The Church Herald (Tserkovny Vestnik) newspaper is the main official publication of the Russian Orthodox Church. Established in 1989 as The Moscow Church Herald, our newspaper is recognized as one of the best and qualitative Orthodox newspapers nationwide.

It is now distributed throughout Russia and all the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church. The printed version of the newspaper is generally 16 pages in size and published every two weeks. The current distribution is 30,000 copies per issue. This initiative is intended to make a wide range of news and information about what is happening in and around the Orthodox Church available to as many readers as possible.

We intend that The Church Herald should contain a chronicle of Orthodoxy in the XXI century. We report religious events and activities within Moscow, nationwide and around the world to increase the awareness and activism of believers regarding the Orthodox issues of today, to provide thought-provoking commentary. We cover a range of topics providing balanced and fair reporting of events and opinions across the whole range of Orthodox affairs. As you move through these pages we hope you'll be inspired by some of the articles about Orthodox education, Orthodox Church in the Army, Church history, theology, iconography, church singing, social issues, Church local studies and Orthodoxy worldwide.

We are also focused on covering the public activities of His Holiness Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. We report on his meetings and visits, and we publish his interviews and statements. We also write informative articles about monastic life in the modern world, churches and parishes, bishops and priests and people who can not imagine their lives disconnected from Orthodoxy. A variety of the Church topics are discussed and reviewed in our interviews, news reports, essays. Reviews of recently published Orthodox books, newspapers and magazines are being regularly offered to the readers as well. The issues are varied in content matter, but you will be assured of thoughtful and thought provoking articles, written by professional journalists and correspondents from throughout Russia. We have high quality and professional photos in every issue which gives a visual perspective for our articles. Besides that, we try to provide an effective advertising vehicle for Orthodox organizations, events and businesses, which want to reach the Orthodox marketplace. Our readers include clergy, Orthodox believers, students and people who are interested in Orthodoxy. We always welcome feedback on whether or not you find The Church Herald helpful, and suggestions for topics it might cover in future issues. We hope that the articles you read here will encourage you to find out more about the Orthodox Church. Our newspaper has individual subscribers, in addition to being sold in the churches of Moscow and other Russian cities.

Our web-pages are designed to introduce The Church Herald online. Here you can find the color version of our newspaper with pictures and the latest issue. It is updated twice in a month. We develop our web-page as the most cost effective way, we believe, to make it available to as many people as possible. This web edition of the newspaper follows the printed version's format for its sections: News, Feast days, Patriarch, Holy Synod, Orthodoxy in the world, Church and society, History and many others.

On the web-site a special section is devoted to Saint Serafim of Sarov as the celebration of his canonization was one of the main events for both Church and state of this year.

If you would like to subscribe to the printed version clik here. And whether you have a little knowledge or a more in depth knowledge of the Orthodox way of life, we hope that you will find something of interest in The Church Herald. Considering the little time that most people have nowadays, and due to the intense work schedule of many of our readers, our editions try to offer a summary of information with brief news that aim to what is essential in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church at present.