As nowadays evil people use
press to disseminate false study and to distort the moral, consider it
to be your obligation to use the same media. Those use them with a
mischievous purpose, in order to incite, but you use them properly in
order to build ... and to defend faith ... with fortitude.
Holy Father Leo XIII.
Letter to the Archbishop from Lima and to Bishops from Peru, 1894.
Influence of journalists is
greater than that of priests or scholars. They ruin the whole worlds of
thoughts and build up new ones... The press ... can bring up saints, as
well as criminals; it can successfully defend religion and morality,
but it cal also disparage and decrease in value the most sacred deals.
Bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Hryhoriy Khomyshyn.
Message to the clergy of the Eparchy of Stanislav
“The press as a very important weapon of the present”, 1913.
Following the long period of prevalence and propagation of the atheistic viewpoint, the religious and informational programs of Voskresinnya Radio went on the air in 1989. The editorial office was created under blessing of the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and formed in the capital of Belgium, Brussels, within the structure of the Ñatholik Radio and Television Network. The first radio program was broadcasted on the 19th of November. The editorial office was managed by Greek Catholic priest Fr. Andriy Onuferko.
No doubt, Voskresinnya Radio evoked a great interest in the society, as the fact itself of these radio programs broadcasted strengthened hope in people’s hearts and served as an evidence of the beginning of a new era, and a new life.
1990 – Sunday programs of Voskresinnya Radio were broadcasted from the radio station in Monte Carlo, and since the 27th of October 1991 the Lviv Radio Network has been broadcasting the Sunday programs which were still prepared in Brussels.
For a long time Voskresinnya Radio programs had been the only source of the Christian word on Ukrainian air. With time the editorial office in Lviv has been formed, and since May 1992 it has been preparing programs independently. Since early July programs have been broadcasted daily. Fr. Mykhaylo Dymyd takes over the management of the Lviv editorial office.
1993. From the 5th of April daily religious and culturological programs of Voskresinnya Radio have been broadcasted by the Radio Ukraine World Service, as well as the Third Program of Ukrainian Radio. On 10th of July the presentation of Voskresinnya Radio was held in the Lviv Opera House.
1994. Voskresinnya Radio offered an initiative to create an Agency of Religious Information (ARI). The newsletter is distributed not only within Ukraine, but also finds its readers in many countries across the world. The ARI became an authoritative source of religious information for many newspapers both in Ukraine and abroad. The authoritative information agencies like the Catholic News Service (CNS) and APIC use the news of Voskresinnya Radio. In Ukraine the Agency of Religious Information of Voskresinnya Radio has been the only structure dealing with collection, processing and dissemination of news about all denominations acting in Ukraine (the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autonomous Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and Protestant Churches). A huge volume of materials collected for all these years allowed the editors to conduct analytical researches of the Churches' development, to forecast and comment the church events.
1995 – The 1000th radio transmission was broadcasted on the 29th of March. Programs consisted of three parts, including a block of religious news, a topical article, and a thematic cycle on any issue related to history of the Church, spiritual life of a Christian, relationship of the Church and science, and many other issues. In its work Voskresinnya Radio follows the principles of beyond-denominational character and ecumenism.
1996 – On the 10th of June the First Channel of the National Radio commenced broadcasting of special news of Voskresinnya Radio.
Extension of both listeners and readers audience raised the degree of responsibility of Voskresinnya Radio team in terms of satisfaction of Ukrainian community spiritual needs. There appears a need in conducting ecumenical dialogues and direct provision of possibilities to speak for representatives of different denominations. So, in addition to preaching the Gospel, the team of Voskresinnya Radio promotes better understanding between different denominations in Ukraine based on truth and love. Various feedback is an evidence of this, in particular, editor-in-chief of Narodna Hazeta, writer Anatoliy Shevchenko wrote: “At the time when we, Ukrainians, now and in other usually dramatic times lack and lacked unity and understanding, Voskresinnya Radio aims its activity at spiritual unification of their audience – ecumenical, national, and spiritual. Whereas this is a Christian viewpoint that promotes unification, which determines future for the state, and the nation, hopefully, finally happy and free, full of its own dignity.”
Journalists of Voskresinnya Radio feel the importance of both content and form of material presentation. Broadcasts comprise all types of journalistic genres: information and polemic notes, comments, reviews of letters, press reviews, reporting, interviews, reports from conferences, articles, and discussions. Significant attention is paid to purity of the Ukrainian language and peculiarities of the radio speech. “On our air, which is now steadily russified by numerous commercial radio stations, programs of Voskresinnya Radio are distinguished with not only a perfect Ukrainian language, but also a passion for the fate of national culture, literature, music, and more widely – national future with its speech, culture, history, and of course, the Church,” – comment on programs by Serhiy Hrechanyuk, writer, editor-in-chief of journals Dyvoslovo and The Lesson of Ukrainian. Vitaliy Rozstalnyy, national artist of Ukraine, thinks: “A spoken word sounds on air for the time it is pronounced, but for this moment it manages to reach thousands and thousands of people, radio audience, and evoke in their consciousness not only thoughts, but also intonations, those that are unforgettable. In their best programs, presenters and participants of Voskresinnya Radio programs manage to find such a word.”
1997 began with a change of leadership. Father Mykhaylo Dymyd who was appointed Rector of the Lviv Theological Academy was succeeded as Director of Voskresinnya Radio by Myroslav Pavlyuk, a journalist, who has been working in the editorial team for six years already, having broadcasted over 1000 radio programs as an editor and presenter.
The same year the editorial office of Voskresinnya Radio moved into the new premises in Ozarkevycha Street, ceremonially sanctified by Bishop Auxiliary to the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) Lubomyr Huzar on the 28th of August.
The correspondent’s unit was launched hastily in Kyiv, and the jubilee 2000th transmission of Voskresinnya Radio was broadcasted as soon as the 30th of October.
The editorial office was preparing for the responsible period of legal and staffing reorganization. As before, programs were broadcasted daily.
1999. On the 14th of October, the festival of the Protection of the Holy Virgin, the newsletter of the Archeparchy of Lviv of the UGCC Meta was brought back to life at the base of the editorial office of Voskresinnya Radio. Till 2003 radio journalists had been working on Meta publications on their own, free of charge. These issues of the newspaper are available on our website.
1999 – the editorial office of Voskresinnya Radio celebrated their jubilee – the 10th anniversary from the establishment date.
Since 1 June 2000 Voskresinnya Radio has changed a format of broadcasting with programs on air three times a day on waves of the All-Ukrainian network Dovira-Niko-FM. The jubilee 3000th transmission of Voskresinnya Radio was broadcasted on the 23rd of March 2001.
Later the network Dovira-Niko-FM split into two parts, and Voskresinnya Radio remained with Dovira, having joined to the transmission unit of Svoboda Radio.
During a change in the management of the National Radio Company of Ukraine in 2001 the Church had lost for some time air on UR-1. Programs continued to be broadcasted, apart from Dovira network, also by the Lviv Oblast Radio and a couple of local radio stations (the Sumy Oblast Radio, Dzvony Radio in Ivano-Frankivsk, and Caritas-Edehem Radio in Chervonohrad).
However since December 2002 Voskresinnya Radio has been again on air of the First Channel of National Radio. The daily audience varies from two to four millions of listeners (according to the data of the First Channel of National Radio).
Since the 1st of August 2002 the internet version of Voskresinnya Radio programs has been functioning, available at our website (www.rr.lviv.ua). Wave files with radio programs in digital versions mp3 and ogg are updated daily on the website of Voskresinnya Radio. This provides a possibility to listen to them for users of various computer formats, and practically in any place of the world. One of the advantages of the radio program’s digital version is a possibility to listen to a program both on the day of broadcasting, and for the last few weeks. At present access to radio programs for almost a month is available. In addition, a full program of transmissions is placed, stored in the website archives for a year.
