wfn.org | Romanian Adventists Inaugurated National Media Centre

["APD Schweiz/Switzerland" <APD@stanet.ch>]

December 02, 2005

Adventist Press Service (APD)

Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief

Fax +41-61-261 61 18

APD@stanet.ch

http://www.stanet.ch/APD

CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

 

 

Romanian Adventists: From a Bucharest Basement Studio to a National Media
Centre

 

Bucharest/Romania.     A small studio in a Bucharest basement was once the
scene for the Seventh-day Adventist Church's television production in
Romania. Today, a national media centre stands in this capital city with the
task of producing radio and television programs for the nation. On November
24, the media centre officially joined six other major church-owned media
centres around the world. 

 

"I come with joy to this place, and this centre is a way of bringing light
to the hearts of many people," Romanian Senator Virginia Vedinas told the
audience of nearly 100 official guests and staff at the event. Vedinas is an
attorney and religious liberty scholar who also teaches at the University of
Bucharest. 

 

"It's a thrilling day for me," said Adrian Bocaneanu, an Adventist pastor
and former president of the church in Romania, under whose vision the media
centre was developed. Bocaneanu and other Romanian Adventists pioneered a
nightly television talk show on life and spiritual matters that was produced
in a basement studio at the church headquarters. 

 

Other government officials in attendance included Romanian parliamentarians
Dan Liga and Ciuca Bogdan, Attila Gasparik, vice chairman of the Romanian
National Audio-Visual Council, and Stephen Ionita, who read a prepared
statement from the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Culture and
Religious Affairs. The statement mentioned that Adventist media would make a
strong contribution to religious freedom and diversity under the Romanian
constitution.

 

The facility covers an area of 2,500 square meters (approximately 25,000
square feet) and has a large television studio. On November 8, the centre
received a television license from the Romanian government to broadcast
throughout the country. It is expected the centre will produce more than 20
weekly radio programs and two hours of national television programming each
week, as well as programs for the Adventist-owned Hope Channel (Europe).
Thirty-eight private radio stations, are broadcasting Adventist programs to
listeners in Romania; some stations also broadcast programs for the
Hungarian minority in Transylvania. 

 

The new media centre, which united radio and television production under one
roof, "will add more to our efficiency, creativity and the output of more
programs," said Pastor Nelu Burcea, director of the centre. The first
transmissions from its own production and syndicated programs are to be
broadcast in the second half of 2006. 

 

Mark Finley, a general vice president of the Adventist world church, lauded
both the visionary leadership of Romanian Adventists as well as the
sacrificial giving of church members to make the centre possible. Pastor
Brad Thorp, director of the Adventist church's Hope Channel, said the
network was proud to have Romanian programming as part of its line-up. In a
congratulatory statement, Rajmund Dabrowski, Adventist world church
communication director, said through involvement in the media in Romania,
and elsewhere, Seventh-day Adventists "build bridges of hope and embrace
those looking for a better way of life, not giving into fear and despair,
but being part of a solution." 

 

There are 71,000 adult baptized members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
in Romania, and an estimated 100,000 Romanian Adventists in other nations
around the world. [Editors: John Banks and Christian B. Schaeffler for
ANN/APD]