Plovdiv Metropolitanate launches first Bulgarian Orthodox online TV

15/2/2010

Aiming to serve both Bulgarians abroad and to bring the church closer to society, the website of the Plovdiv Metropolitanate launched the first Bulgarian Orthodox online video broadcasts.

“This is the first online television broadcast of our Orthodox Church,” Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) quoted the church’s manager of new media Archimandrite Arsenyi as saying.

The first broadcasts started on February 11 2010 with a liturgy in the St Haralampi church in the town of Septemvri.

The broadcast was also the unveiling of the new website of the Plovdiv Metropolitanate.

“The online broadcasts are part of the Metropolis’ attempt to bring the Church closer to society,” Archimandrite Arsenyi was quoted by BNR as saying. “The project started with the arrival of Bishop Nikolay in Plovdiv three years ago,” he said.

The project aimed to enable people to witness the everyday spiritual life of God’s servants and laymen in the Plovdiv Metropolis, Arsenyi said.

“Maybe it is not by chance that God allowed the channel to be launched at the eve of the Great Lent [which started on February 15],” he said.

The broadcasts would give the church the opportunity to inform a younger audience about the Great Lent.

“The way one should fasten will be explained, as well as the spiritual meaning of abstention,” Arsenyi said.”Through this new medium we try to attract attention and tell people about the truths of Orthodox religion. We hope this will help religious eduction of young people,” Arsenyi said.

The team of the online television currently consisted of 15 people, BNR said, but was expect to expand with the expansion of its programming.

The website of the Plovidv Metropolitanate is currently available in Bulgarian only.

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