Message of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel at the Seventh Anniversary of „Lumina” Newspaper, Tuesday, 7 February 2012:

The anniversary of seven years since the publication of the first issue of “Lumina” newspaper is an occasion of thanksgiving God and of enjoying the deeds of light in the life of the Church mentioned day by day in the pages of the daily publication of the Romanian Patriarchate.

“Lumina” newspaper was born as a natural need of our Church to have her own daily newspaper, besides the audio-visual means of communication, as a continuation of the ancient tradition of the epistles and chronicles, as well as of the church periodicals of the last century. The coincidence of the publication of the first issue of the newspaper edited 7 years ago in Iasi, on 7 February 2005, with the anniversary of 90 of life of the worthy remembering Patriarch Teoctist was not at all accidental. It was a homage initiative of the Metropolitanate of Moldova and Bucovina for the Patriarch of Romania born in the region of Botosani, in Moldova. Having had our blessing as Metropolitan of Iasi, the initiative of the Orthodox missionary laic of Iasi turned out to be beneficial not only at local level, but also for the dynamics of the general activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church especially in her dialogue with the contemporary society.

Today, this participatory reflection of the activity of all the ecclesiastic staff has become a permanent practice manifested through the cooperation between the National Edition of Lumina newspaper and the regional editions (of Moldova, Transylvania, Oltenia and Banat) in order to publicise the church life and promote the ecclesiastic communion through words and deeds. Part of BASILICA Press Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate, Lumina newspaper fulfils, with the means of the written press, as well as through the online edition, its vocation of living chronic of the Romanian Orthodox spirituality in the cultural and social-economical context at the beginning of this millennium. Today we have reached “seven steps of light” which gathered in the printed pages of the daily edition events and spiritual advice, reportages, interviews, memorials of the history of the Church and many news on joy and suffering, on achievements and failures, on deeds of light, as well as on the challenges and temptations of the present time.

While thanking God and the eparchies who supported its activity during these seven years, Lumina newspaper also considers its new responsibility to convey to the readers, in a concise and creative manner, the spiritual, cultural-educational and philanthropic content of the church life, in the conditions of the challenges of the economical crisis and of the fast special evolution in today’s world. We congratulate all the journalists, writers, printers, benefactors and readers of Lumina newspaper, also praying the Most Holy Trinity to give them the joy to be witnesses and announcers of the light of Christ in the world for the joy and salvation of the humans.

+Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church