Test thread has already completed training
Resource «Vedomosti» says that the Synodal Missionary Department of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has launched a pilot educational course for priests – bloggers and missionaries.
The first 10 people have already completed the courses from January 29 to February 8. In general, the Russian Orthodox Church plans to make such courses regular on the basis of one of the Orthodox universities or higher theological educational institutions.
Member of the Supreme Church Council, Bishop Evfimy of Lukhovitsky, believes that the views of a priest, which he expresses in one way or another on the Internet, should not contradict the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He still must 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
In particular, the main thing that was conveyed to the students in the test course was that if a missionary blogger wants to remain in the canonical field, then he must correlate his statements with the position of the ruling bishop, or at least inquire, what does he or the authoritative clergy of this diocese think about this?
The Russian Orthodox Church also noted that so-called “non-church priests” have now appeared on the Internet, who act as clergy (in a cassock and with a cross), but at the same time often declare a non-church position on a whole range 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.
Of course, during the course bloggers were also taught purely technical aspects, such as working with light, sound, promoting their materials on the Internet, and so on. The lecturers of the course were the head of the information service of the Moscow city diocese, Priest Alexander (Volkov), the presenter of the TV channel «Spas» Andrey Afanasyev, executive director of the «Foma-Center» foundation Alexey Sokolov, editor-in-chief of the portal «Parishes» Evgenia Zhukovskaya and others.