The Orthodox social network “Elitsa” is a modern platform for strengthening connections between Orthodox people around the world and developing parish life around churches. The project is open to both Orthodox Christians and those who are just looking for the path to God.
Social network “Elitsa” ( translated from Church Slavic – “those who, how many there are”
) began its work in May 2014 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' and under the care of Bishop Savva of the Resurrection. The founders and leaders of the Elitsa network are parishioners of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Sheremetyevo.
The goal of the project is to help a person come to God, unite Orthodox people, develop and strengthen parish life.
The mission of the project is to show people that Orthodoxy gives fullness and joy to life, and that being Orthodox is more interesting and useful than “the lonely center of the universe.”
The Elitsa network cooperates with many Dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, with the synodal departments of the Moscow Patriarchate, takes part in church-wide congresses, festivals, forums, readings, and the Orthodox Church Abroad also shows great interest.
In addition to the standard functionality that exists in other secular social networks - communication, receiving and exchanging information - the Elitsa network has unique capabilities created to meet the needs of the entire Orthodox world: parishioners, those who are just coming to God, clergy, church specialists, etc. .
PARISHERS
Thanks to the social network, “Elits” know the names and activities of their accomplices, have the opportunity to ask accumulated and unresolved questions to the clergy of their church, and become closer by offering, organizing and participating in useful parish events. A parish with a developed parish life also becomes attractive to new parishioners.
RECENTS
temples have the opportunity to use the temple community feed to publish important information for parishioners.
The rector can:
- notify parishioners about the needs of the parish;
- identify organizational leaders;
- organize fundraising for specific needs of the temple or for events;
- distribute tasks for organizing events and monitor their implementation;
- get to know your parishioners better.
CHURCH SPECIALISTS
for youth, missionary, catechetical and other ministries, they have a functional parish platform on the community page, as well as a church-wide platform for inter-parish exchange of experience in specializations. The opportunity to organize parish and inter-parish events has become very popular. There is a separate section on the website for this. Also, a new offer for specialists is the holding of webinars (online seminars) on the network site.
SUNDAY SCHOOL LEADERS
In the Sunday school section on the church page, they can publish class schedules, messages for parents, discuss pressing issues with them, organize the preparation and holding of their own events, and, of course, have “feedback.”
UNCHURCHED USERS
Thanks to the “Elitsa” network, they can ask questions to famous priests in the “Questions to the Father” service, as well as take a closer look at the life of their parishes.
PRIESTS
Those registering on the network are subject to moderation checks to ensure that “mummers”, schismatics and sectarians do not get into the network. After all, they will have to answer questions from users, and for some this will be their first communication with a cleric.
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Thanks to the network, they have the opportunity to feel like full-fledged and sought-after members of the parish community.
FOR PARISH, DIOCESAL AND OTHER MEDIA
The Elitsa social network is an inexhaustible source of unique topics for publications.
In the near future, the functionality of the network will be expanded with a large set of new services and intranet projects.
Reviews about the social network “Elitsa”:
First Deputy Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate, His Eminence Savva, Bishop of Resurrection:
“This electronic resource is designed in such a way that it can potentially cover Orthodox parishes around the world. In fact, the Orthodox social network “Elitsa”, created specifically for Orthodox communities, can become a convenient platform for discussing common difficulties, exchanging experiences for specialists from different areas of church activity, forming a real living community from a collection of disparate individuals, where parishioners know each other and communicate without only with the clergy, but also among themselves.”
A. I. Osipov, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, theologian:
“Elitsa” is a good undertaking, and the fact that we have come to this is a natural process. If this project really makes it possible to unite parishioners around their parishes, bring them closer together, provide important information about the parish, and allow them to discuss spiritual issues, then it definitely has great prospects.”
Hieromonk Macarius (Markish), church publicist, missionary:
“Despite the fact that Elitsy is a young project that began its work quite recently, today very serious results have already been achieved. “I am registered in “Elitsa” and I observe how the network is changing every day - the site is becoming more convenient, the number of network users is growing rapidly, they are becoming more active, more and more interesting and useful information is appearing, many new functions and services.”
F. V. Emelianenko, four-time world champion in mixed martial arts in heavyweight, advisor to the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation:
“I see great prospects for the Orthodox social network Elitsa, which allows Orthodox people around the world to unite, communicate, share experiences and help each other.”
Abbot of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery, Abbot Theophylact (Bezukladnikov):
“Nowadays, fewer and fewer people read books, and more are on social networks, which means we need to convey good positive information to users through them. I see that “Elitsa” is aimed at precisely this. The apostles in their time sowed good seed, and the Elitsa network sows it today, and where it will grow, what benefit it will bring and to whom it will bring - this is already in the hands of the Lord. Therefore, the meaning of such work is very high.”
* in lane from church glory - “those that, how many there are”
Publications about the network "":
- New Orthodox media projects will be presented at the Christmas readings.
- The page of Patriarch Kirill appeared on the Orthodox social network.
- More and more bishops are opening their pages on the Elitsa social network.
- Church abbots will be able to collect donations through the Orthodox social network.
- Fedor Emelianenko: You can only win with faith.
- A large-scale charity platform will appear on the RuNet to help Orthodox parishes.
- The Orthodox social network “Elitsa” calls on clergy to more actively explore the network’s capabilities.
- The social network for Orthodox Christians “Elitsa” has acquired a mobile version.
- At the Christmas Readings they discussed the development of a unified parish map.
- Orthodox social network: Pros and cons. Conversation with the director of the social network “Elitsa” Valery Chepukhalin.
Read all
About Elitsa's social network
This project has existed for more than 5 years. This is the only social network in the world created for Orthodox Christians - elitsy ru. Now more than 205 thousand people are registered in it. Are these people only from Russia? Of course not. Registered users from:
- Russia (75%);
- Belarus and Ukraine (15%);
- Other countries (10%).
