The Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has launched a pilot educational course for blogger priests and missionaries, Bishop Euphemia (Dmitry Moiseev), chairman of the department, member of the Supreme Church Council, told Vedomosti. "The department plans to make courses for Orthodox bloggers regular on the basis of one of the Orthodox universities or higher theological educational institutions," he said.
The first set of 10 people were trained from January 29 to February 8, Elena Fufaeva, head of the educational programs sector of the Synodal Missionary Department, clarified to Vedomosti.
According to the bishop, the training is aimed, among other things, at ensuring that priests in their blogs do not lose sight of the main goal of their activities in the blogosphere – preaching about Christ and thus would be able to avoid excessive immersion in the non-church agenda. In general, the views of the priest, which he expresses on the Internet, should not contradict the official position of the ROC, says Euphemia. "He [the missionary blogger] still has to be in line with, let's say, the church's position on this or that issue. Especially if these are issues that cause great resonance in society," the bishop said.
The key thesis that was conveyed to the course participants was that if a missionary blogger wants to remain in the canonical field, then he should correlate his statements with the position of the ruling bishop (as the main person representing the Church in the relevant region) or at least ask what he or the authoritative clergy of this diocese think about this, the bishop explained. Now, according to him, such a phenomenon as "non–church priests" is widespread on the Internet: they act as clergymen - in a cassock, with a cross, but at the same time they often declare a non-church position on a number of issues, very often without the blessing of their ruling bishops not only for the relevant statements, but also for the activity itself in the blogosphere.
The Chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department also noted that in case of coverage of controversial issues on which there are disagreements in the church environment, missionary bloggers should provide their viewers or readers with arguments from each side. "Who is a blogger? He is a freelance journalist. And any journalist should convey adequate information to his audience. And if he sees that there is a range of opinions on the topic, then that's the way to say it: there are people who hold different views on this issue. There is a heated discussion and controversy between them," the bishop explained.
Orthodox bloggers were also taught technical details: how to adjust the light for video, record high-quality sound, and promote their publications on the Internet, Fufayeva said. The lecturers of the courses were the head of the information service of the Moscow city diocese, Priest Alexander (Volkov), the presenter of the TV channel "Spas" Andrey Afanasyev, the executive director of the foundation "Thomas Center" Alexey Sokolov, the editor-in-chief of the portal "Parishes" Evgenia Zhukovskaya and others, she listed.
According to the bishop, if an agreement is concluded with a partner university, courses for Orthodox bloggers can be launched on a regular basis as early as 2024. Currently, this is not taught in seminaries, Orthodox universities or academies, he noted. "For example, I thought about the Theology Department of the Moscow State Linguistic University [MGLU] <...> these courses could be supplemented with some lectures on culture and, let's say, on rhetoric, elementary on the Russian language," he said. Theological educational institutions and Orthodox universities may also show interest in such an educational program, the chairman of the Synodal Missionary Department believes. At the same time, the bishop does not exclude that universities will conduct courses on a commercial basis in order to pay for the work of teachers.
In general, the topic of the Church's presence in new media began to be discussed back in 2016, Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, recalled. More than seven years ago, Patriarch Kirill called on the clergy to monitor the style and content of their speeches on social networks at the VII International Faith and Word Festival.
In August 2018, the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media developed recommendations for video blogging priests, the document was published on the department's website, its representative told Vedomosti. In it, in particular, the authors advise using the current news agenda for preaching on the video channel, as well as initiating their own Christian discourse. The priests are also invited to talk to the target audience "in the same language", while avoiding profanity. When using trending topics and memes in a blog, you should focus on the norms of pastoral ethics and aesthetics. Modern approaches, as follows from the document, can become a cultural bridge and bring people from the virtual world into real parish life.
According to the materials vedomosti.ru