.

It should be noted that in the current conditions of the still unaccustomed lack of censorship and, as a result, the excessive "emancipation" of other authors, when a mass of various religious publications appeared, the role of a periodical publishing official documents of the Church, covering the activities of its Primate - His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, acquainting the reader with the official point of view of the Russian Orthodox Church, is greater than ever.

With the beginning of perestroika in 1989, one of the first church newspapers, the Moscow Church Bulletin, appeared in the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. The history of its formation is replete with many twists and turns: it was also published on coated paper in a very small edition, it came in 2-3 copies per diocese, so some bishops hung it in the church as a wall newspaper. It came out for some time and as an appendix to "Evening Moscow" with a circulation of over 300 thousand copies. At present, it is published twice a month, and the newspaper publishes a quarterly supplement, "Overview of Orthodox Publications," which contains reviews and annotations of emerging church literature.

4. The current state of Orthodox periodicals

Describing the situation as a whole, it can be noted that over the past decade the Church has not only restored its periodical press in its traditional forms (magazine and newspaper), but is also actively mastering new forms of such activity. Their appearance is due to modern technological progress, the achievements of which are by no means always bad in themselves - it is only important to use them for good purposes. Thus, the Publishing Department of the Moscow Diocese has not only revived the Moscow Diocesan Gazette, but also publishes a video supplement to them (two issues have been published so far).

Nowadays, almost all dioceses have their own church media. Of course, they differ greatly in volume, frequency and, of course, quality, which, unfortunately, often remains low. There are many reasons for this, including economic ones: the lack of funds to attract bright and highly qualified journalists.

In Moscow alone, about 30 different Orthodox periodicals are published. Some newspapers, such as "Radonezh", are already well known not only in Moscow, but also far beyond its borders. This newspaper is characterized by high professionalism, competent construction of materials, the level of many articles in it is high, the newspaper is easy to read. Of the Moscow newspapers, one should also note the well-known parish newspaper Pravoslavnaya Moskva, whose publishing team is successfully working in the field of Orthodox journalism, sowing the reasonable, the good, the eternal. It can be said that such newspapers as Moskovsky Tserkovy Vestnik, Pravoslavnaya Moskva or Radonezh have their own identity, in some ways they have managed to advance further than others, some are more professional, some are more ecclesiastical.

The activity of Orthodox youth brings to life Orthodox youth publications - first of all, here we should mention the student newspaper of Moscow University "Tatyanin's Day", the magazine of students of the Moscow Theological Academy "Vstrecha", the magazine for doubters "Foma". Unfortunately, there is still a small number of Orthodox children's magazines for which there is a very great need; First of all, it is necessary to note the magazines "Pchelka", "Kupel", "God's World", "Sunday School".

A special kind of periodicals is the Orthodox church calendar, published once a year. As you know, now many organizations, both church and private, are striving to publish calendars, since they are invariably in demand among the population. And this is to be welcomed. But it is one thing when it comes to popular publications that contribute, so to speak, to the gradual “churching” of the ordinary secular calendar, and quite another thing is the publication of the Patriarchal Church Calendar. The latter has its own special tasks: intended mainly for the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, it serves to streamline worship, to achieve the liturgical unity of the Church. It is one thing to have a secular calendar (indicating holidays in it does not yet make it a church one), and quite another to have a calendar with liturgical instructions and readings: the problems that arise when compiling the latter are such that in a number of cases even highly experienced employees of the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate have to seek clarification from the Liturgical Commission under the Holy Synod, and sometimes personally to the Most Holy Patriarch. It is unacceptable that in the calendars of different dioceses these problems were solved in different ways (as sometimes happened in pre-revolutionary Russia). It is all the more unacceptable for individuals to interfere in the solution of calendar problems.

The most common type of publishing activity in the dioceses is the publication of the diocesan newspaper. It can be multi-page or just a piece of paper, but one way or another it carries information about the life of the diocese. Moreover, in a number of cases, not one, but several newspapers are published in the diocese at the same time (and I do not mean the Moscow and St. Petersburg eparchies, where the situation with publishing and journalistic activities is special).

The number of dioceses in which Orthodox magazines are published is much smaller. This is understandable: publishing, say, a monthly magazine is much more labor-intensive than a monthly newspaper (which, by the way, is often published as a supplement to some secular newspaper and uses the appropriate resources). The practice of reviving Orthodox publications that appeared before the revolution under the new conditions deserves every support (for example, the oldest Orthodox magazine, Christian Reading, was revived at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, etc.).

It is important to note that in a number of dioceses church periodicals are published not only in Russian, but also in the language of the peoples living there (for example, in the Komi language in the Syktyvkar diocese, in the Altai language in the Barnaul diocese, etc.).

As an example of a diocesan newspaper, we can cite the weekly "Word of Life", which has been published in the Tashkent diocese for many years. This publication adequately fulfills the important task of spiritual nourishment of the Orthodox Central Asian flock, and one of the reasons for its success lies in the great attention paid to publishing by Archbishop Vladimir of Tashkent and Central Asia. For all his busyness, he by no means limited himself to the archpastoral parting words to the new periodical, but, in fact, he became its most active author: almost every issue of the newspaper contains his word, sermon, message. An important place in the newspaper is given to Christian pedagogy, the thoughts of the holy fathers on the upbringing of children, excerpts from the works of Ushinsky and Aksakov, essays on the Tashkent theological school, and Sunday schools in various parishes are printed. From the very first issue, the newspaper covers the topic of the history of the diocese; Thus, an essay on the history of the creation of the monthly journal "Turkestan Diocesan Gazette" was printed - in fact, the predecessor of the current newspaper: a number of publications were devoted to the initial sermon of the Apostle Thomas in Central Asia, articles were published about prominent Central Asian hierarchs, as well as materials related to the name of the disciple and follower of the last Optina elder Nectarius, the confessor of the Central Asian diocese in the 50s-60s of our century, Archimandrite Boris (Kholchev; †1971). The specificity of the Central Asian diocese is in its location among the Muslim world; therefore, a number of the newspaper's materials are aimed at improving mutual understanding between Christians and Muslims, dispelling the atmosphere of omissions and suspicion. The publication of this newspaper, which can be considered an exemplary diocesan publication, has been going on for nine years.

5. New types of media

a) radio, television

Both in the capital and in the regions, the Church is actively mastering radio broadcasting. In Moscow, the many years of activity of the radio channel "Radonezh", the program "Logos" of the Department of Religious Education and Catechism, the program "I Believe" on radio "Rossiya" and others should be noted. There are certain achievements in the field of film development (it should be emphasized great importance annually held by the Union of Cinematographers of the film festival "Golden Knight") and television, where the annual festival-seminar of Orthodox television plays the same role, the founders of which are the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Orthodox Society "Radonezh" and the Institute for Advanced Studies of Television and Radio Broadcasting Workers. Over the past years, many interesting programs have been created on television, such as "Orthodox Monthly Book", "Orthodox", "Canon" and, of course, the author's program of the Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad "The Word of the Shepherd". Unfortunately, not all of them survived to this day. Of great importance in the development of the Orthodox presence on television is the activity of the Information Agency of the Russian Orthodox Church, which covers the most important events of church life (previously this was done by the PITA agency), as well as such television programs as "Russian House" and some others.

The main wish for these forms of media is greater interaction with the Hierarchy. Cases are inadmissible when speakers at radio stations or on television sometimes put their opinions above canonical norms - this causes temptation among believers.

b) Internet

Two words should also be said about the beginning of the development of a new type of publications by church organizations - electronic media. I mean the worldwide computer network Internet, which has become Western countries already a familiar means of obtaining information and now widely used in Russia. With the help of this network, each of its users can receive information from anywhere in the world. A number of church structures, both in the center and in the dioceses, are now making efforts to install computer equipment to provide Internet access. This will allow the Church to use another channel of influence on the minds of our contemporaries, through which the most enlightened part of the youth audience, as well as the Russian-speaking population abroad, where, due to the high cost of shipping, our periodicals practically do not reach, will be able to access the treasury of Orthodoxy.

Currently, there are already dozens of Orthodox servers in Russian. Both Synodal institutions and individual dioceses, churches and monasteries, and educational institutions go online. One of the largest is the "Orthodoxy in Russia" server, created with the assistance of the "Russian Cultural Initiative" foundation; on its pages are placed, in particular, such newspapers as Radonezh and Pravoslavnaya Moskva. Such a server was created by the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate, it hosts all the official publications that we publish, including the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, the newspaper Moscow Church Bulletin, the Orthodox Church Calendar, the Chronicle of the Patriarchal Service, and much more.

6. Orthodox themes in the secular media

In connection with the increasing social significance of the Russian Orthodox Church in our country in recent years, the direction of journalism associated with the coverage of church life has been intensively developing in the secular media. At first, such information passed through the media through the departments of culture, now many secular magazines and newspapers have special columnists writing on church topics, and in some media there are special headings, sections, pages, tabs and appendices entirely dedicated to church life.

Examples include the "Lampada" column in the "Trud" newspaper, the "Blagovest" column in the "Rabotnitsa" magazine, and many others.

But there are also publications that have long since exposed themselves as open enemies of Orthodoxy. Their goal is clear: to inflict maximum damage on the Church, to tear the Orthodox people away from it. Even the global celebration - the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ - some of these publications used to publish blasphemous articles on their pages.

What are the reasons for the unfriendly attitude of many secular media towards the Church, to put it mildly? There are, of course, conscious enemies who, as before, imitating Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, look at the Church as a hotbed of alien ideas. Such people are extremely worried about the great and ever-increasing authority of the Church in society. However, most often, I think, this is a reaction to the ideological dictates of the recent past, a kind of complex. They see in the Church not an opportunity for the renewal of life, but a threat of the spread of a new ideology associated with certain self-limitations, while they would like to live without any ideology, absolutely "free". But it is not for nothing that they say: a holy place is never empty, and, rejecting the good yoke of Christ, they doom themselves to a much worse slavery to various idols. For freedom without the restraining principles of Christianity is self-will and arbitrariness. And the fruits of such freedom are disastrous for man, dooming our civilization to extinction.

