Vladislav Beregova Priest Biography

News Priest Vladislav Beregova: “I can’t solve all the problems, but I can tell me where to look for a solution” the missionary presence of priests on social networks is a phenomenon that gradually ceases to amaze and becomes familiar. We talked about this with one of the most famous priests of Runet, father Vladislav Beregov, who graduated from our university and a half years ago.

Father Vladislav! In Runet you are called the most popular Instagram-priest, okay! People most likely simply do not know other priests actively leading social networks. How did you have an idea to engage in a mission on social networks? Perhaps this is part of the calling. Probably, if I did not have a missionary “itch”, if I did not want to speak everywhere and with everyone who was on my life path, I would not have been ordained, and did not receive theological education.

Nothing brought me such a deep moral and psychological satisfaction than a conversation with anyone on any religious topic. Maybe it was a “itching” of neophyte, but to this day it has not passed. When I was ordained, I immediately began to teach in the courses that he graduated. He led two Sunday schools with children and adult groups. Everywhere he spoke of Christ, as said by the Apostle Paul, "both to place and out of place." When I ended up in the city of Mosalsk, Kaluga Region, where only 3 thousand lives.

Naturally, I immediately organized a Sunday school, but 3-4 people went there, despite the fact that in Kyiv a person came to me, we read and analyzed the gospel, the texts of prayers, the features of the Church Slavonic language, we had film lectures. I began to go to students of a local school, but he was soon closed. I seriously sunbathed. It is clear that the priest lives a liturgy, but still I wanted to talk not only to those who already believe, because it is interesting to speak with those who doubt who seeks Christ, who, perhaps, have never heard of Him.

I am interested in bringing people to the church, and not just strengthen in the faith of those who are already in it. The question arose: what to do? In the province, a sermon on the streets would not have an effect, because people who do not live as they survive, think about God last-just to earn some penny for food, for heating. The situation of a clear one of my friends said that she saw a priest in Instagram and invited me to start missionary activities on the social network.

I have been using social networks for a long time, but at first I thought where I and the pork snout in a kalashny row? There are so many wonderful missionary fathers, at least Father Andrei Tkachev, so that the niche is busy. I see the difference between the word that my teachers in St. Tikhonovsky, and their level, carry, for example,. It is necessary to honestly admit that I have not so high.

But three months later I was convinced, they assured me that I would succeed. I doubted very much that a simple, unpretentious Orthodox word would be at least somehow in demand. But it turned out that in a simple language, one can and should always speak about Orthodoxy always and everywhere. That is, it turned out that this niche was unoccupied and in demand? Specifically this one - yes.

You mentioned the father of Andrei Tkachev. I got the impression that you have a different approach with him: he is usually very emotional, one might say, to some extent presses on the listeners, and you speak with a different intonation. Perhaps I'm a more calm person. I know Andrei's father well, was his assistant: he is more temperamental, but absolutely sincere - he says what he thinks for which stones are flying into him.

The problem is that it is often widely replicated what he said to a particular person in a particular situation. What approach do you have? Tactry is our everything. Turning to a wide audience, you should think about how your word will respond in different parts of this audience. Atheists and dean, abbot, ruling bishops, your mother, your friends, classmates are those filters through which you must skip your word.

Do not you think that these filters are sometimes mutually exclusive. The fact that the ruling bishop will not like, maybe, in modern language, “very well” to the near -church or non -church audience ... There is a very thin line. You know, there are people who walk along the rope from one to another skyscraper? Sometimes I feel like such a canine. Now it has become a little simpler, although I can’t say that everything turns out correctly.

Have you encountered the discontent of brothers in the priesthood, the father of the deanery or the ruling bishop? Yes, the brothers constantly grumbled, especially the first time, because it was something new, unknown: “What kind of birth do you need? Were the claims informative? There were no substantial claims. Formally, at the official level, from the side of the diocesan priesthood they did not make me remarks.Some brothers treated as a conceited person who decided to show himself to the world, and naturally according to the good old tradition, if you see the “brother of the Ascending”, you need to pull him down for his own spiritual benefit.

Well, to the broadcasts of worship there were questions: they were indignant that what is happening in the altar: “This is sacred! But you began to conduct the broadcasts of worships long before the pandemic. Because he knew that it was very in demand.

Such broadcasts are a great consolation for those who cannot come to the temple at this time due to illness or due to the distance of the distance. In addition, there is Russian emigration scattered around the world: there people cannot go to the temple, because there is simply no Orthodox temple or there is a temple of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, with which we have now interrupted Eucharistic communication.

In such circumstances, at least a viewing of the liturgy, albeit not a full complicity, but some inner consolation brings people. So my inner missionary intuition suggests that this is needed, it is in demand. Thousands of people watched the broadcast of the liturgy in our temple even before the pandemic. I worked with a sociological study on how the pandemic influenced the life of Orthodox parishes in the United States.

Among other things there, Orthodox priests expressed fears that people would get used to watching broadcasts and stop going to temples ... No matter how much you want to watch films about delicious and healthy foods-you still want to. No matter how much comfort yourself with viewing prayers, liturgy, akathists - real complicity in the Eucharist is still necessary. Therefore, of course, the broadcast is not a replacement for worship.

This is just a consolation for those who want to be in the church, but cannot, for example, support for patients. I remember how many gratitude comments on broadcasting from those who lay these days in the hospital, even from those who were on the Ivl. Now, when the pandemic is over, parishioners go to temples again. So the broadcasts have not become competitors of full complicity in worship.

I can understand such fears of Protestants: they, in fact, the worship comes down to preaching, music and communication. They really have a thought, and that I will go somewhere when you can watch all this on TV? With the Orthodox liturgy, everything is different. Catholics are now allowed even confession in remote mode, provided that it can be guaranteed to preserve the secrets of confession.

I have friends who, being at home for several months, begged the priest with the opportunity to confess in the video. As a result, the priest, taking a blessing from the ruling bishop and asking the opinion of several famous bishops, agreed to such a format. But this was in exceptional circumstances. This was not a trend. I correctly understand that you prefer to communicate on the air, and not write texts?

Ether, of course, is easier for me. Air is a lively conversation, for me this is a vacation. It must be remembered that I am a provincial priest, and still relatively recently moved to Russia: no friends, nor acquaintances, in fact, and talk about what you are interested in is simply no one. To write is a good thing, the lack of live communication is very hits the brain. Therefore, for me, each broadcast is a gift.

Well, judging by the fact that sometimes several thousand people came to my broadcasts in an hour, and less than three hundred and four hundred students simply did not happen, we can conclude that people need it. You are present in all social networks. Say a few words about their features: different format? The most intellectual network is Facebook. There, in a living magazine, long texts of Longrids can be placed, and they also “go” into telegrams well.

In Instagram, another format: to give a good text that I like, I need an hour and a half. To make a good picture for it, it takes another two hours to take one post. Since this post, in fact, is educational, and not entertaining, in Instagram, user coverage is reduced. But a brief answer to a question that does not claim to be objective, especially if it is with humor and a good picture, gives coverage in three or four.