Mission Possible: Blogging Russian Orthodox Priests

Abstract

The present paper dwells on the modern phenomenon of the clergy going online and exploring new audiences. The empirical study conducted by the author concerned the activities of popular Russian-speaking Orthodox bloggers whose heightening media presence is aimed at digital missionary work and catechism. The research was organized in accordance with the theoretical framework of the concept of communicative figurations that was coined by Andreas Hepp. This constructivist approach implies that mediatization blurs the borders between previously disentangled actors and encourages the growth of their interactions and, thus, a tighter social reality. To embody a communi-cative figurations-oriented study, the author lays down methodological foundations that are able to express the nature of personal practices and the reflections on them. For this purpose, the methods used consisted of case studies, expert and field interviews, and online text analysis. The findings can be set out in the following manner. Online media activity and social networking allow greater transparency and a wider audience. Despite stereotype and politicized doxa, the online demand for a specific niche of purely catechetic Orthodox priest blogging has existed for a decade and a half. Over the years, media practices of missionary work, catechism, and preaching have been formed, mainly on such social networks as VK.com, LiveJournal and Instagram, and on YouTube channels. This dynamic has been growing: priest blogs have acquired the audiences of tens of thousands of subscribers. This is because priests use contemporary language when addressing the public for the purpose of missionary work and catechism. They attract an audience of the Russian-speaking network of actors that is diverse in age, gender, and country of residence. Seeing and aiming beyond the conservative confines of an offline parish and church, blogging priests have the opportunity to create their own audience – to reach out to a particular generation, choose the style and content of a sermon or testimony of faith. In turn, the audiences choose priest bloggers according to their interests and the preferred methods of religious participation. Orthodox blogger priests strive to consolidate their efforts, to promote various forms of testimony of faith in the digital space. The central direct consequence of the mediatization of catechism and missionary practices is the promotion of a new image of the priest and a new version of priest–layman interaction, both contributing to a new church construct.