7. So-Called Independent Orthodox Media

Recently there have appeared such supposedly "Orthodox" publications that proudly call themselves "independent". Let us ask ourselves: from whom are they independent? When such titles or subtitles appear in the secular media, this should be understood, of course, not as an indication of true independence, since we know that the periodical press is very dependent on its economic owners, sponsors, etc., but as an indication of the absence of censorship on the part of the authorities, as an opposition to all kinds of official print media published on budgetary funds. When a publication that calls itself Orthodox, at the same time calls itself "independent", it either uncritically uses a cliche suitable only for secular media, or it really wants to be independent of the authorities - from church authorities, from the Hierarchy. But is it possible?

The Church is built on a hierarchical principle and there are not and cannot be any structures and associations independent of the Hierarchy. There has already been a period in our church history when, after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1917, meetings were held in many dioceses that removed objectionable bishops and elected new ones. We all remember what a wave of renovationism, betrayal, break with Orthodox Tradition ended this period. "Without a bishop there is no Church" - this fundamental principle, first clearly formulated by the Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon, is true in all its force today. Therefore, in my opinion, a newspaper cannot be considered Orthodox if its publication has not been given the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch or the ruling bishop.

In this matter, the current situation to some extent resembles that which took place with respect to the Orthodox brotherhoods, which were created in dozens at the beginning of perestroika. Some of them engaged in political and other activities that not only did not benefit the Church, but also directly harmed it. The Council of Bishops in 1994 even had to make a special decision to re-register the Statutes of Orthodox brotherhoods, supplementing them with a clause stating that they are created only with the consent of the rector of the parish and with the blessing of the diocesan bishop, so that they are under the responsible guardianship of the rectors.

It is obvious that we will have to return to the same topic more than once, since such "independent" media are waging an open struggle against the Mother Church. The reasons for this are varied. Allegedly worrying about church problems that cannot be resolved, in fact, such newspapers only bring new disorganizations into the church organism, work to weaken the Church. Behind the articles published in them one cannot fail to see far-reaching plans aimed at splitting the Church and, above all, at belittling its role in the cause of the national-state revival of Russia. In this, such "zealots of Orthodoxy" merge with the most rabid enemies of the Church.

In their publications, they sling mud at prominent church figures of the past and current hierarchs. Meanwhile, not only ordinary believers, but also priests and even bishops continue to take part in such newspapers - whether indirectly (by subscribing, reading) or directly (by articles, giving interviews, etc.). The question is: is this allowed canonically? Of course, this is a rhetorical question - for a truly Orthodox consciousness it should be clear: such publications destroy church unity.

Speaking of the Orthodox media, it should be noted that only those publications that are established by the official structures of the Russian Orthodox Church - directly by the Patriarchate, Synodal institutions, monasteries, parishes - can be called ecclesiastical in the full sense. Of course, there are many publications that are not in the strict sense of the church, but turn to the Hierarchy for the blessing of their activities. Most of these media are run by church-going laity, and we support them. At the same time, one cannot ignore that legally they are private enterprises that are not responsible to the Church for the content of their publications. This is fraught with a number of dangers, since under certain circumstances the editorial policy of such structures can be and is influenced by factors and forces alien to the Church. Therefore, it seems especially important that the founders of religious media include official structures of the Church, which would have the opportunity not only to formally bless, but also to actually direct the line pursued by this or that publication into the church channel.

I note that from the point of view of the non-church consciousness, what I am talking about now simply looks like a struggle between the Church and independent church media and secular journalists covering church issues. We are not afraid of such an interpretation, since the Church is by no means a parliament where pluralism of opinions and factional struggle reign. But when such judgments are accompanied by fictitious reports, like the one that recently appeared on the pages of Russian Thought, that the Publishing Council allegedly sent out to all Diocesan Administrations a "black list" of mass media, from which clergymen are advised to refrain from meeting with journalists, we must directly state that this is slander.

In essence, this should not be surprising: you know very well that the world has been in a state of war with it since the emergence of Christianity; but in war, as in war, they do not disdain any means. But this general consideration at the present moment in relation to Orthodoxy in Russia also has a purely political component: Orthodoxy is the last bond of Russia, and therefore for many in the West it is the main target. At the same time, attacks on the Church of Christ are carried out both from outside and from within. And the enemy within the Church, who puts on the mask of a zealot for the purity of Orthodoxy, is more dangerous than an external enemy, for it is more difficult to recognize him. His favorite trick is slandering the Hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, using unclean methods of lies, distortion of facts, their biased interpretation. In the name of what are these people zealous? The answer is simple: the authors and leaders of such newspapers either themselves want a split in the Church, or simply fulfill someone else's order.

8. General problems of Orthodox journalism

a) Addressee, language, subject

The first question that arises in relation to Orthodox periodicals is their addressee. Are they internal church publications, designed for already churched readers, or should the main tasks that they set themselves be missionary, that is, should they be addressed primarily to those who are only on the threshold of the temple? The choice of language, the choice of topics, and the volume of the necessary commentary depend on the solution of this main issue.

In my opinion, both are necessary: ​​there should be publications designed for a prepared reader who is well acquainted with church life, theology, and history; and there should be editions for beginners. But considering that the service of the Church is now taking place in the conditions of a significant de-churching of a society that has departed far from its spiritual foundations and, so to speak, does not remember its kinship, I believe that the missionary bias in the Orthodox media should be predominant. In accordance with this, the language of newspapers and magazines should be understandable to most people. But there is also a danger here that I would like to point out. Whatever missionary goals journalists set for themselves, yet not every language is suitable for articles and notes that deal with lofty, holy things. A commendable desire to expand the readership, to get in touch with one or another social group to conduct Christian preaching in it must also have its limits. It is unthinkable, for example, when carrying the Good News to those in bondage, to express it, "applying" to the mentality of criminals, in their language; it is clear that such a journalist will lose himself and will not find readers. The same can be said about the use - in an effort to capture young hearts - the jargon of youth parties.

Now about the subject. There is such a type of publication as a newsletter. The intensity of church life is very high now, and filling newspaper pages with news (with the Internet, this is very easy to do) is the easiest thing an editor can do. But for most newspapers and magazines, information about the events of church life is too little for the publication to be truly interesting to readers. It is also not enough to simply reprint passages from patristic writings. The good news of the Lord Jesus Christ is addressed to every person, but each generation of people perceives it in its own way, because it is in a new historical situation. And the main thing that may interest the reader is how the eternal truths of Christianity are refracted in the minds of his contemporary. Therefore, I believe that the main place in the Orthodox media should be occupied by the speeches of modern clergymen, believing scientists and cultural figures, Orthodox publicists.

Today, many preachers speak the language drawn from the books of the last century, do not seek to revive their knowledge, to convey it to modern man. Such preaching is not effective, and the deepest truths of the gospel and the life of the church must be spoken of in clear, modern language.

I would like to note one more point related to the language of the press. It is very characteristic of modern ideologized consciousness that the understanding of this or that publication in the old sense, i.e. following the author's arguments and similar work of thought are often replaced by the identification of "one's own" or "alien" by a few conventional signs that can be found in the material at the very cursory glance. At the same time, reading texts and listening to speeches turn into a search for a few keywords such as "patriot", "democrat", "nationalist", "ecumenist". I urge Orthodox journalists to make less use of such clichés, which inevitably vulgarize thought and do not contribute to unity in society.

Another example is provided by people who talk a lot about the need to translate the liturgy into Russian for its better understanding (I’ll note in brackets - an extremely delicate matter that requires many years of work), but in fact they limit themselves to saying “again and again” instead of “packs and packs”, “listen” instead of “let’s listen” and instead of “belly” - “life”, which adds absolutely nothing to the understanding of the liturgical text. Here, these modified words, an example of bad taste, also have the functional meaning of a password, an identification mark, supposed to demonstrate progressiveness to all surrounding conservatives.

The most important topic for the Orthodox media is the fight against the dominance of information that corrupts our society in the secular media. The church press should participate in the development of mechanisms to protect against the corrupting influence on the media of freedom, which is not restrained by either Christian morality or a sense of responsibility.

I would also like to wish Orthodox journalists that the opinions of the older generation of clergy who endured the heavy cross of standing in the faith during the years of the theomachic regime are better reflected in the church press. There are not so many such people now, and we must hurry to talk with them, interview them, learn from their spiritual experience. Comparing their views and thoughts on key church issues with the opinion of younger people, Orthodox journalists, would, I think, be extremely useful.

b) Controversy in the Orthodox media

Another question: is it necessary to cover in the Orthodox media the disorganizations and conflicts that take place in the church environment, or, speaking in a professional language, what should be the ratio between positive and negative in general? You know that not all is well in our church life. The Church is a living organism, and it would be strange if some of its members did not get sick from time to time, especially in the conditions of such rapid changes that we have been experiencing in recent years. Yes, we now live in an open society, and the Church has no secrets from both its members and society as a whole. But in covering these conflicts, wise judgment must be exercised. There are no forbidden topics for Orthodox publicists. It is only important to remember the words of the Apostle Paul: "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is useful ... not everything edifies" (1 Cor. 10, 23). The task of church journalists is creation, not destruction. Therefore, criticism in the church press should be sharp, but not murderous, but benevolent.

It is important not to give in to emotions, to show spiritual sobriety. It is far from always useful to criticize publicly noticed shortcomings, knowing that this will first of all cause the cries of newspaper scoffers in the secular press. Sometimes it is more useful to apply directly to the Hierarchy with a request for action. The point is not so much to denounce this or that sin, shortcoming; it is important to correct it, and in such situations, the church press should, without succumbing to provocations, help not to inflate, but to heal such conflicts, their final disappearance from our church life.

We live in a difficult time, we still do not have the strength and means for many things, and we must keep this in mind and try to understand the actions of the Hierarchy, instead of ardently blaming him for certain sins.

Being carried away by criticism is also spiritually unsafe. It's not just about the danger of violating the Lord's commandment "do not judge." The polemical attitude gives rise in the publicist to a special lightness, the habit of solving sometimes difficult, dogmatically difficult problems - off the shoulder, with extraordinary speed. The consequence of all this is the loss of a sense of reverence for the saint, the loss of piety, that is, the traditional Orthodox frame of mind.

