On 7 February 2012, “Lumina” newspaper, daily publication of the Romanian Patriarchate, celebrates seven years of uninterrupted appearance, seven years of Orthodox mission. The anniversary moment was marked in Europa Christiana room of the Patriarchate Palace in the presence of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Also present at the event were His Grace Timotei, Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Spain and Portugal, His Grace Ciprian Campineanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, members of the Standing meeting of the Church National Council and of the Eparchial Council of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, the members of editorial office of “Lumina” newspaper and their colleagues from the other branches of Basilica Press Centre.

Patriarchal Counsellor Nicolae Dascalu, director of “Lumina” publications, spoke about their role in the Romanian media: “During these seven years that “Lumina” newspaper has operated, it tried to be faithful to the role assumed ever since the beginning, namely to inform about the events, about what was going on at all the religious, central, eparchial, parochial and local level. The newspaper has also had an educational mission, of spiritual cohesion, designed to keep the unity of faith and of the church life through its specific means, a mission that contributes to the general mission of the Church. One more mission during these years was the promotion of the Romanian spirituality in the culture and mass-media today. We see rather often that the Romanian language is forgotten, neglected, just like the Romanian traditional culture. This is why “Lumina” newspaper appealed many times to these sources of Romanian Christian spirituality in order to show the contemporary generation genuine models of Christian living in the universe of the social life in permanent changing.

People and Places in the History of the Oltenian Church

The book entitled People and Places in the History of the Oltenian Church by rev. deacon Ionita Apostolache has also been launched today. The book presents a collection of journalistic texts (articles, interviews, reportages) published in the course of time in Lumina Newspaper, Oltenia edition.

“It is a work made up of many interviews, reportages and documentaries published in “Lumina” newspaper, with summaries in the English language. It was done in almost three years of collaboration with “Lumina” newspaper till the moment of publication”, declared rev. Deacon Ionita Apostolache for Trinitas Television.

The materials published in the book “People and Places in the History of the Oltenian Church” present, besides theological themes, aspects related to history, literature, poetry, music, and economy.

Photograph Gallery of the Romanian Orthodoxy

On the occasion of this festive moment the site entitled Photograph Gallery of the Romanian Orthodoxy was also launched. At present, the site displays 2012 photographs (photographic materials coming from the National Central Historical Archives, especially from the Photograph Gallery, as well as from the archives of the National Council for Studying the Security Archives, from private collections and various history works), most of them dating from the first half of the 20th century, showing servant priests, professors, monks, places of worship and monastic settlements, some of them disappeared or renovated, various events in the Romanian religious life from the country and abroad marked by the political changes, or the inter-Orthodox and inter-confessional relations – according to fototecaortodoxiei.ziarullumina.ro.

On this occasion, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel showed that the images of the new site are both old and important: “These photographs are very precious because they also show us the ages of certain persons, the various spiritual ages which also express the physical ages of man. It is also very important to see various persons whom we met in our life time in a different context. The older these photographs the more attractive they are, because they help us imagine how Bucharest was long time ago or how certain monasteries looked like and what changes were made from the time the photographs were taken and nowadays. Some of them were transfigured and others disfigured, which thing can be an important theme of existential meditation on our passing in a lifetime among people and in front of God”.

The project “Photographs of the Romanian Orthodoxy”, the only one of this type of an Orthodox Church, has had the blessing of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, ever since October 2010, when it was initiated and developed by Adrian Nicolae Petcu, researcher and collaborator of “Lumina” publications. The project has also benefited of the substantial contribution of Rev. Nicolae Dascalu, Patriarchal Counsellor and director of “Lumina” publications, of Ionut Constantin Petcu, student of “Patriarch Justinian” Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Bucharest and of Oana Hulpoi, who developed the informatics platform, edited and uploaded the photographs.

To end with the event, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a speech for those present emphasising the fact that “Lumina” newspaper accomplishes, with the means typical for the written press and through the online edition too, its vocation of living chronicle of the Romanian Orthodox spirituality in the cultural and social-economical context at the beginning of this millennium.