Christian Church and Public Channel

The radio station was formed as a result of the merger of two radio stations: Blagovest (Paris), led by Catholic Irina Ilovayskaya-Alberti and Sofia (Moscow), led by Archpriest John Sviridov . It began broadcasting on June 1, 1995 in Moscow at medium waves (1116 kHz) ^[1] . Since the programs of the radio "Sofia" made up the bulk of the broadcast, the names "Christian Church and Public Channel" and "Sofia" began to be used as synonyms. In 1996, the Catholic studio Dar (Moscow, editor-in-chief Pyotr Sakharov) joined the channel ^[1] . The broadcast was organized with funds from the Catholic organization Kirche in Not ^[2] .

According to the editor of the radio "Sofia" (part of the channel) Archpriest John Sviridov:

Our employees are far from conservative, and on the radio we are talking about democratic values, we have our views that do not coincide with the Orthodox Church, for which we are criticized. If you are one bearer of truth, then you become internally closed. Sponsors in Russia demand in return the promotion of their views, and we are forced to switch to servicing a different structure in order not to part with freedom of speech ^[2] .

Literary critic Mikhail Dunaev , who worked on the Sofia radio even before it merged with Blagovest, noted:

A religious Orthodox radio station appeared on the first channel of state radio broadcasting, which was then isolated at the expense of a sponsor, that is, Mrs. Ilovaiskaya. Together we started working with Fr. John Sviridov - spiritual mentor of the channel "Sofia". Under the changed leadership, I continued to make Orthodox programs on literature. But the pro-Catholic position of the radio station began to manifest itself more and more. I adhered strictly to Orthodox views on literature, while the leadership of the channel required, if not a Catholic, then at least an ecumenical view of literary works. In the end, I was fired with the words: "You do not fit into the concept of a radio station." While working there, I realized that in relation to Orthodoxy, the radio station sometimes takes a clear, sometimes secretive, but ... hostile position ^[2] .

The channel’s programs were or are priests (John Sviridov, Vladimir Lapshin , Georgy Chistyakov , Alexander Borisov , Sergiy Popov , Innokenty (Pavlov) ), cultural figures ( Natalya Trauberg , Boris Lyubimov , Vladimir Ilyushenko , Olga Sedakova , Georgy Moseshvili ) and many others .

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II repeatedly at the diocesan meetings of the clergy sharply criticized the anti-church activities of the radio channel and considered it impossible for the Orthodox to participate in his work ^[3] . So at the Diocesan meeting of the city of Moscow on December 23, 1998, he noted:

The stream of constant slander against the Hierarchy, the ordinary clergy and employees of the Moscow Patriarchate falls in almost every broadcast of this radio channel. Reconstruction of ruined churches and monasteries, reorganization of parish life receive, as a rule, only a negative assessment of the authors of this channel. A similar assessment is given to our decrees and orders. They are trying to pass off the priest, who was banned by us in the priesthood for appropriation of church property and other unseemly acts, on this channel almost as a martyr. The stream of constant slander against the Hierarchy, the ordinary clergy and employees of the Moscow Patriarchate falls in almost every broadcast of this radio channel, as well as in the numbers of the Parisian newspaper entitled “Russian Thought”. The main goal is clearly traced, which is the introduction of distrust of the church hierarchy into the consciousness of people, the rejection of as many people as possible from it, that is, the separation of our believing people. Acting on the principle of “divide and conquer”, they try to cover it with calls for the renewal of the Church, for cleansing it of flaws and, as a role model, is presented to the church in the West, mainly the Roman Catholic Church ^[4] .

Nevertheless, several Orthodox priests participated in the work of the Central Orthodox Church Center: either those who are behind the state and in direct opposition to the Moscow Patriarchate (Father Superior Innocent Pavlov, Archpriest John Sviridov), or who openly sympathize with Catholicism (priests Georgy Chistyakov, Vladimir Lapshin). Unceremonious criticism of the actions of the hierarchy was one of the most important components of the work of the channel. Thus, Abbot Innocent (Pavlov) commented on the statement of the Holy Synod as follows: “Idiots from the Synod attended to the barcode” ^[5] .

In 2000, it was reported that Radio Sofia for 4 years had been illegally working in the Moscow radio broadcast, it had the license of the Federal Tariff Service of Russia N 3603 dated March 17, 1999, issued by 000 SRT Te EN (CRTN) with the right to broadcast in the CB band at a frequency of 1116 kHz, a 5 kW transmitter to the territory of Moscow and the Moscow Region. However, the radio station does not have its own broadcasting equipment and broadcasts from the technical positions of the MRVS (Oktyabrskoye field, D. Bednogo str., 24) daily in the amount of 19 hours a day (from 06:00 to 01:00) on the basis of an agreement with the management of the MRVS, but in violation of the provisions of the program concept regarding broadcasting ^[6] .

In July 2008, the Rosokhrankultura announced that SiR Te TN (CRTN) LLC broadcasts in violation of the law and licensing conditions: “mismatch of the total broadcast volume per week; mismatch of broadcasting time and mismatch of broadcasting directions. " ^[7] .

The channel structure is represented by two blocks of programs: the Orthodox radio “Sofia” (main) and the Catholic studio “Dar” (hourly per day). Along with cognitive information, there are a number of live programs that allow listeners to engage in dialogue with authors and presenters. The declared goal is the eradication of inertness and aggressiveness in the minds of our contemporary by revealing to him the rich positive experience of the Christian tradition, which has its source in Holy Scripture and the patristic heritage ^[1] .

• Christian Church and Public Channel
• Propaganda instead of dialogue