Particularly unattractive is the desire of some publicists writing on ecclesiastical topics to appeal to secular public opinion in their polemics with the Hierarchy. Of course, there are no direct provisions in the holy canons forbidding such an appeal, but I think that it can be considered in exactly the same way as an appeal to civil authority in church matters, which is expressly prohibited by the canons. I also note that in the same canons it is said that before considering a complaint from a clergyman or a layman against a bishop or clergyman, one should study the question of the complainant himself: what is public opinion about him and whether his motives are pure.

Many problems are caused by insufficient contact between Orthodox journalists and the Hierarchy. It is clear that for technical reasons this contact is not always easy to make, but everyone must remember that we are doing a common thing and therefore we must strive to understand each other.

c) The ethics of an Orthodox journalist

An Orthodox journalist must take the issues of journalistic ethics very seriously. It is important that the Orthodox press does not adopt the unscrupulous methods of some secular publications, that it, without evading acute problems, at the same time does not engage in slander, does not sow discord between believers and pastors, between faith and culture, between Church and state. It should be remembered that the words of the Lord are applicable to journalism, as to no other sphere of human activity: "for every idle word that people say, they will give an answer on the day of judgment: for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matt. 12, 36-37).

An Orthodox journalist must constantly remember the commandment of love for one's neighbor, of responsibility for every word spoken, and show respect for the author or interlocutor. If he makes any changes to the words spoken or written by him (whether it be a literary adaptation or an abbreviation), then it is imperative to acquaint the author with them before publishing or broadcasting them. Before publishing, be sure to show the text to the person with whom you had a conversation.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for editors of Orthodox newspapers to reprint materials from other Orthodox publications, not only without proper permission, but also without any references. The point here, of course, is not copyright, and many authors take this practice quite calmly, believing that if their publications benefit people, then thank God; but we are talking about a certain culture of relations, of which Orthodox journalists should act as an example.

d) The problem of censorship

We live today in a society that is still experiencing the euphoria of freedom. And this prevailing mindset influences us in a certain way, and therefore it seems embarrassing for us to talk about the need to restore church censorship. Meanwhile, there is a need for it. The lack of even basic theological training among many authors writing on church topics leads to significant distortions of the Orthodox dogma in their works.

As a result, "spiritual" literature appears, on the pages of which one can find blatant heresy, arguments about corruption and the evil eye, and a lot of unverified rumors are placed. But many truly wonderful events took place in the past century, but they are literally drowning in this sea of ​​legends and myths. Therefore, I believe that the problem of church censorship is not removed from the agenda today.

At present, a certain replacement for the institution of spiritual censorship is the placement of vultures on the corresponding publications: "printed with the blessing" - of His Holiness the Patriarch, the ruling bishop - or "printed by decision of the Publishing Council." In my opinion, all spiritual literature sold in temples should be marked with a corresponding examination and the name of the censor should be indicated.

I must note that through the efforts of modern media, the idea of ​​the unacceptability of censorship as such is being introduced into the church consciousness. But censorship for us is not an attack on freedom, but a way to preserve our church wealth, accumulated over thousands of years. Restrictions on the way authors express themselves can upset pluralists of all kinds; but in matters of salvation, that is, life and death, the Church has other priorities.

As for periodicals, in my opinion, only church media proper (diocesan, parish) can have the stamp "printed with blessing" on the first page. When we see a similar stamp on a secular Orthodox publication, this raises questions: does anyone authorized by the Hierarchy review these publications? Indeed, otherwise the publisher is given a blank form with a signature, a kind of carte blanche, and sooner or later problems may arise.

The practice of placing a "blessing" of the late Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg and Ladoga on the title page of an Orthodox "independent" newspaper testifies to the fact that in this case one can reach complete absurdity. Meanwhile, more and more new authors appear in it, whom the late Vladyka did not even know, and the tone of the newspaper has changed significantly in recent years.

The advent of the Internet has essentially made it possible for everyone to have their own media. At the same time, from the user's point of view, purely externally, personal sites are indistinguishable from those created by well-known press authorities. Moreover, the publication of traditional media requires a license from the Ministry of Press of the Russian Federation, and no permission is required to create an electronic newspaper. It is clear that under these conditions the problem of the Church's blessing of such publications will become especially acute, and we will face this in the near future.

e) The need for state support for Orthodox media

Following its sacred duty - to promote the spiritual and moral improvement of society, the Russian Orthodox Church is making significant efforts to publish spiritual literature and Orthodox periodicals, which are in dire need of many of our compatriots who have lost their spiritual orientation. This task is very difficult in conditions when considerable resources are allocated for various anti-church campaigns. But even for those secular media that do not directly oppose the Church, a desire for "spiritual exoticism" is characteristic - theosophy, magic, occultism, Eastern religions, and similar materials that are dubious from the point of view of the Church.

Unfortunately, the activity of the Orthodox media against this background is not sufficiently noticeable. The main reason for this is economic, arising from the general difficulties of our state. The Moscow Patriarchate invests all its main funds in the restoration of churches destroyed by the state - this is not only its sacred duty, but also the duty of the whole society; there are practically no funds for large-scale journalistic projects.

The Church especially lacks at present its central newspaper, in which it could, without directly interfering in politics in any way, evaluate certain phenomena in society from spiritual and moral positions, so to speak, "from the point of view of eternity." This line, strictly maintained in the newspaper, would help bring the various opposing forces closer together, soften the bitterness of the political struggle, and unite society as a whole. It seems to us that such a position and the general church newspaper that expresses it deserve state support, despite the fact that the Church in our country is separated from the state. Spirituality and morality are something without which a nation cannot be healthy.

It seems that the creation of a church-wide Orthodox newspaper is a truly state matter, and therefore we have the right to count on state support, which is provided to many secular "independent" media. A detailed plan for such a publication exists and will be submitted by us to the Press and Information Committee of the Russian Federation.

9. Management of Orthodox periodicals

Given the great importance of the media in the modern world, I would like to draw the attention of the Most Reverend Archpastors to the need to pay the most serious attention to those Orthodox media that are published in the dioceses they manage. Moreover, we are talking not only about the need to provide them with all possible support, including material, but also about the care of the relevant publications, about their spiritual guidance. Then the current conflicts between the press and church structures will not arise.

The Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate is called upon to carry out general management of Orthodox publishing activities, including church media. The hierarchy of our Church attaches great importance to its activities, as evidenced by the fact that in the autumn of last year, by the Decision of the Holy Synod, it was given the status of a Synodal department. But so far, the main activity of the Council is not connected with periodicals, but with book publishing - it reviews manuscripts voluntarily sent by publishers with a request to bless their publication. In most cases, submitted manuscripts are subject to benevolent criticism and, with corrections and comments, are recommended for publication, but there are still those for which the Council cannot give the requested blessing due to serious defects, if not the non-Orthodox nature of the work.

The Publishing Council is ready to extend the already accumulated experience of such reviewing to the periodical press, but there are not yet the necessary conditions for this. I must note with regret that we still do not receive all the newspapers and magazines that are published in the dioceses. It may be necessary to organize an all-church competition of Orthodox media, within the framework of which it will be possible to compare various periodicals with each other and give them an Orthodox assessment.

10. The need to publish a church-wide newspaper and create a press center under His Holiness the Patriarch

Glancing over the activities of the Orthodox media, one cannot get rid of the feeling that forces are being dispersed. Many different periodicals are published, while one really large, solid, influential publication is clearly missing. In addition, most of our periodicals, in fact, are internal to the Church, their subject matter and language are not always understood by a wide audience, therefore, they cannot fulfill a missionary function. In other words, there is clearly a need to create a mass all-Russian weekly Orthodox newspaper that would write not only about internal church life, but also about the world from the point of view of the Church and the Orthodox worldview.

When discussing the concept of a Russian Orthodox socio-political cultural and educational newspaper, first of all, we must determine several important positions: its addressee, principles for selecting information, sources of information, material base, and the like.

As for the addressee, in our opinion, such a newspaper is needed by the widest range of readers, all those people in Russia who profess to be Orthodox and sympathize with the Church, but are not churched (according to some estimates, such are 60% of the entire population of the country). Considering that people are tired of newspaper lies and slander, the political bias of Russian publications, propaganda of debauchery, witchcraft and violence in them, worship of material values ​​and base " popular culture", then the presence of an Orthodox community newspaper covering all topics from the point of view of Christian values ​​will attract a huge number of readers to it.

The main task of such a newspaper is to consider the urgent problems of modern life from the point of view of the Church in order to influence public opinion and political institutions. Of course, in addition to its utilitarian purpose - to be a source of information - an Orthodox newspaper must be a witness to the Truth: to carry this Truth, to affirm and defend it.

Of course, the reader has no right to expect impartiality from such a newspaper, the selection of information is already a certain bias. But if for the non-Christian consciousness quite earthly notions of truth serve as the criterion of objectivity, then for Christians such a criterion can only be the One Who Himself is "the Way and the Truth and the Life". St. John Chrysostom gave an important approach to the Christian idea of ​​“objectivity” for us: “We pray or fast,” he wrote, “we accuse or forgive, we keep silent or talk or do something else: we will do everything for the glory of God.”

The question of the material base of the publication is very serious. Now control over information is power, so I am sure that many political forces will want to support it with finances. However, financing in the modern sense is always "ideological" control, so direct control by the Church is extremely important here. Perhaps such a newspaper could become an organ of the "Union of Orthodox Journalists", which we propose to create at this Congress. In any case, the activities of the sponsors of the newspaper should not be contrary to Christian precepts.

As for sources of information, the Church today has practically no information service of its own, except for the Information Agency of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is mainly focused on television. Such a service needs to be created, and the sooner the better. Its basis could be the "press service" under His Holiness the Patriarch. Of course, to some extent, church information passes through ITAR-TASS and other agencies, but one should use the existing secular agencies with caution - many of them are associated with political parties and certain ideological structures. The task of creating a church-wide Orthodox information agency is now quite real, because it is not so difficult to find believing correspondents at diocesan administrations and large city churches throughout Russia and abroad.

