Russian patriarch against electronic orthodox encyclopaedia

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has spoken out against spending money on an electronic version of the orthodox encyclopaedia series this week, saying it would be unprofitable.

The orthodox encyclopaedia was launched in 2000 to collect data about history and religion. Some 30 volumes have been published already and many more are still being compiled.

The idea of making an electronic version of the printed encyclopaedia has been proposed by the culture ministry, but the patriarch rejected the idea as unprofitable.

“If we switch to the digital version we will lose real income,” Kirill said during a meeting of the encyclopaedia’s supervisory board Thursday. The money from the print version is needed to finance next volumes of the project, he said.

The printed articles of the encyclopaedia are available online, Kirill added.

–IANS/RIA Novosti

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