Russian faithful flock to get ‘sacred texts’ on mobiles

Hundreds of faithful Orthodox Christians in Russia have signed up to a new service to receive “sacred texts” – short messages from the Bible sent to their mobile phones.

Nearly 3,000 subscribers have signed up for the service that sends excerpts from the Bible and other religious works, said Fr Iosaph Sorokin of Voskresenie (Resurrection), the Moscow-based Orthodox youth group that launched the service last month.

“This is an opportunity to remind people of eternal values,” he said, as new requests for subscriptions arrived on his mobile phone.

The project, dubbed the Kind Word, offers the text messages for free and can be signed up to by sending a message to the group.

“We would like the subscription to grow, especially in Siberia and the Far East,” said Fr Sorokin, adding that uplifting text messages could help residents of Russia’s remote regions in their daily lives.