On June 2, 2026, the TASS news agency in St. Petersburg hosted a press conference dedicated to the V Forum of Spiritual Composers, which was organized by the Council for Culture of the St. Petersburg Diocese, the diocesan Department for Youth Affairs and the Union of Spiritual Composers creative community.
The forum, which will be held on June 6-8, will be attended by composers, performers, students of music universities, creative teams, including the Concert Choir of St. Petersburg conducted by Vladimir Begletsov, the consolidated choir of churches of the St. Petersburg Diocese, the children's choir of the St. Petersburg Archdiocese, the consolidated choir of churches of Mariupol, etc. 
Olga Khomova, General Director of the State Academic Chapel of St. Petersburg, spoke about the band she heads and noted that the history of the Chapel is inextricably linked with sacred music. Dmitry Bortnyansky, the first manager of the Chapel, is a famous author of spiritual works. In the pre-revolutionary period, many composers who worked here or collaborated with the choir created sacred music. In the late 1970s, Vladislav Chernushenko, who had been the artistic director of the Chapel for more than 50 years, revived the performance of sacred music on secular stages. It was a great event then, and Leningrad was the first in this regard.
The chairman of the diocesan Department for Youth Affairs, Archpriest Konstantin Golovatsky, emphasized that the performance of music, including by modern church composers, is a special feature of the forum. Premieres often take place within the framework of the forum.
This year, more than 30 works have been submitted to the competition. The jury consists of members of the creative community "Union of Spiritual Composers", several members of the Union of Composers of Russia, practicing regents and priests. 25 composers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Arkhangelsk, Kemerovo, Tomsk, as well as from Israel, Belarus and Latvia are participating.