A public committee to support Orthodox Encyclopedia

A PUBLIC COMMITTEE TO SUPPORT ORTHODOX ENCYCLOPEDIA

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, a Public Committee has been set up for supporting Orthodox Encyclopedia. It was announced on March 16, during the first meeting of the Committee, which took place at St. Daniel’s monastery, with His Holiness the Patriarch as chair.

The task of the Committee is to coordinate the efforts of state and public structures supporting the publication of Orthodox Encyclopedia. “The edition was conceived as a fundamental work called to embrace all the aspects of the great Orthodox culture”, reminded His Holiness the Patriarch, “it is a code of knowledge concerning not only Orthodoxy but also many other realities of religious and social life. Aware of the importance of this undertaking, the President of the Russian Federation took it under his own patronage. Taking the decision to set up a Public Committee for supporting Orthodox Encyclopedia, we believed that this project, which unites the Church, the scholarly community and the state, should be viewed as a national endeavor. We would like to feel more tangibly the concern for it in the State Duma and the mass media”. His Holiness emphasized that with its 40 thousand copies Orthodox Encyclopedia is intended first of all for scholarly, educational and cultural centers and libraries.

His Holiness introduced the participants in the meeting to the Decree on the Formation of a Public Committee for Supporting Orthodox Encyclopedia and to the members of the Committee. Among them are Presidential Staff members, deputies from most of the State Duma factions, scholars and cultural figures, such as Presidential aide V.Kozhin, Presidential Envoy for the Central Federal District G.Poltavchenko, the Unity faction leader Gryzlov, the Fatherland – All Russia faction leader Ye.Primakov, Chairman of the Duma committee for public and religious organizations V.Zorkaltsev, Chairman of the Duma committee for economic policy and enterprise S.Glazyev, Chairman of the Duma committee for budget and taxes A.Zhukov, Chairman of the Duma committee for culture and tourism N.Gubenko, ITAR-TASS general director V.Ignatenko, Trud editor-in-chief A.Potapov, and the Malyi State Academic Theatre artistic director Yu.Solomin.

The work of the Public Committee will be coordinated by the Orthodox Encyclopedia church research center director S.Kravets and the deputy chairman of the Duma committee for public and religious organizations A.Chuev.

Mr.Kravets presented a report on the work of the Orthodox Encyclopedia church research center.