Russian Orthodox Church uses celebrity images to advertise faith
Moscow (AsiaNews)
- After the "orthodox disco " and the establishment of new youth
groups in parishes, the Russian Orthodox community has come up with a new
formula to bring young people to the faith. On
13 and 14 October, the feast of the Blessed Virgin, billboards in which famous
faces of entertainment and culture, including the American actor Tom Hanks (a convert
to orthodoxy) 'speaking' of how good it feels to be a Christian, were posted
throughout Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
The
initiative, according to a report in the Echo
of Moscow radio, is part of the "We, Orthodox" initiative, a
series of events related to the mid-October festival. The
all-new advertising campaign is the brainchild of the "Soboriane" movement,
which received the green light from Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the
Department for relations between Church and society at the Patriarchate of
Moscow. "It
is directed first of all to young people who do not attend church - explained
the creators of the campaign - the example of the lives of some celebrities
these days can be a starting point for their evangelization."
As
reported by the website Lenta.ru, the image of famous faces are accompanied by
quotes from old interviews. Actors
Yevgeny Mironov and Petr Mamonov, journalist Arkady Mamontov, the boxer and
deputy Nikolai Valuev, the singer Yuri Shevchuk (also one of the leaders of the
anti-Putin party) and Tom Hanks invite young people from billboards to go to
church and live according to Christian
principles.
It
is not clear if the stars have given their consent to the use of their images. Among
the 'celebrities' are also big names of the past: the writers Nikolai Gogol and
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, astronaut Yuri Gagarin, who in his poster warns: "If
you do not meet God on Earth, you will not see him even in space."
The
newspaper Vzgliad.ru has estimated the cost of the advertising campaign at over
40 million rubles (about 990,000 Euros). According
to some commentators, after the Pussy Riot case and media scandals related to
the Patriarch and his alleged life of ease and luxury, the Orthodox Church has
embarked on a campaign to "rebuild its image", also in an attempt to
attract more young people. At
the same time, the Patriarchate is pursuing a policy to increase its weight in
Russian society. Recently,
the Synod gave the go-ahead to priests to candidate themselves in elections, a
move already approved last year by the Council of Bishops.
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