A Brief Comparative Study between the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church regarding (Online) Religious Worship during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The reviewed article fills the research gap in the area of research on (online) religious worship during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author correctly uses the methodology, sets research goals and consistently implements them. The conceptual grid used is impeccable. The research sample is representative. I have no objections to the presented conclusions and their interpretation. I recommend the text for publication. Below, however, I include a few comments/suggestions that are worth considering and implementing.

Some notes for discussion:

1) why does the author of the text compare the Romanian Orthodox Church with the neo-Protestant milieu, especially the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Isn't it closer to the Roman Catholic Church? In part, the author explains this on page 2: Romanian Orthodox Church has a strong tradition and lots of visual sumptuous religious rituals. On the other hand, Romanian Seventh Day Adventist Church does ‘not have any sacramental theology or clerics practicing liturgical rituals. it is worth referring to the publication: 

Sava, V. (2013). The liturgical language in the Romanian Orthodox Church: A historical, theological and cultural perspective. Analele Ştiinţifice ale Universităţii» Alexandru Ioan Cuza «din Iaşi. Teologie Ortodoxă, (2), 145-162.

2) In the introduction, I suggest supplementing, even with only 2-3 sentences, that the analyzed institutional churches referred to the COVID-19 pandemic. What exactly did they tell their faithful? Have the faithful been dispensed? This is admittedly further in the article, but it would be good to put it at the beginning of the text (in the introduction) that the churches had to adapt to legal standards imposed by the government/state for sanitary reasons. At least that's my intuition...

3) In section 3 of "Relevant research and literature on religious communities attempting to mediate presence and distance during the COVID-19 pandemic" on pages 3-4, I think it is worth mentioning that important international research has already been conducted in this area and published in the journal Church, Communication and Culture, Volume 7, Issue 1 (2022), which is open access. The authors (T. Roncakova, R. Lesniczak, M.J. Pou-Amerigo) conducted their own research on the perception of the activities of Christian churches and religious bodies in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic in the foreign press. They proved the positive perception of religious leaders by referring to e.g. to the frames and topoi methodology. For example, Roncakova analyzes the neighboring Czech Republic and Slovakia, or Lesniczak - the English-language and German-language press. It may be worth mentioning that such publications already exist? The more that issues not only of a media science nature, but also of a legal nature were taken up there.

Cf. 

Rončáková, T. (2022). The image of Christian churches in the Slovak and Czech media during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Church, Communication and Culture, 7(1), 127-153.

Rončáková, T. (2021). Closed Churches during the Pandemic: Liberal versus Conservative and Christian versus Atheist Argumentation in Media. Journalism and Media, 2(2), 225-243.

Leśniczak, R. (2022). News coverage of Christian churches and other religious bodies dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic: An analysis of newspapers in German and English. Church, Communication and Culture, 7(1), 175-195.

4) In the introductory chapter or chapter three (or maybe in the end as a postulate for further analysis?), it is worth adding that problems with understanding and using the sacred in the media are also noticeable outside the pandemic, for example in the matter of religious advertising or the relationship between the profane and the sacred in the era of globalization. It is worth recalling the research works of Krzysztof Stępniak, a Polish media expert dealing with religious advertising, as well as Damian Guzek and Rafał Leśniczak, dealing with the mediatization of religion.

Cf.

Stępniak, K. (2020). Advertising in communication of the Catholic Church. The case of Poland. Central European Journal of Communication, 13(27), 409-425.

Stępniak, K. (2014). Religious advertising. Warszawskie Studia Pastoralne, 9(3), 435-454.

Guzek, D. (2021). Mediatization Cartography: Two Questions about Mediatization of Religion in Central and Eastern Europe. Mediatization Studies, (5), 9-18.

Leśniczak, R. (2023). Hate speech from the perspective of the mediatization of religion in the post-secular age. A few remarks for discussion. methaodos. revista de ciencias sociales, 11(1), 3.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is an important topic and a relevant study. It fits well within the aims of this journal. Overall this is an interesting study with interesting insights and potential relevance for the field and literature. However, there are a series of revisions needed to improve its quality:

1. More details and clarity are needed in the method section. On one hand, the author says a quasi-experimental approach was taken - it is not very clear how as then there is no information about measures, variables, causal or other statistics ran, etc. Moreover, from the information presented it seems the questionnaire was mainly open-ended implying a more qualitative approach. Then maybe the analysis should also follow the same path? Either way, a lot more details are needed to show the appropriateness of the method and data analysis, and if quantitative validity, reliability, etc. If more qualitative then the appropriate details for that - of for a mix. Then of course results might end up being updated as well. 

2. The author should pay attention to quality (besides some minor English improvements) - some citations sometimes use first names other times last names - e.g. Lorea and Carola... It takes away from the overall credibility of the study which again is a shame since there is a lot of potential and some of the results are insightful!

3. It gets confusing in the discussion in terms of some of the comparisons to Orthodox situations - especially since the survey was not on any Orthodox churchgoers or priests. There needs to be an explanation and connection to that done earlier in the paper. 

Overall that's ok - some minor edits could be useful.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

I found the study intriguing and insightful, especially given the dynamic nature of the two groups studied. Personally, I would have not thought to compare the practices of the SDA church and an Orthodox tradition. However, in doing so, it shows the need to expand the way ministry and worship are understood, especially as it relates to the digital frontier.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf