Basilica News Agency is the official online news service of the Romanian Patriarchate of the Christian Orthodox church. Basilica is part of the BASILICA Press Centre, the communication and public relations department of the Patriarchal Administration.

History

Basilica News Agency was founded on 27 October 2007 and was launched online in

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and English on 16 June 2008. The launch took place in Europa Christiana (

Christian Europe The terms Christendom or Christian world commonly refer to the global Christian community, Christian states, Christian-majority countries or countries in which Christianity is dominant or prevails.SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christen ...

) Hall of the Palace of the Patriarchate in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. The ceremony was opened with a

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

service officiated in the presence of

Patriarch Daniel of Romania Daniel (; born Dan Ilie Ciobotea on 22 July 1951) is the Patriarch of All Romania, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The elections took place on 12 September 2007. Daniel won with a majority of 95 votes out of 161 against Bartolomeu A ...

. “Christian mission means bringing Christ’s Spirit to the world, into every home, in every institution where we work, to every job, on every path we walk”, the Patriarch said. In 2010, the web interface was updated. In 2012, the website was rebuilt entirely and relaunched during the solemn session of the

Holy Synod In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox ...

of the Romanian Orthodox Church, held on 28 October 2012. In 2014, the website was updated again and launched on the feast day of the BASILICA Press Centre, on 27 October. The site currently operates on a

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

platform. The current website was launched on 26 March 2016.

Role

The Basilica News Agency presents the activities and attitudes of the

Romanian Orthodox Church The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the East ...

regarding current problems. News and information are presented in electronic form and contain details regarding church life from home and abroad: activities of the Romanian Patriarch, decisions of the

, activities undertaken by

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which m ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es, theological schools and ecclesiastical NGOs, dialogue between Church and society, inter-Orthodox cooperation, inter-confessional and inter-religious dialogues etc."Basilica News Agency..", p. 28;

Logo

The original logo of Basilica News Agency was the same as that of the Basilica Press Centre. This logo presented the

Patriarchal Cross The patriarchal cross is a variant of the Christian cross, the religious symbol of Christianity, and is also known as the Cross of Lorraine. Similar to the Latin cross, the patriarchal cross possesses a smaller crossbar placed above the main o ...

surrounded by five concentric circles with different colours (blue, yellow, ruby, emerald and blue

chalcedony Chalcedony ( or ) is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monoclinic ...

). These colours represented the five components of the Press Centre. Basilica News Agency was symbolised by emerald. In March 2016, a separate logo was created for the News Agency. The new logo contains the patriarchal cross surrounded by two red semicircles. The patriarchal cross symbolises the dynamics of the Church life in confessing the infinite love of the Most Holy Trinity. The two semicircles are symbols of balance, but at the same time bring in mind the idea of movement, of dynamism. The red colour recalls the

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

of Christ.

Opinions

* Patriarch Daniel called Basilica News Agency a "kaleidoscope of everyday ecclesial reality", "which has fulfilled its vocation to inform and form ecclesial thinking". * News.ro senior editor, Elvira Gheorghiță, about basilica.ro: "You have made genuine values prominent again, through professionalism and dedication". *Realitatea TV producer, George Grigoriu: "Basilica.ro is a useful and accurate source of information; a source of information that addresses the reason, but also nourishes the soul".Gheorghe Anghel - "Thoughts..." * Metropolitan Serafim of Germany: "The news website of the Church aims to faithfully reflect the truth that edifies people, strengthens their faith and encourages them to bear the everyday burdens".Deacon Ştefan Sfarghie (16 June 2015) - "7 years of basilica.ro" in Lumina Newspape
ziarullumina.ro
last accessed 5 September 2017; *Editor in chief Orthodoxie.com, Rev. Fr. Christophe Levalois: "The activity of the Basilica News Agency is an essential service for spreading Orthodoxy in the world today and for bearing an indispensable witness to its presence, activity and dynamics in the society".

References

External links

* {{Romanian Orthodox Church News agencies based in Romania Romanian Orthodox Church