At the XI International Faith and the Word Festival, which, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, was held in Moscow and the Moscow region from October 15 to 19, 2025, a meeting of the Council of Clerical Bloggers, functioning under the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media, took place.
One of the main issues discussed during the meeting was the impact of the clergy's online mission on parish life. The participants noted that, contrary to the prevailing idea that the activities of priests in social networks do not contribute to an increase in the number of parishioners and communicants, the situation is reversed: there is an obvious noticeable conversion of subscribers to popular Orthodox Internet projects into parishioners, their real, rather than "virtual" churching. This fact confirms that pastors who preach online, for the most part, do not strive for self-promotion, but to bring a person to Christ, to the Church.
During the discussion, examples of specific people who came to the faith through the dissemination of content by clergymen and bloggers were given. At the same time, it was noted that such people, as a rule, become parishioners of churches located near their homes, rather than parishes of specific priests who influenced their conversion. Thus, the Internet mission becomes an important link in the common church cause — bringing a person to God.
Special attention was also paid at the meeting to the form of presentation of spiritual content in modern media. The participants emphasized that "format matters": in order to convey the gospel message to the audience, it is necessary to adapt traditional sermons to the perception of modern youth, including using short videos and other popular formats.
It was noted that, according to VTsIOM, over the past year, the interest of young people in Orthodoxy has grown by about 20%, which is largely due to the activities of Internet missionaries, both priests and active laypeople.
At the same time, a serious problem was identified: there is an acute shortage of Orthodox apologetics on the Internet, a systematic defense of faith from attacks. Orthodox teaching and the Orthodox in general are regularly criticized by schismatics, heretics, Gentiles, and atheists. These attacks often gain a large number of views and cause embarrassment among believers and non-church users, which requires a responsible and balanced response from the clergy. The blogger priests reminded that during ordination, each of them assumes the responsibility to protect his flock and testify about the faith.
Following the meeting, the members of the Council of Clerical Bloggers agreed to pay more attention to issues of apologetics, distribute such content on their resources, and actively share experiences and methods of work in this area.