The newspaper in question should be made not just by Orthodox, but by all means church journalists. There are such journalists in Moscow. An Orthodox newspaper must necessarily become a center uniting the church intelligentsia.

Of course, it would be ideal if such a newspaper were daily, but in this moment this is hardly achievable. However, for the first two or three years, we are quite capable of publishing a weekly newspaper. This simplifies the work in terms of prompt response to events and facts, but also obliges to be analytical, excludes the "right to make a mistake" and any unreliability.

As for the distribution of such a newspaper, the Church has a unique communication system: Diocesan administrations, deanery districts, churches - on the one hand; and shops, kiosks, stalls selling church utensils and church literature - on the other. Only they, in addition to subscriptions, can ensure the distribution of at least one hundred thousand copies of the newspaper.

The newspaper should not only avoid "difficult" topics, but, on the contrary, seek them out, talk about them with the reader, presenting the Christian understanding of these problems. Of course, church life will be a priority topic for it: the newspaper should inform about the events and problems of the Russian Orthodox Church and give them a proper assessment, as well as resist anti-church actions and anti-Christian publications in the secular press. Priority topics also include social problems: destitute people (refugees, disabled people, orphans, pensioners, the sick, etc.), people who have been captured by passions and rejected God (alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, players, etc.), problems not in general of "human rights", but of the rights of specific people. The newspaper should stand on the positions of principled non-partisanship, protection of national and state interests, openness to all who contribute (regardless of party membership and religious affiliation) to stability, who are looking for ways of understanding, unity and peace in society.

11. Issues of training journalistic personnel

In connection with the intensive development of Orthodox journalism in recent years, the issue of training journalistic personnel has become very topical. The publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchy pays great attention to this problem. Five years ago, the Institute of Church Journalism was created under him, two years ago it was transformed into the faculty of the Russian Orthodox University named after John the Theologian, which will already have the 3rd enrollment this year. Now future church journalists receive more thorough training in theological disciplines, study ancient and new languages. Many students today are full-time employees of various church publishing houses. As an educational practice, they publish their student newspaper "University Bulletin", where everything - from writing articles to computer layout - is done by themselves. The second issue of this newspaper is currently being prepared.

There are many requests from dioceses to open a correspondence department at the faculty, this issue is currently being studied.

12. Creation of the "Union of Orthodox Journalists of Russia"

The facts cited in the report testify to the fact that in the field of mass media the Church and society have been taking ever new steps towards each other in recent years. Meanwhile, the activities of the Union of Journalists of Russia proceed as if this new phenomenon in the life of the country, the new direction of journalists' activity, simply does not exist. Church journalists are not offered to join the Union, we are not sent invitations to various events held under the auspices of the Union - "round tables", professional competitions, etc. Among the many negative consequences such a situation can be pointed to extremely low level publications on ecclesiastical issues in secular periodicals.

It seems that the conditions are ripe and the time has come to correct this situation. A year ago, the participants of the "round table": "Publishing Activities of the Russian Orthodox Church", held as part of the VII Christmas Educational Readings, discussing the state of church periodicals in our country, expressed the opinion that one of the significant shortcomings in this area is the disunity of church media figures. As a measure to improve coordination and interaction between church journalists, a proposal was made to create a Union (or Brotherhood) of Orthodox Journalists. This proposal found unanimous support among the audience and it was decided to turn to the Hierarchy with a request to bless the creation of such an association. Having received such a blessing, we propose to discuss in our Congress the question of the establishment of such a Union.

In our opinion, the "Union of Orthodox Journalists of Russia" should be a creative public association established to assist the Russian Orthodox Church in educating society, promoting Orthodox spiritual, moral and cultural values, increasing professionalism, skill and mutual support of its members. In carrying out its activities, the Union will observe the canonical rules, doctrinal, theological and other traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. Its members will be Orthodox professional creative workers of diocesan publishing houses, editorial offices of newspapers and magazines, editorial offices of radio, television and Internet channels, news agencies, as well as individual journalists and entire public associations who share the goals and objectives of the Union and promote its activities.

There is a certain fear among secular journalists that the creation of the "Union of Orthodox Journalists of Russia" will lead to the division of people who have a common profession of a journalist along religious lines. But we consider our future organization not in opposition to the existing All-Russian Union of Journalists, but as a division of it.

On the other hand, it is important not to repeat the mistakes that were made during the registration of the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, the Charter of which did not correspond to church law and state legal provisions. This discrepancy consisted in the fact that the Union declared itself public organization, but determined the directions of its activities at the general church, diocesan and parish levels, without foreseeing interaction with canonical church structures and responsibility to the hierarchy.

Concluding my speech, I would like to wish the participants of the Congress success in the forthcoming work and fruitful discussions on the issues briefly outlined by me in the presented report.

Archbishop Tikhon of Bronnitsa
editor-in-chief of the publishing house of the Moscow Patriarchy

Project passport

Project name	Literary-Orthodox lecture hall "To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book"
	Rylova Ekaterina Leonidovna, head of the innovation and methodological department of the MBUK "Kirovo-Chepetsk RTSBS"
What problem does the project solve?	Problems of accessibility of Orthodox literature to readers of the Kirovo-Chepetsky district, informing the population on Orthodoxy issues.
Objective of the project	Orthodox education of the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region through the recommendation of the best examples of literature.
Organizer	Municipal state-financed organization culture "Kirovo-Chepetsk regional centralized library system"
Target audience of the project (for whom it is intended)	The population of the Kirovo-Chepetsky district.
Main activities	1. The origins of human happiness (acquaintance with the concept of "Orthodox literature"). 2. With love and gratitude (female images in Orthodox literature). 3. The most important holiday of the year is Easter. 4. On the threshold of the temple (about the Velikoretsk procession). 5. A school where they teach to be kind (the image of a teenager in Orthodox literature). 6. My fortress (family in Orthodox literature). 7. Outpost (on Faith and Love in Orthodox Literature).
Implementation period	March - August 2011.
Outcome	1. Enlightenment of the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region through holding mass events with the showing of Orthodox films. 2. Conducting 7 lectures. 3. Acquisition of publications on Orthodox subjects for libraries. 4. Strengthening partnerships with the Missionary Educational Department of the Vyatka Diocese, the library of the Sunday School and representatives of the Church of All Saints in Kirovo-Chepetsk, the Charitable Foundation of Seraphim of Sarov. 5. Formation on the basis of libraries of a network of educational departments of Orthodox literature.

The project of the literary-Orthodox lecture hall "To the origins of morality through the Orthodox book"

Spiritual and moral education of the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk district of the Kirov region still remains one of the main activities of the libraries of the MBUK Kirovo-Chepetsk RCBS. The urgent task of today is the formation of a single information space in the spiritual and moral direction, and, in this regard, the organization on the basis of the central regional library of a methodological center of information on this subject.

To solve this problem of Orthodox education, a project of a literary Orthodox lecture hall “To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book” was developed.

Objective of the project

Orthodox education of the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region through the recommendation of the best examples of literature.

Project objectives

1. Education of the population through video lectures in 7 libraries of the Kirovo-Chepetsky district;
2. Formation of thematic collections of spiritual and moral literature in order to model their own unique fund of Orthodox literature in rural branch libraries;
3. Consolidation of the resources of the Kirovo-Chepetsk Central District Library, the Kirov State Regional Scientific Library. A.I. Herzen, the Missionary and Educational Department of the Vyatka Diocese, representatives of the All Saints Church in Kirovo-Chepetsk, the Seraphim of Sarov Charitable Foundation for the implementation of the project;
4. Creating public outcry and attracting a large number of readers in the villages of the region to this project.

The reason for the significance of the project

The task of all libraries is to help revive the best national spiritual traditions in society. This can be done only by systematically recommending to the reader the best examples of spiritual and moral literature, educating the reader from a young age of artistic taste and reader culture. Until there is a unified concept of spiritual and moral education in the Kirov region, holding lecture halls is one of the possible ways of Orthodox enlightenment of the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region.

When and by whom was the project implemented?

Project implementation period - March-September 2011.

The project "To the origins of morality through the Orthodox book" was implemented by the MBUK "Kirovo-Chepetsk RTSBS", the Kirov State Regional Scientific Library named after. A.I. Herzen, the Missionary Educational Department of the Vyatka Diocese, representatives of the All Saints Church in Kirovo-Chepetsk, the Seraphim of Sarov Charitable Foundation.

resource base

Administrative resource

A cooperation agreement was signed between the MUK "Kirovo-Chepetskaya RTSBS" and the parish of the All Saints Church.

financial resource

Equipment. Book and electronic products.

Name of equipment	price, rub.	Quantity, pcs.	Total, rub.	Available, rub.	Required, rub.
Projector	24 925		24 925		24 925
Portable screen	5 075		5 075		5 075
Purchasing Literature			20 000	20 000
Purchasing films on electronic media			4 000	4 000
Total:			54 000	24 000	30 000

Name of cost item	Cost, rub.	Quantity per month, pcs.	Total, rub.	Available, rub.	Required, rub.
Xerox paper White color
Total:			440	440	0

Human Resource

• Personnel resources of the Kirovo-Chepetsk Central District Library: E.L. Rylova - head of the department for the formation and use of a single fund (acquisition of literature and DVD films).
• Human Resources of the Missionary Educational Department of the Vyatka Diocese: teacher of the church in the name of the Holy Great Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia N.V. Demidov (speech at training seminars).
• Personnel resources of the Church of All Saints in Kirovo-Chepetsk: Orthodox missionary - catechist L.A. Zoroina and archivist V.P. Plotnikova (local history Orthodox education among the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region).

material resource

For the implementation of the project were attracted:

• Kirov State Regional Scientific Library. A.I. Herzen (acquisition of the Orthodox magazine "Foma", "Family and School", the weekly "Vyatka Diocesan Bulletin";
• Donations to the fund of the MUK "Kirovo-Chepetsk RCBS" of the Orthodox missionary of the Church of All Saints in Kirovo-Chepetsk Zorina L.A., employees of the Missionary and Educational Department of the Vyatka diocese, readers of the Orthodox library "Blagovest" in Kirov. Priest Fr. John of the Holy Trinity Church c. Kstinino signed the Kstininsky library for the children's Orthodox magazine Svechechka.

