From Church Media to Public Dialogue: How the Church Enters Ukraine’s Information Space
There was a time when it was enough for Church communication to speak primarily to its own community. Today, that is no longer the case.
Ukraine’s information space has become one of the key arenas where public perceptions of the Church, faith, values, identity, and even Ukraine itself are shaped.
How can the Church be present in this space? Is it enough to create its own media and speak the language of a Church audience? And what is needed for the Church’s voice to be heard far beyond the walls of the church and its own community?
Over the past decades, Ukraine’s media environment has changed radically: from websites and traditional media to social networks, YouTube, blogs, and personal media platforms. Along with it, the ways in which the Church communicates with society have also changed.
But it is not only the format that has changed.
The information environment itself has changed – and the Church has had to change along with it.
How were Church media projects created? What principles worked then, and do they still work today? What transformations has Church communication undergone? And most importantly – how can the Church avoid becoming isolated in its own information bubble and instead become part of a broader public dialogue?
🎙 Our guest is Archpriest Georgiy Kovalenko, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Rector of the Open Orthodox University of Saint Sophia the Wisdom, philosopher, journalist, blogger, and public figure, as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of the online portal “Orthodoxy in Ukraine.”
He was among the first to develop an Orthodox presence on the Ukrainian internet, worked extensively in the field of Church communications, and today continues his work at the intersection of the Church, media, education, and society.
So this will be a conversation not only about Church media.
It will be a conversation about how the Church can speak with society – and be not merely a source of information, but a participant in a shared public dialogue.
📅 16 September (Wednesday)
🕕 18:00
🎙 Guest: Archpriest Georgiy Kovalenko
📌 Topic: “The Experience of Creating the Church’s Information Space and Entering the Country’s Information Space: Projects, Principles, Transformations”
🔗 Zoom link:
