The Romanian Orthodox Church, known as a bastion of conservatism, has broken a taboo by embracing the internet and tending to its flock via cyberspace.

Believers are now invited to send prayers via the Internet, seek their soulmate on Orthodox-only matrimonial websites and watch online the funerals of their loved ones.

Since the dynamic and comparatively young – at 59 – Patriarch Daniel became the shepherd of some 19 million Romanian Orthodox believers in 2007, God’s word has been increasingly delivered via sermons broadcast live.

The Church has even set up its own media group, Basilica, including a radio and a TV station, a news agency, a newspaper and a “pilgrimage agency”, Basilica Travel.

Scores of websites and blogs disseminating Orthodox teachings and facilitating exchanges among believers have also mushroomed, creating what analysts here are calling the internet Church.

A sociologist specialising in religions, Mirel Banica said that such websites may raise a few eyebrows but they answer a real need.

“People are busy, many Romanians live abroad and no longer have time to perform all the Orthodox rituals the way their parents used to,” he said.

Nearly three million people from this former communist state which joined the EU in 2007 have emigrated over the last few years, looking for better paid jobs in the West.

With Orthodox churches sometimes far away, “they resort to the Internet when it comes to commemorating their dead relatives, for instance”, said Mr Banica.

For the sociologist, “the development of the Orthodox blogosphere is religion’s answer to the challenges of modern times.”

One of the most widely visited such websites, www.crestinortodox.ro – which had a record 72,000 visitors on Christmas eve – invites believers to send prayer requests online.

“Romanians abroad will have their name read during religious services and get help in times of crisis,” the website reads.

But a list of fees – one €1 per prayer or €24 for a one-month subscription to be paid by credit card –has drawn scathing comments from some clergy and media.

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