Methodological resource

Repin I.V., an employee of the Missionary Educational Department of the Vyatka diocese provided a large methodological resource on Orthodox education: electronic presentations about Orthodox holidays, scripts for holidays, speeches at parent meetings, films about Orthodoxy, etc.; illustrative material: posters, calendars, promotional products of theological schools, lists of books recommended for reading by the ROC, etc.

Temporary resource

The staff of the Sunday school library provided Orthodox thematic collections of literature for temporary use.

The principle of involving partners in the implementation of the project

Taking into account the results of the study on the study of reader demand for literature of spiritual and moral content, incl. Orthodox literature, in various age groups, the Kirovo-Chepetsk Central Regional Library entered into an Agreement on cooperation with the local Orthodox religious organization of the parish of the Church of All Saints in the city of Kirovo-Chepetsk. As part of an agreement with the arrival of the Church of All Saints, the employees of the Sunday School in Kirovo-Chepetsk formed a thematic selection of literature "Orthodox Family" for the libraries of the Kirovo-Chepetsk RTSBS MUK.

Within the framework of the joint project "Golden Shelf" from the Kirov Regional Scientific Universal Library named after I.I. A.I. Herzen, for the first time, the Orthodox magazine “Foma”, “Family and School”, “Vyatka Diocesan Bulletin” entered the RCBS.

Given the Orthodox competence of the specialists of the Messianic Education Department, their involvement has become important for speaking at the training library seminars.

The involvement of representatives of the Church of All Saints in the city of Kirovo-Chepetsk made it possible to conduct local history Orthodox education among the population in the libraries of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region not declared in the project.

Project progress

The lecture hall is designed to solve the problems of accessibility of Orthodox literature to the readers of the region, informing the population on Orthodoxy issues. These issues are especially acute in the villages of the region where there are no churches. During March - August 2011 in the rural libraries of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region, classes were held in an interesting and accessible form for various groups of readers. Each lesson was accompanied by films - winners of the International Orthodox Sretensky Film Festival. In parallel, meetings were held in the libraries with the Orthodox missionary of the Church of All Saints in the city of Kirovo-Chepetsk Zorina L.A., archivist V.P. Plotnikova. The purpose of these meetings was local history Orthodox education of the population of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region: the story and display of electronic presentations about churches, priests of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region.

As part of the project, thematic collections of spiritual and moral literature were sent to rural libraries in order to form their own unique fund of Orthodox literature in rural libraries. Information about the Serafim Sarovsky Charitable Foundation and the project of the Kirovo-Chepetsk Regional Library was posted on the website of the Government of the Kirov Region.

Work on the project "To the origins of morality through the Orthodox book" began in March 2011 in the Kirovo-Chepetsk Central District Hospital. At the seminar for rural librarians (22 employees), N.V. Demidov.

In her speech, Nadezhda Vasilievna highlighted the urgent problems of spiritual and moral education and upbringing in the work of a modern rural library. At the seminar, Nadezhda Vasilievna presented presentation lessons for use at parent-teacher meetings, class hours. Every word, every frame of the presentation found a warm response from the audience.

From March 21 to April 1, 2011 at the Vyatka State University for the Humanities, with the participation of the clergy of the Vyatka diocese, regular courses were held for future teachers of the subject "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture". They were attended by the librarian of the Prosnitskaya branch library E.L. Kochurova. According to her, her speech at the regional seminar N.V. Demidova.

The innovation and methodological department of the Central District Hospital has developed a methodology for conducting the lesson “The Beauty of Old Vyatka” with elements of heuristic activity for a series of activities for children under the general name “School where they teach to be kind”.

Thanks to publishing products, libraries help readers navigate this information flow:

• Information digests "Spring Orthodox holidays", "Summer Orthodox holidays", "Autumn Orthodox holidays", "Winter Orthodox holidays";
• Poster information about the appointment of Archbishop Mark as Vladyka of the Vyatka and Sloboda diocese;
• "Holy Protectors of Rus': Information Digest";
• "Day of Slavic Literature and Culture" - guidelines;
• "Family is joy: July 8 is the Day of Love, Family and Fidelity" - booklet;
• A set of bookmarks for books dedicated to Orthodox literature;
• In each issue of the newspaper "Chitalka" children wrote about the temples of their village;
• An advertisement for the Vyatka Theological School was distributed through the libraries of the Kirovo-Chepetsky District.

The CRH and the library of the Sunday School of the All Saints Church formed and sent to the rural libraries of the district the collections of Orthodox literature: “The Bright Faces of Ancient Russia” (Prosnitskaya Library), “Orthodox Shrines” (Pasegovskaya, Karinskaya, Polomskaya libraries), “Family is a small church” and “Your Orthodox home” (Fateevskaya, Filippovskaya libraries).

As part of the project "To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book" of the Kirovo-Chepetsk RTSBS, agreements were concluded with the Orthodox publishing houses "Satis" and the Danilovsky Monastery for the purchase of literature and DVD films. Thus, the library system received 289 copies. books and 33 electronic editions of Orthodox subjects.

Activities for 7 libraries announced in the project:

• In the framework of the project, the Kstininsky Library hosted the event “With love and gratitude”. Books were presented that told about the distinctive role of women in the Orthodox family, about the power maternal prayer, about nuns, about wives Orthodox priests. In with. Kstinino has a temple, so here we can talk about a fairly stable interest in this topic on the part of the parishioners.
• In the Philippovskaya Library - "Outpost: on Faith and Love in Orthodox Literature". Since the event was attended not only by adults, but also by teenagers, books were presented that may be of interest to young people: Voznesenskaya Y. “My Posthumous Adventures”, Starikova E. “What Parents Don't Know”, Kozlov M. “Children's Catechism”, Zorin K. “What they hide from young people”. The film so impressed the audience, most of whom were teenagers, that after a while a young reader of the Philippovskaya Library wrote a review about the film to the regional library newspaper Reader.
• A lesson with elements of heuristic activity “School where they teach to be kind. Activities with children. The children were presented with a book by N.V. Demidova "Old Vyatka", then they were given coloring books based on this book and were asked to illustrate it using their favorite colors. For adults - "The origins of human happiness (acquaintance with the concept of "Orthodox literature")" Considering the low level of education of the population in this subject, the librarian Porubova T.N. offered readers information digests "Autumn Orthodox holidays", "Winter Orthodox holidays", "Spring Orthodox holidays", "Summer Orthodox holidays", compiled by the innovation and methodological department of the regional library.
• For readers of the Prosnitsa Children's Library, a methodologist for working with children from the Kirovo-Chepetsk Regional Library conducted a lesson with elements of heuristic activity “A school where they teach to be kind. Lesson with children” The children were presented with the book by N.V. Demidova "Old Vyatka", then they were given coloring books based on this book and were asked to illustrate it using their favorite colors. The children were shown the cartoon "Basil the Blessed".
• Very relevant, timely, according to readers, was the event "On the Threshold of the Temple" in the Klyuchevskaya Library. There is no temple in Klyuchi village, but thanks to the active position of rural librarians Ulanova V.M., Gorkovchuk I.A., the population of the village annually goes on excursions to the Orthodox churches of the region. Among the readers of the Klyuchevskaya Library there is a great demand for Orthodox literature. After the event, a queue was created for the book "Temple Behavior". Books by Yu. Voznesenskaya “Yuliana. Or dangerous games”, “Yuliana, or the game of kidnapping” were taken by parents for their teenage children. Of great interest were the books of Osipov A.I. "Love, marriage, family: conversation with adults", "Raising a child in Russian traditions". The event was attended by the head teacher of the Klyuchevskaya school, who proposed to draw up a schedule of such video lectures for students for the academic year (2011-2012).
• In the Polomsky library-regional museum of the family, a lesson was held for readers "The most important holiday of the year - Easter". After the event, the readers came up and thanked for the books, for the shown film. Head of the kindergarten Paul, who was present at the event, invited her to join her team in September with a similar event. The most surprising was the confession of one of the readers, who had never gone to church, there was no need in him, according to him, such a need: “We must go to church!”, “We must take the Bible and read it!” (There is no church in the village of Pol.)
• The Karin Library hosted a meeting with readers dedicated to the theme of the family in Orthodoxy “My fortress: the family in Orthodox literature”. The meeting was attended not only by adults, but also by young people. The books of Sukhinina N. "White Crow", "Practical Encyclopedia of the Orthodox Christian" aroused great interest among adults. Young people were interested in the books of Avdeenko E. "How to get married properly", Torika A. "Dimon", "Once again about love", Voznesenskaya "Lancelot's Pilgrimage", and "The Way of Cassandra". The conversation covered questions right choice future spouse, the role of men and women in the family (in the past and present), in raising children.

Within the framework of the project “To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book”, the readers were shown films-winners of the International Orthodox Festival “Meeting”: “Forpost”, “What people live for”, “Crystal Boy”, m / f for children “About St. Basil the Blessed”, “Clever Granddaughter”

Work in this direction was carried out not only in the libraries declared in the project. Rural librarians asked to speak in libraries not included in the project. Thus, evenings of sacred music, hours of Orthodoxy, meetings with priests of the temples of the All Saints Deanery were held in the libraries.

In total, 1028 people took part in various Orthodox events organized and conducted by the libraries of the district and employees of the All Saints Church in Kirovo-Chepetsk. Orthodox films and literature aroused great interest among the inhabitants of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region. Taking into account the peculiarity of Orthodox literature - the desire to re-read, analyze, compare - great joy was given to the inhabitants by the fact that Orthodox literature remains in rural libraries. After each performance, people came up, thanked, asked to come back.

From teachers of kindergartens and schools of the district, proposals were received to go with similar classes to pedagogical teams, to class hours for students.

Teachers of the city of Kirovo-Chepetsk became interested in Orthodox events for children “A school where they teach to be kind”. So for the sports school for children and youth of the Olympic reserve, for the city club "Chaika" events were held that were highly appreciated by teachers and children. The peculiarity of this audience is that many of these children are included in the so-called. "Special Attention Group" These are children from large families, from families conditioned by pedagogical neglect, inattention to their upbringing.

