Fourth MThA Blogging Course Concludes
On June 26, 2026, another group of students completed the “Basics of Blogging: Creating Content for Social Media” program. The Continuing Education Department of the Moscow Theological Academy introduced this timely program in 2024. Interest in it continues to grow among those who want to learn how to create and run a personal Orthodox blog online. During the course, students learned to write and edit texts; shoot and edit videos and photographs; record and add sound; conduct interviews; and develop strategies for positioning their blogs effectively on messaging platforms and social media.
Svetlana F. Alipova, the program’s creator and director, a lecturer in the Academy’s Continuing Education Department, musician, director, Orthodox blogger, and graduate of the Academy’s Advanced Theological Courses, commented on the results:
“The fourth group of future bloggers studied for almost three months. We began in spring and finished in summer. Seventy-seven people learned the basics of setting up a social media account. Each of them had to overcome obstacles and fears, from ‘I don’t like my voice’ to the fear of seeing themselves on screen because ‘I don’t like anything about it!’ The hardest assignment was to make an associative video: to choose an object and use it to build and tell a story. “Students had to come up with an idea and then turn it into a video. It was truly creative work: there was nothing at first, and then a one-minute video emerged that brought viewers to tears. For example, Marina Valyugina told the story of her grandfather, Archpriest Sergiy Bogdan. She does not remember him—he died when she was three—but recordings of his voice survived (remember reel-to-reel tapes?). Marina brought together archival photographs and shaped them into a story, and we heard his living voice from a Divine Liturgy in 1950!
“Priest Alexander Pelin from Kyrgyzstan told a story through a children’s Bible he had been given and explained how it led him to decide to become a priest. I cried. Professional filmmakers might not have made such a film, but this work has a sincerity and childlike faith that grew into service. Elena Konkova’s video shows a girl in a white headscarf carrying a basket of flowers to the Cross. There is such heavenly purity in it. I consider these small masterpieces. “As teachers, we must be able to reach the heart of every student. As always, a remarkably warm atmosphere developed. The students were very different, but each was remarkable in their own way: Antoinetta Georgievna Kozlova, a Doctor of Sciences and professor at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, and Oleg Veniaminovich Bushmanov, a farmer from Sosnovka in the Novosibirsk Region. Everyone loved his wonderful videos from the pasture. “One could say that inspiration touched everyone who listened and made the effort. My dear friends, we are not saying goodbye. Keep flying, and I will be here beside you,” Svetlana Fyodorovna said.
The program is designed to engage both practicing bloggers and newcomers. It is also useful to students and graduates of theological schools, clergy and parish staff, journalists, public relations managers, and anyone who needs to present their work effectively to the public.
The next intake for the program is planned for autumn 2026.
The program is described on the Continuing Education Department website:
https://kursmpda.ru/blogerstvo/
Questions may be addressed to the department’s academic coordinator, Galina Mikhailovna Norievskaya.
Telephone: +7 993 278-49-54, е-mail: odo.long@mpda.ru
We invite you to watch several videos made by graduates of the fourth blogging course:
Video by E. E. Konkova:
https://vkvideo.ru/video-139634413_456239358?t=1m1s
Video by M. A. Valyugina:
https://vkvideo.ru/video-139634413_456239359
Associative video by O. A. Metelkina:
https://vkvideo.ru/video-139634413_456239360
Creative assignment—an associative video by Priest Alexander Pelin (Kyrgyzstan):