On June 26, 2026, another group of students completed the \u201cBasics of Blogging: Creating Content for Social Media\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Svetlana F. Alipova, the program\u2019s creator and director, a lecturer in the Academy\u2019s Continuing Education Department, musician, director, Orthodox blogger, and graduate of the Academy\u2019s Advanced Theological Courses, commented on the results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe 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 \u2018I don\u2019t like my voice\u2019 to the fear of seeing themselves on screen because \u2018I don\u2019t like anything about it!\u2019 The hardest assignment was to make an associative video: to choose an object and use it to build and tell a story. \n\u201cStudents 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\u2014he died when she was three\u2014but 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!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPriest Alexander Pelin from Kyrgyzstan told a story through a children\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\n\u201cAs 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.\n\u201cOne 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,\u201d Svetlana Fyodorovna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next intake for the program is planned for autumn 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The program is described on the Continuing Education Department website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/kursmpda.ru\/blogerstvo\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Questions may be addressed to the department\u2019s academic coordinator, Galina Mikhailovna Norievskaya. We invite you to watch several videos made by graduates of the fourth blogging course:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Video by E. E. Konkova:<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/vkvideo.ru\/video-139634413_456239358?t=1m1s<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Video by M. A. Valyugina:<\/p>\n\n\n\n https:\/\/vkvideo.ru\/video-139634413_456239359<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Associative video by O. A. Metelkina:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/em>Telephone: +7 993 278-49-54, \u0435-mail: odo.long@mpda.ru<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n