"Kife" 10 years

A round table of journalists and members of the Preobrazhensky Commonwealth, dedicated to the topic “Church and Society: Dialogue, not Confrontation,” took place yesterday at the Cultural Center of Russian Abroad on Taganka. For the 10th anniversary of the newspaper Sodruzhestvo and the Cultural and Educational Foundation "Preobrazhenie" prepared two digests: a collection of the best articles "Cephas" for 2007-2012 "Living Tradition" and a collection of the most interesting interviews "People of the Church" , which includes conversations with Natalia Solzhenitsyna, Archpriest Gennady Fast, dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York, Archpriest John Baer.

“Like five years ago, we decided to celebrate our anniversary not by listening to praises, not by anniversary speeches, but by jointly reflecting on the pressing issues of our journalistic ministry,” said Alexandra Kolymagina, editor-in-chief of Kifa and host of the round table, at the beginning of the evening.

All the speakers, of course, first of all congratulated the newspaper on its anniversary - not all publications live to such a respectable age (for a newspaper) - and noted that this happened largely due to the well-thought-out and clearly formulated position of the editors.

A teacher at the Russian State Pedagogical University named after A. I. Herzen and the St. Philaret Institute, Yulia Balakshina , dedicated her speech to the relationship between the church and culture, noting that the time of confrontation is long behind us and for many people it is the church that is becoming a guide to world culture. However, for a full-fledged dialogue, the church must be restored as a people.

Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate Sergei Chapnin focused on the difficulties of the current moment, emphasizing that the time for the trust of the church has passed and now both the church and society are experiencing a turning point in their relations. The one who invites to dialogue always wins, he is sure, but the bad thing is that we are trying to hang our dialogue with society with labels - Holy Rus', symphonies, etc. - that do not work. And most importantly , the answer to the question, what does church mean to me personally? It is necessary to search for new intonations in conversation with society, he concluded.

, who continued to moderate the round table, Dmitry Gasak agreed with Sergei Chapnin’s idea about the need for new intonations and a new language. He believes that the current situation is most reminiscent of pagan Rome, which included Christianity. All the foundations of modern life are completely pagan, therefore it is very important to show the meaning for a Christian of certain things and, if you do not find a language that society will perceive without rejection, the success of the dialogue is unlikely.

Tver University teacher Igor Korpusov gave a rather detailed report . He also noted a turning point in relations between the church and society , highlighting points that hinder dialogue . This is the lack of a coherent, conscious position on both sides; and the loss of the personal basis of dialogue - both sides are trying to act with the help of institutions; in addition, the inability to answer questions honestly and directly; the church willingly closes itself in the ghetto and agrees to the role of a certain subculture; and indeed there are doubts that such a dialogue is in demand. Both the church and society lack solidarity, but in some projects related to solidarity initiatives, society is significantly ahead of it.

The editor-in-chief of the portal “Religion and Media” Alexander Shchipkov touched upon the popular topic of clericalization of the state. In his opinion, there is a big lie hidden in the accusations of clericalization and merging of church and state. The political decisions of the authorities do not take into account the church position in any way - in conditions of clericalization everything would be different.

The head of the Analytical Department of the Center for Problem Analysis, Viktor Averkov, in his remarks from the floor, emphasized that we need to work for creation, and not for the destruction and segmentation of society . Christians need to unite in civil solidarity groups and promote their projects , then the dialogue with society will move to a practical plane, which is always more effective, he concluded.

The evening ended with watching a film with a welcoming speech addressed to the newspaper by the rector of the SFI, priest Georgy Kochetkov, and a report on the work of the editorial office.