The project “To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book” showed that readers are interested not only in Orthodox fiction. They are interested in practical information: how to pray, take communion, light candles and much more. Now readers of the six libraries declared in the project can find on the shelves the books “How to Pray Properly?”, “How to Prepare for Confession and Communion”, “How to Marry Properly”, “How to Pray and Behave in Church”, “Children's Catechism. 200 Children's Questions and Non-Children's Answers About Faith, Church, and Christian Life", "1380 useful tips priests to their parishioners”, “First steps in Orthodox church”, “Practical Encyclopedia of the Orthodox Christian”, etc. Many readers admit that they do not attend churches or do not do it as often as they would like because they are not sure of the correctness of their behavior in the temple. Such literature will help many to acquire the necessary knowledge, instill confidence that their behavior in the temple will be correct. Among the acquired literature, there are many books that librarians and teachers can use to conduct various conversations, both with children and with parents.

Yes, for younger kids. school age The Prosnitsa Children's Library held a lesson "The Wisdom of a Russian Fairy Tale". After answering the questions of the fairy tale quiz, the children colored fragments of various folk tales. A paper sheet was prepared for the lesson, on which the name of the event was placed. Beams radiated from it in different directions. Each beam was signed: “kindness”, “mutual assistance”, “love”, “beauty”, “ridicule stupidity”, “care of the elders over the younger”, etc. When talking with children, they placed colored leaves next to specific rays. The result was the conclusion that in a huge number of Russian folk tales there are all of the above categories. And all these categories are concentrated in the Russian folk tale.

In rural libraries, kindergartens and schools were held:

• Cognitive and creative hour "Easter Souvenir", where children under the guidance of a librarian made Easter baskets (Kstinin Library),
• "The brightest holiday" (Fateev Library-Museum) - at the exhibition of children's creative works were presented various crafts, the children enjoyed watching the presentation about Easter.

The event dedicated to the 66th anniversary of the Victory in the Veteran clubs aroused great interest. The event was based on stories from the collection Miracles on the Roads of War. The collection "Miracles on the Roads of War" - short stories about the miraculous manifestations of the power of God. Such stories are based on specific facts, testified by eyewitnesses in the handwritten memoirs of war veterans and their relatives, in oral stories recorded by the compilers of the collection, as well as evidence from other sources. Miracles of God took place on the fronts and roads of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

“Acquaintance with facts of this kind,” notes Archimandrite Veniamin (Milov), “has a deep religious and educational significance. He comforts the reader with a common faith, pours into his soul a whole stream of new holy experiences and sanctifies with truly living water of verbal grace-filled energy.

Readers expressed their opinion on the books and gave examples from their own lives and cases from the lives of other people. They wished to hold such events more often and invite clergy to them. By the bright holiday of Easter in the club "Veteran" a lesson "The Feast of Spring and Kindness" was held

Project results

The project "To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book" was successful.

The goal of the project - Orthodox education of the inhabitants of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region - was achieved.

All the tasks set have been solved: the problems of accessibility of Orthodox literature to the readers of the district, informing the population on Orthodoxy issues. A public outcry was created and a large number of readers in the villages of the district were attracted to this project.

The project "To the origins of morality through the Orthodox book" mobilized the work of the Central Regional Library in this direction and allowed to launch a mechanism for the timely response of library resources to changes. (Creating thematic collections of Orthodox literature, publishing products on Orthodox topics, developing a methodology for holding events for children).

Concrete results have been obtained that allow us to speak about the relevance of the project “To the origins of morality through an Orthodox book”: 7 lectures were held for 258 people. In addition, using the equipment purchased under the project, an additional 8 events of Orthodox themes for children (158 people) were held. 289 copies were purchased for libraries. books, 33 Orthodox films. Received as a gift from Orthodox missionaries and the Orthodox library "Blagovest" in Kirov 47 books and 40 brochures. Kstinin library priest Fr. John of the Holy Trinity Church c. Kstinino signed for the children's Orthodox magazine Svechechka. Close cooperation has been established with the missionaries of the Church of All Saints in Kirovo-Chepetsk, with the Orthodox publishing house "Satis", with the library of the Sunday School of the Church of All Saints, continued cooperation with the staff of the Messianic Education Department. As part of the project, consultations for rural librarians were constantly held. Positive feedback, exhibitions, seminars, events - all this allows us to conclude that the project "To the origins of morality through the Orthodox book" is effective, its sustainability and prospects.

The need for such meetings among the population of the region turned out to be very high. The project showed a growing interest in Orthodox literature not only among the elderly, but also among people aged 30-45, teenagers. People share their impressions about books, films with each other, with librarians, because Everyone has problems that Orthodox literature raises. This is the upbringing of children, family relationships, problems of mutual understanding in society. And such video lectures can help in finding ways to solve these problems.

Such a form as a video lecture helps to promote the best examples of Orthodox literature to the reader's environment. The showing of Orthodox films and discussions about Orthodox books significantly increased the distribution of Orthodox literature. One of the working moments in the implementation of the project, which has become unexpected for us, is the activation of interest in such a topic in those settlements where there is no temple (the village of Klyuchi, the village of Filippovo, the village of Pol, the village of Chuvash, the village of Markovtsy). The number of wishes for new meetings, requests for Orthodox literature in these settlements were very high. The project "To the origins of morality through the Orthodox book" showed that the Orthodox reader of the Kirovo-Chepetsk region needs its own library fund, and for its functioning, it is necessary to develop a methodology for the work of rural libraries on Orthodox education. And one of the logical links of this was the creation of a model of the fund of the Orthodox department in the libraries of the region during the implementation of the next project - the network of "Educational departments of Orthodox culture".

So, let's take a little digression into history. Why was March 14 chosen for the celebration of the “Orthodox Book Day”? Everything is very simple. It was on this day, in 1564, that the first book, the liturgical "Apostle", was printed by deacon Ivan Fedorov. I want to remind you that before the advent of the printing press, books were weighty folios. They were copied by hand, using very expensive materials such as parchment, i.e. specially crafted leather. Such books were real works of art, which combined calligraphy, painting and jewelry. Naturally, only the richest people could afford handwritten books. The advent of the printing press significantly reduced the cost of creating books, and they have now become more accessible, a mass phenomenon. Thus, it is believed that the aforementioned "Apostle" was issued with a circulation of approximately 2,000 copies.

It is safe to say that 1564 was a turning point, as the printed book gave a tremendous impetus to the development of modern culture and science in Russia.

The holiday itself, which we are talking about today, is very young. It was established by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 25, 2009. And, like any holiday, it has a function not only of a cultural and educational nature, when we meet people, mostly young people, and talk about the Orthodox book as a kind of historical phenomenon, about its significance for the development of society, the state. Its other important function is to highlight some of the problems that modern education faces. We can say that the appearance of the “Orthodox Book Day” is the reaction of the Church to the general decline in the cultural and, first of all, the spiritual and moral level of a person.

According to the VTsIOM data for 2014, which we see on the presented slide, compared to 2009, the number of people who practically do not read books increased from 27 to 36 percent. I want to note that in 1992 there were only 20 percent of such people. 43 percent of those surveyed said that they do not like to read at all. In another poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, a more disturbing trend can be seen: it turned out that 58% of Russians cannot name any books at all that would make a strong impression on them. Why is this happening? The answer to this question is found in the same statistics. For the modern reader, light, entertaining reading is of the greatest interest - 37%. The second place is occupied by fiction - 29%, the third - by specialty literature - 21%. In last place, unfortunately, is religious literature - only 5%. What proportion of these 5 percent is Orthodox literature is an open question, there are no such statistics, however, I do not think that it is very large.

Based on these data, it is not surprising that today the question of the need to carry out work to popularize books with spiritual and moral content is acute. But it's one thing to make a book popular, and another thing to arouse the reader's interest in this topic. The last one is the most difficult because modern world with all its nature, wide propaganda imposes on us the idea that it is good for a person to correspond to a certain fashion, a certain trend. Suffice it to recall the excitement that appears at the release of the next Hollywood film. At this moment, especially among young people, one can often hear the question: did you watch? At the same time, it is surprising that the plot of the film itself can be retold in just a couple of minutes. I'm not going to say what this plot is, good or bad, films are different. But we are attracted to a greater extent by the picture, and the "cool" special effects in isolation from the real content. There are very few people who, after viewing the next picture, will try to find the literary work on which it was shot. Even fewer people are able to comprehend what they saw and heard. This is probably because by the time such a sensible idea can be born in our head, we are already headlong carried by a new wave of fashion. In addition, we are very lazy, because thinking about morality is hard work, and we want something light that can momentarily cheer us up. Unfortunately, everything that I just said about films is also true for literature.

However, each of us has an idea of ​​the enduring, that is, permanent, values, which include love for one's Motherland, knowledge of its history and culture. All these are signs of education for us. I think that all those present here will agree with me if I say that being an educated and cultured person is better than being uneducated and uncultured. And it is no secret to anyone that the development of our state is closely connected with the Church. You cannot run away from this fact or pretend that it simply does not exist. And if I love my country, if I want to be useful to my compatriots in the future, if I care about who my children will become, then I have no right to throw into the dustbin of history that huge layer of culture accumulated by the joint efforts of the Church and the state, starting from Prince Vladimir, who was baptized more than 1000 years ago, in 988. And in such a situation, the book, as a material carrier of knowledge, should be of great interest to us.

The Orthodox Church has always set and still sets the spiritual and moral development of the individual as its main task, and the state, especially since the era of Peter I, encourages scientific knowledge. Let's think about what an educated, but unspiritual and immoral person can become? One does not have to look far for examples, it is enough to recall those inhuman experiments that were carried out on prisoners during the Second World War in Nazi concentration camps. So, so that we, or our descendants, never become those who trample on everything human, we need to learn now to be Humans, Humans with a capital letter. And naturally, in this teaching it is best to turn to the experience of the Church, which has more than 2000 years.

Today, on the shelves of our bookstores, or in online libraries, you can find entire sections called "Orthodox literature." And that just does not belong to it: calendars with indications of the days of memory of saints, prayer books, cookbooks, lives, teachings, answers to everyday life questions from Orthodox priests, stories, historical and theological works, etc. However, few people imagine what exactly is called an Orthodox book and by what criterion can one judge its Orthodoxy?