The last point includes the USA, Canada, Australia, Greece, Europe, etc.
Home page of the site elitsy.ru
Pages of churches, monasteries and other parishes are also registered on the Elitsa social network. Moreover, this applies not only to the Russian Orthodox Church, but also to other autonomous Orthodox churches. There is a connection with the parishes:
- Russian Church Abroad;
- Ukrainian;
- Hellasic;
- Jerusalem;
- Serbian;
- Constantinople;
- Georgian;
- Estonian and others.
The network contains all available information about various monasteries and temples. The current ones are shown on a special map.
Website functions for parishioners
Elitsa's team employs 25 people. These are programmers, specialists in design, layout, testing, maintenance, moderators, support services, content managers, managers and employees of Elitsa service departments. Orthodox Christians from Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Estonia and Belarus work here. Users take a direct part in the development of the network.
Communication
Possessing a universal set of tools for conducting information, missionary, youth and social work in the parish, Elitsa’s social network helps strengthen the community and increase the flock.
On the pages of temples you can post:
- photo and video materials;
- news;
- announcements from rectors and parishioners;
- service schedule.
You can also highlight the activities of Sunday schools, youth, social and missionary ministries, and create parish communities of interest. All this is aimed at solving the most important church task - uniting and uniting people around the temple. Elitsy, through communication mechanisms, create conditions for the self-organization of the church community and the successful adaptation of new parishioners into it.
There are already registered users on the pages of more than 11 thousand churches - clergy and parishioners. Users of the site actively help in collecting information. Therefore, we can say with confidence that today Elitsy presents the most complete and reliable (in terms of coordinates, names of temples and their affiliation) map of the location of temples. The active participation of site visitors in collecting and providing information gives the network unity and inspires people's trust.
Familiarization with information
An official page of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill has been opened in Elitsy, to which all users are subscribed. Also, the accounts of 43 metropolitans, archbishops and bishops are registered on the social network. In total, more than a thousand clergy (1143 people) are registered in Elitsy.
They passed the moderator's check and verification, provided data confirming their rank. After which their pages were assigned the appropriate status. This eliminates the possibility of fake clergy accounts appearing online. On the pages of the site, two-way communication is established between parishioners and church clergy, and missionary activities are carried out.
Site visitors communicate:
- discuss various topics, publications;
- publish content (own or borrowed from other sites);
- create communities of interest;
- hold events.
The social network provides an excellent opportunity for communication, for parishioners of different churches to get to know each other, as well as for getting acquainted with various types of information regarding Orthodox doctrine, the activities of the church as a whole and individual parishes.
Participation in projects
The system includes 20 projects. Let's talk about the most popular and interesting, what each of them means.
First of all, these are daily video broadcasts with famous priests. Believers can subscribe to daily video meetings with Father Andrei Tkachev, Hieromonk Macarius, Artemy Vladimirov and other clergy.
The Elitsa Charitable Foundation deserves special attention, as it helps to unite efforts not only in prayer, but also to demonstrate unity in acts of mercy. Its creation was a logical continuation of the development of charitable activities on the social network.
All over the world, network users raised funds and sent humanitarian aid to Syria, where food and medicine were delivered to children. Books and church utensils were given to Christian monasteries.
There is an active participation in the restoration of monasteries. Support is provided to large families and people with disabilities. Since the start of its activities, more than 5,000 people have placed their trust in the foundation, and, therefore, took part in various charitable events.
The fund receives requests from site users for help in various difficult situations. In almost every case, support is provided to one degree or another. The direction of the foundation's activities related to church charity and works of mercy (for example, prison ministry, etc.) is developed jointly with priests.
Another Elitsa-notes service was created at the request of social network users. He helps people in different, sometimes remote corners of our or another country to seek prayer help in holy places - churches, monasteries through ordering requests. According to its operating technology, this service is an aggregator or postal and courier service, which allows you to create a demand order on a single portal, often to several monasteries at once and send it to its destination.
The social network also has a service for collecting information about Orthodox shrines. That’s what it’s called – Orthodox Shrines. It contains information about 5 thousand holy places. It is filled with the strength of users. You can both add and search information using different filters. The description of each shrine contains a photo, history, text content, and geodata.
Site functions
Elitsa's social network can be called multifunctional. What functions are there?
- Communication.
As mentioned earlier, the site is perfect for communicating with like-minded people. Here you can talk not only with parishioners, but also with priests. More than a thousand priests, as well as metropolitans, bishops and archbishops, are registered this way. There is an official page of Patriarch Kirill.
Attention! Don't worry about fakes appearing. Each page of the clergyman is carefully checked.
There are communities of interest within the network. You can start covering the activities of schools, missionary ministries, and individual parishes.
- Spread of information.
Here you can find information about all operating churches in Russia. In addition, parishioners themselves often provide previously unknown data about their parishes. There is information about the foundations of the doctrine itself and its main canons.
Users of the social network can find Orthodox friends around the world
- Participation in projects.
Anyone can participate in a wide variety of programs. So there are 20 projects. The most famous is associated with video meetings with various clergy, for example, with Hieromonk Macarius. Elitsa's charitable foundation is also popular.
This is interesting! Thanks to this project, parishioners’ money was used to organize the sending of church utensils, as well as books, to individual parishes. There is also an organization of donations for humanitarian aid in Syria.
Purpose of creation
Elitsa was created by a private group that gathered to implement one single idea - to unite all Orthodox Christians around the world and all parishes.
Elitsy are engaged in the creation of various projects for communication between Christians
The project can be called a folk project, because it was carried out by ordinary parishioners. The team consists of 25 people.