Apart from direct Voskresinnya Radio programs broadcasted on All-Ukrainian air, the website also makes available the following new audio rubrics: since November 2003 a new chapter has been acting – “Events. Facts. Comments”, where the most recent interviews, reports, and other audio materials are placed. Since December 2003 a new rubric “Musical premieres” has been working, where text materials, audio presentations and digital audio versions of novelties in spiritual music are placed.
The website also contains the archives of the ARI in a PDF format, i.e. a reader can view the newsletter of the Agency of Religious Information in a ready, layout view with colour illustrations. (Printing version of the ARI is black and white).
News on life of religious communities, press releases, articles, and photo illustrations are placed as they arrive.
The new rubric “Photo Report” offers series of thematic photo illustrations about the course of important events in life of the Church and the society. This chapter provides an opportunity to efficiently submit photo information, straight after the event.
In June 2004 a new rubric was launched on the website – “Radio Visiting…” with detailed photo stories about thematic trips of Voskresinnya Radio journalists.
The website also contains the rubric “Art Photo Gallery”. It offers reproductions of artists’ works, working in sacral fine and applied arts.
The website of Voskresinnya Radio develops and becomes more accessible and more efficient – this is one of the priority tasks.
Today Voskresinnya Radio presents a Christian radio voice among many and retains the top rank what concerns topics of various radio materials. Programs are intended for listeners of different age and social groups, representatives of different denominations and community groups. These are reports and interviews about outstanding events in Ukrainian Churches, radio sermons by priests and speeches by bishops of different denominations, descriptions about Byzantine and Latin rites, radio versions of modern theological works, acquaintance with the liturgical year, stories about iconographic art, sacral architecture, and church singing and music. Among editorial works of Voskresinnya Radio are also recitations of popular and classical Christian literature, precepts, stories and children’s tales by Ukrainian and foreign Christian authors with world-known names.
The editors of Voskresinnya Radio gave sound life to highly artistic literary works, including book “Human Son” by Russian Orthodox priest Oleksandr Men, novel “Nicodimus’ Letters” by Polish writer Iwan Dobraczinski, thoughts “Believing in Sole God” by theologist and scholar, of blessed memory Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Myroslav Ivan Lyubachivsky, book of interviews with John Paul II “Crossing the Hope Threshold” by journalist Vittorio Messori, and others.
Journalists and authors of Voskresinnya Radio in their programs conduct various surveys and researches, for instance, a historical survey entitled “Palestine in time of Jesus Christ”, testimony of faith of repressed priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, materials about life and activities of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, and articles on religious motives in creative works of Ukrainian writers and poets, etc.
Literary programs also yield large feedback from the audience. The programs integrally comprise poems by Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrayinka, Yevhen Malanyuk, Todos Osmachka, and our contemporaries-poets. Artistic works by Ukrainian and foreign writers are concordant with commandments of Christian moral, they convey the idea of a search for and consolidation in the Truth, depict a spiritual world of an individual, though full of controversies but on his/her way to the Church.
Journalists of Voskresinnya Radio take active part in life of the Ukrainian mass media, the evidence of this being numerous awards for participation in various competitions and events:
- Diploma of the participant of TV & Radio Club’99 supported by magazine “TV Radio Courier” in development of the informational partnership on the TV and radio market of Ukraine.
- Memorable Diploma for the participation in the Fifth Kyiv International TV and Radio Fair (4-7 May 1999).
- Silver diploma for the participation in the competition “Gold George - 2000” in the nomination “Informational Program”.
- Honourable Letter from the organization committee of the Third All-Ukrainian Competition of Regional TV and Radio Organizations’ Programs “Sole Ukraine” – in the nomination of a competition debutant.
- Diploma of the Third All-Ukrainian Competition of Programs “Sole Ukraine” in the nomination “An Interesting Person” (radio program “In Flames of Artistic Love”. September 2001, Odessa)
- Diploma of the Fourth All-Ukrainian Competition of Programs “Sole Ukraine” in the nomination “The World of Childhood” (radio program “God Angel, My Guardian”. September 2002, Odessa)