Indeed, according to the generally accepted opinion, an Orthodox book can be called one in which there will be no contradictions with the teachings of the Church and its dogmas. Also, it will most likely be talking about something that is more or less connected with Orthodox traditions and faith.

But is it possible to find a book that is both Orthodox and does not explicitly mention Orthodoxy? The answer to this question is more interesting, but at the same time complicated, because "it does not lie on the surface." It is complicated because here we face such problems as assessing the personality of the author and the reader himself. Who are they? Atheists of the present or of the past? Liberals who consider it possible to revise the doctrine of the Church for the sake of new discoveries of natural science? Maybe sectarians? Or, what is even more terrible, people close to the church, those who often confuse the Orthodox faith and popular superstitions?

It should be understood that the division that is present now, into secular and spiritual literature, is actually conditional, since there is a deep connection between them. Suffice it to recall the works of our classics, such asG. R. Derzhavin, A.S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, N. V. Gogol, A. I. Kuprina or K. G. Paustovsky, etc. In the works of these writers, themes of love, humanism, the meaning of life, the place of man in the world, the constant struggle between good and evil and the choice between them are constantly raised. All these are Christian themes that were present earlier, in ancient Russian literature. And the main goal of the latter was just the education of our ancestors, former pagans and idolaters, through the assimilation of Christian truths, through familiarization with the vast spiritual heritage of the Byzantine Empire and, of course, through faith in God. The result of this upbringing is a huge country with the richest culture, which managed to preserve itself in very difficult times and emerged victorious from them. This is what our Orthodox literature is. However, it should be understood that its heart and primary source is the Gospel and no other works can replace Him.

So, if you decide to turn to reading serious literature, which book is better to take to start with? Of course, it's hard to please everyone's tastes at the same time. Moreover, on the Internet, if you set yourself such a goal, you can find a huge list of works, of which at least one is right for you. And yet, to begin with, I would suggest that you read the book of a modern author, archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, father Tikhon (Shevkunov), "Unholy Saints". The book included short stories from the life of the author. Many of them are associated withwhere the author began his monastic life. As Archimandrite Tikhon himself said: “I told almost all the stories that were included in the book during sermons. All this is part of our church life. Sermon... after all, it is built on the comprehension of the Holy Scriptures, on the interpretation of church eventsholy fathers and real life examples.

Another work, common to Christianity, and by its name should be familiar to all of you, is The Chronicles of Narnia,cycle out of seven children's fantasy books (fairy tales ) written . They tell about the adventures of children in a magical land callednarnia where animals can talk,magic surprises no one,good struggling with evil . The Chronicles of Narnia reveals the meaning of a large numberChristian ideas in a reader-friendly way.

If you want to get acquainted with modern Orthodox periodicals, then your attention should be focused on two wonderful magazines. The first is called "Thomas", whichpositions itself as an "Orthodox magazine for doubters." The name of the journal isThomas the Apostle denoting an incredulous listener (due to the apostle's initial unbelief inresurrection of jesus christ ). Main theme: a story about Christianity and its role in the cultural and public life. "Thomas" is addressed to all interested readers, regardless of their religion, attitude to faith and political views.

STATISTICS According to VTsIOM for 2014, compared to 2009, the number of people who practically do not read books increased from 27 to 36 percent.

AGIOTAGE - Artificially induced excitement, excitement in order to draw attention to something. (Explanatory Dictionary of Ozhigov)

“Remember that the earthly Fatherland with its Church is the threshold of the Heavenly Fatherland, therefore love it fervently and be ready to lay down your soul for it.” (right. John of Kronstadt)

In the destinies of the present and in the destinies of the future of Orthodox Christianity, this is the whole idea of ​​the Russian people, this is their service to Christ and the thirst for achievement for Christ. This thirst is true, great and unceasing in our people since ancient times, unceasing, perhaps never, and this is an extremely important fact in the characterization of our people and our state. (F.M. Dostoevsky)

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Orthodox calendar

St. Eutychius, archbishop Constantinople (582).

Equal to ap. Methodius, archbishop. Moravsky (885). Rev. Platonides of Syria (308). Mchch. 120 Persians (344–347). Mchch. Jeremiah and Archilius the priest (III).

Mchch. Peter Zhukov and Prokhor Mikhailov (1918); ssmch. John Boikov presbyter (1934); ssmch. Jacob Boikov presbyter (1943); Rev. Sevastiana Fomina, Spanish (1966).

Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

At the 6th hour: Isa. LXVI, 10-24. Forever: Gen. XLIX, 33 - L, 26. Prov. XXXI, 8-32.

We congratulate birthday people on Angel Day!

Icon of the day

Saint Eutyches, Archbishop of Constantinople

Saint Eutychius of Constantinople, Archbishop

Saint Eutyches, Archbishop of Constantinople , was born in a village called "Divine", in the Phrygian region. His father, Alexander, was a warrior, and his mother, Sinesia, was the daughter of a priest of the Augustopolis church, Hesychius. Saint Eutyches received his early education and Christian upbringing from his grandfather, a priest. Once, during a children's game, the boy wrote his name with the title of patriarch, and this, as it were, predicted his future ministry. At the age of 12, he was sent to Constantinople for further education. The young man succeeded in the study of the sciences and realized that human wisdom is nothing before the teaching of Divine Revelation. He decided to devote himself to the monastic life. Saint Eutyches withdrew to one of the Amasian monasteries and received the rank of Angel in it. During his strict life, he was appointed archimandrite of all Amasian monasteries, and in 552 he was elevated to the patriarchal throne.

When the convocation of the Fifth Ecumenical Council was being prepared under the holy noble Emperor Justinian (527-565), the Metropolitan of Amasia was ill and sent Saint Eutychius in his place. In Constantinople, the aged patriarch Saint Mina (536-552, Comm. 25 August) saw the blessed Eutyches and predicted that he would be patriarch after him. After the death of the holy Patriarch Mina, the Apostle Peter appeared in a vision to Emperor Justinian and, pointing his hand at Eutychius, said: "Let him be made your bishop."

At the beginning of the patriarchal ministry of Saint Eutyches, the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553) was convened, at which the fathers condemned the heresies that arose and anathematized them. However, a few years later, a new heresy arose in the Church, the autodocets, that is, the "incorruptibles", who taught that the flesh of Christ before the death of the Cross and the Resurrection was incorruptible and did not experience suffering.

Saint Eutychius boldly denounced this heresy, but Emperor Justinian, who himself bowed to it, brought down his anger on the saint. By order of the emperor, the soldiers seized the saint in the church, tore off his patriarchal vestments, and sent him into exile to the Amasia monastery (in 565).

The saint meekly endured exile, stayed in the monastery in fasting and prayer, and performed many miracles and healings.

So, through his prayer, the wife of the pious husband Androgin, who had previously given birth only to dead babies, had two sons born and reached adulthood. Two deaf-mute youths received the gift of speech; two children, seriously ill, recovered. The saint healed the cancer on the artist's hand. The saint healed another artist by anointing his sick hand with oil and making the sign of the cross over it. The saint healed not only bodily, but also spiritual illnesses: he expelled from the girl a demon that did not allow her to receive Holy Communion; cast out a demon from a young man who had run away from the monastery (after that the young man returned to his monastery); healed a drunkard leper who, having been cleansed of leprosy, stopped drinking.

During the Persian attack on Amasia and the general devastation of the inhabitants, at the direction of the saint, grain was given from the monastery granaries to the starving, and the grain reserves in the monastery, through his prayers, were not depleted.

Saint Eutyches received from God the gift of prophecy; so, he indicated the names of the two successor emperors of Justinian - Justin (565-578) and Tiberius (578-582).

After the death of the holy Patriarch John Scholasticus, Saint Eutyches returned to the cathedra from a 12-year exile in 577 and again began to wisely manage his flock.

Four and a half years after his return to the patriarchal throne, on Fomino Sunday, 582, Saint Eutychius gathered all the clergy, bestowed a blessing, and retired to the Lord in peace.

Troparion to Saint Eutyches, Archbishop of Constantinople

The rule of faith and the image of meekness, / the abstinence of the teacher / reveal thee to your flock / the truth of things, / for this sake you acquired high humility, / rich in poverty. / Father Eutyches, / pray to Christ God / / save souls on shim.

Translation: By the rule of faith and the image of meekness, abstinence as a teacher, the immutable Truth has revealed you to your flock. Therefore, by humility you have acquired high, by poverty you have gained wealth. Father Eutychius, pray to Christ God for the salvation of our souls.

Kontakion to Saint Eutyches, Archbishop of Constantinople

Divine faithful Eutychius all sing, people, / let us appease love, like a great shepherd and minister, / and a wise teacher, and a banisher of heresies, / / ​​prays to the Lord for all of us.

Translation: Truly Saint Eutychius is glorifying everything, people, with love we will glorify as a great shepherd, minister and teacher of the wise and banisher of heresies, as he prays to the Lord for all of us.

Reading the Gospel Together with the Church

19 April. great post. Studying the Holy Gospel History. About the Cross

Hello dear brothers and sisters.

And so the Great Lent came to an end. This week we remembered the most important events that were a type of the coming Passion of Christ. Ahead of us are the memories of the resurrection of Lazarus, the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, and Holy Week.

Every day we read the Gospel, becoming witnesses of the great blessings of God and hearers of the words of Christ's Truth. But once a year, before the great feast of the Pascha of Christ, for several days we read very terrible words about the betrayal and suffering of our Savior, about His death on the Cross. And today I would like to talk about the Cross.

Back in the days when none of the apostles could even imagine that someone was capable of raising a hand against Jesus Christ, our Lord began to warn His disciples about the suffering He was about to experience. In the Gospel of Mark we read:

8.31. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer much, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and rise again on the third day.

8.32. And he talked about it openly. But Peter, having called him away, began to rebuke him.

8.33. But he, turning and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying: get away from me, satan, because you think not about what is God, but what is human.

8.34. And calling the people together with His disciples, He said to them: Whoever wants to follow Me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Me.

(Mark 8:31-34)

This part of the Gospel of Mark contains the central and important points Christian faith. So, from our conversation with Peter, we learn that for Jesus as the Messiah, as the Christ, there is only one way, the way of suffering. And this road is for everyone who wants to follow Him. The Lord has never tried to bribe people by promising them an easy way. He promised them the glory of the Kingdom of God, but he never promised people comfort. Therefore, the Savior calling the people together with his disciples, he said to them: whoever wants to follow me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow me(Mark 8:34).

To tell a man that he must be ready to bear his cross was to tell him that he must be ready to be looked upon as a criminal, that he must be ready to die. It is clear that the first Christians understood this expression not in the same way as we do, but literally: “to carry the cross” means to be crucified.

The execution of crucifixion was the most shameful, the most painful and the most cruel. In those days, only the most notorious villains were executed with such a death: robbers, murderers, rebels and criminal slaves. The suffering of a crucified man is indescribable. In addition to unbearable pain in all parts of the body and suffering, the crucified one experienced terrible thirst and mortal spiritual anguish. Death was so slow that many were tormented on the cross for several days.

The Lord does not just offer such a terrible image of following Him. The memory of the cross should not only frighten, bring to life the people who accompanied the Lord, but strengthen them in faith in Him when these same people become witnesses of the sufferings of Christ.

The cross itself, as a kind of shameful and painful death, will be transformed by the Savior's Honest Blood into a symbol of sacrificial love - a clear example of all the gospel words of the Savior. If in the first centuries the Cross was a symbol of suffering, now it is a symbol of the glory of millions of Christians around the world.

But what does the Cross of Christ call us to? Only one thing - love! After all, the Cross is love, the all-conquering, merciful, compassionate love of God for every person. To be outside this love means not to accept either the Cross of the Lord or the Gospel of Christ in general. And every Orthodox Christian is called to embody the Gospel, the sacrificial service to one's neighbor, in his life.

In the life of St. Paisius the Holy Mountaineer there is one instructive story. When Elder Paisios was carrying out his feat of prayer in Sinai, next to him were Greek missionaries who had come on a mission to the Bedouins. One day the monk learned that one of the missionaries gave his clothes to a Bedouin to be washed for money. This aroused the astonishment of the saint, and he asked the missionary: “And what were you doing while he was washing?” - to which the young man replied: “What? I read commentaries on Holy Scripture so as not to lose a minute of time without spiritual benefit. Then the Monk Paisios wisely remarked: “Perhaps you have not lost time, only you have definitely lost the Gospel. You yourself had to wash the pants for the Bedouins. Only then will the gospel become your life. If you sit and read a book while others wash your clothes, there will be no spiritual sense.

Saint Paisios himself was a model of evangelical love for people. To some, as a consolation or blessing, he gave icons of the Most Holy Theotokos and crosses, which he himself made from Athos trees. Looking at this cross-blessing of the Monk Paisius the Holy Mountaineer and remembering the numerous instructions of the Athos elder, you understand how important it is to accept Divine love in your heart, how important it is to respond to the Cross sacrifice of our Savior and trust God.

Ahead of us lies Passion Week, a time when we must give ourselves an account: who will we be at the terrible moment of Christ's suffering? Idle and indifferent onlookers, who are watching with interest the events of the Gospel, not letting them into their hearts, or we will find ourselves among the faithful followers, carrying their cross with Him.

Help us in this Lord!

Hieromonk Pimen (Shevchenko),
monk of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra

cartoon calendar

Orthodox educational courses

BATTLE WITH OUR DEATH: Word on the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem

G The Lord is now entering Jerusalem, His city, in order to enter into battle with death. Whose death? With the death of each of us - with yours, with mine, with the death of each of the people. Join the battle and win.

IN After all, death is not a one-time event, when a person passes from this life into some state that is completely incomprehensible to him. What is called biological life ceases. Death goes on and on. This is only the beginning of death, something that we sometimes witness - the death of our loved ones or some other people. This is just the beginning. And then it continues in another life. And how terrible and sad it is when we see it with our own eyes here, it is infinitely more terrible when it continues in the spiritual world, when death embraces not only the body, but also the soul. All thoughts, everything that makes up the soul of a person: his feelings, aspirations, the enormous experience that he has accumulated during his life, everything that we do not even suspect is contained in the human personality - everything begins to undergo terrible destruction and decay.

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Hieromonk Irenaeus (Pikovsky)

Preparation for the Sacrament of Holy Baptism

IN section " Preparation for Baptism" site "Sunday school: online courses " Archpriest Andrey Fedosov, head of the department of education and catechesis of the Kinel Diocese, information has been collected that will be useful to those who are going to be baptized themselves, or who want to baptize their child or become a godparent.

R The section consists of five categorical conversations, which reveal the content of the Orthodox dogma within the framework of the Creed, explain the sequence and meaning of the rites performed at Baptism, and provide answers to common questions related to this Sacrament. Each conversation is accompanied additional materials, links to sources, recommended literature and Internet resources.

ABOUT The lectures of the course are presented in the form of texts, audio files and videos.

Course Topics:

• Conversation #1 Preliminary Concepts
• Conversation #2 Sacred Bible Story
• Conversation No. 3 Church of Christ
• Conversation #4 Christian Morality
• Conversation No. 5 The Sacrament of Holy Baptism

Applications:

• FAQ
• Orthodox saints

Reading the lives of the saints of Dmitry Rostov for every day

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Radio VERA is a new radio station that talks about the eternal truths of the Orthodox faith.

TV channel Tsargrad: Orthodoxy

Literature, the word, is one of the main tools for the dialogue of young people, the intelligentsia, and the clergy in the context of Orthodox culture. It is worth paying attention to periodicals that have a bias towards Orthodox ethics and are aimed at young people. To date, there are a sufficient number of such publications. This article contains brief essays on several periodicals that can be combined under the name "Orthodox magazines". Information from such publications can be recommended for familiarization in educational institutions as an elective or used by synthesizing with material from a number of humanitarian disciplines.

For this review, several Orthodox magazines were selected: Grapes, Naslednik, Neskuchny Sad, Foma, Russian House, Tatyana's Day, Slavyanka, Orthodox Book Review. Copies of these publications are available in many parish libraries, making them easy to access. Publications have their own Internet portals, so you can get acquainted with their materials online.

It is worth starting the review with the magazines Vinograd and Naslednik, since from the list of the above-mentioned publications, these two main topics are the problem of children, youth, family and education. And, as you know, the family is the first step in the formation of the younger generation.

"Grape" is notable for the fact that on the pages of this magazine considerable attention is paid to the problems of adolescent education and the solution of these problems in an Orthodox manner with an appeal to traditional spirituality and the cultural experience of previous eras. Thus, a dialogue between modernity and tradition is carried out on the pages of the publication. A great emphasis in the magazine is placed on the problem of motherhood and male upbringing.

Orthodox youth magazine "Heir" addressed to a young audience. On the pages of this publication you can find many interesting articles, reports, essays, interviews, which are of interest primarily to young people in their content.

It is also worth mentioning separately the version of the magazine on the Internet. Diverse content and user-friendly interface are very attractive from the point of view of the average Internet user.

"Grapes" and "Heir" are excellent both for individual acquaintance and as additional literature to help school teachers and teachers of secondary vocational schools, i.e. people directly involved in the problems of children and adolescents.

"Boring Garden" positioned as a magazine about Orthodox life; very informative and comprehensive. On the pages of the magazine one can get acquainted with the traditions of Orthodoxy, with Orthodoxy in the context of history and modernity, much attention is paid to the correlation of science and faith, faith and modern culture, religion and politics, the dialogue of the Church and society, the dialogue of Orthodoxy with other world cultural traditions.

Magazine "Thomas" can be described as a cultural, educational, analytical, religious publication. It positions itself as an "Orthodox magazine for doubters", which initially speaks of the democratic nature of the publication. The journal actively analyzes contemporary social and cultural processes.

"Russian house" - a magazine, from the name of which the patriotic orientation of this publication is immediately clear. A lot of interesting material is presented on the pages of the Russia House: problems are discussed, answers are sought to many questions related to the position of Russia in the world, the problems of Russian culture, the current situation Orthodox faith, many interesting facts from the history of our country are given, the diversity of Orthodox traditions and canons is revealed.

The three publications listed above are designed for a diverse, but, above all, thinking audience. These journals can be recommended as additional literature or as material for extracurricular activities for high school students, as well as students of liberal arts colleges and universities.

Online edition "Tatyana's Day" very informative and remarkably interesting news portal, has a characteristic bias in the history of Orthodox culture. Here you can get acquainted with a very diverse material, elements of Orthodox ethics in the context of the historical, cultural and social process.

This Orthodox Internet portal can be very useful from a religious point of view. The information of this online publication can be used as additional material when working with such disciplines as philosophy, theology, religious studies, social studies, history and a number of other humanitarian academic disciplines universities.

Orthodox women's magazine "Slav" differs from all of the above publications in that it is addressed directly to beautiful half humanity. As in all such publications, Slavyanka touches upon issues of female beauty and health, the family hearth, and the upbringing of children. The pages are full of reviews, interesting articles, interviews, photographic material is very well chosen. What distinguishes this publication from other women's magazines is that "Slavyanka" addresses its readers through the prism of Orthodox traditions, the primordially Russian vision of the image of a woman.

The Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church publishes a magazine "Orthodox book review". The magazine tells about all the most important events in church publishing and book distribution: about official events, exhibitions, meetings, presentations, and the release of new books. The Orthodox Book Review publishes reviews, annotations, reviews, interviews, articles about the book culture of different times, and many others.

In conclusion of the review, it is worth recalling that Orthodoxy is not just a form of religion, Orthodoxy is a whole cultural and ethical position, the soil of the Russian worldview, the foundation of the people and the country; The Russian language has the character of a unifying language, linking together a great colorful nation, it is the language through which the continuity of cultural values ​​and traditions is carried out by generations.

It is important to raise interest in Russian culture and Orthodox traditions. The future moral image of our people and country depends on the information field in which the worldview of the young generation is formed.