Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and of All Africa
Seal
Founder	The Apostle and Evangelist Mark
Independence	Apostolic Era
Recognition	Orthodox
Primate	Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II
Headquarters	Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt
Territory	Egypt, Nubia, Sudan, Pentapolis, Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and All Africa
Possessions	None
Language	Greek, Arabic, English, French and many African dialects
Adherents	~250,000 - 300,000 in Egypt+ ~1,200,000 Native Africans + 150,000 ex-patriates in the African Continent
Website	Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria (Official site)

The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, also known as the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa (Greek: Πατριαρχεῖον Ἀλεξανδρείας καὶ πάσης Ἀφρικῆς, Patriarcheîon Alexandreías kaì pásēs Aphrikês) is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the wider communion of Orthodox Christianity. Officially, it is called the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria to distinguish it from the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria. Members of the church were once known as Melkites, because they remained in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after the schism that followed the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

Head of the church

The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria head bishop is the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa. His full title is "His Most Divine Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of the Great City of Alexandria, Libya, Pentapolis, Ethiopia, all the land of Egypt, and all Africa, Father of Fathers, Shepherd of Shepherds, Prelate of Prelates, thirteenth of the Apostles, and Judge of the Œcumene". Like the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, he claims to have succeeded the Apostle Mark the Evangelist in the office of Bishop of Alexandria, who founded the Church in the 1st century, and therefore marked the beginning of Christianity in Africa. It is one of the five ancient patriarchates of the early church, called the Pentarchy.

History

Since the schism occurring as a result of the political and Christological controversies at the Council of Chalcedon (451), the portion of the Church of Alexandria loyal to Chalcedonian Christology has liturgically been Greek-speaking, the majority of its native (i.e., Coptic) population and their modern descendants becoming a part of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (i.e., non-Chalcedonian). After the Arab conquest of North Africa in the 7th century the Eastern Orthodox were a minority even among Christians, and remained small for centuries.

New growth

Diaspora growth in the 19th century

In the 19th century Orthodoxy in Africa began to grow again. One thing that changed this in the 19th century was the Orthodox diaspora. People from Greece, Syria and Lebanon, in particular, went to different parts of Africa, and some established Orthodox Churches. Many Greeks also settled in Alexandria from the 1840s and Orthodoxy began to flourish there again, and schools and printing presses were established.

For a while there was some confusion, especially outside Egypt. As happened in other places, Orthodox immigrants would establish an ethnic "community", which would try to provide a church, school, sporting and cultural associations. They would try to get a priest for the community in the place they had emigrated from, and there was some confusion about which bishops were responsible for these priests.

Eventually, in the 1920s it was agreed that all Orthodox churches in Africa would be under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, and so Africa has managed to avoid the jurisdictional confusion that has prevailed in places like America and Australia.

Mission growth in the 20th century

In Africa south of the Sahara most of the growth in Christianity began as a result of mission initiatives by Western Christians; Roman Catholic, Protestant and especially in the 20th century adherents to Western-origin Christian bodies that do not fit into this old dichotomy. These Western-initiated churches were, however, very often tied to Western culture. Some^[who?] African Christians became dissatisfied with this, and formed African-initiated churches, which often became more effective in mission and evangelism than the Western-initiated churches.

Some^[who?] leaders of African-initiated churches had read about Orthodoxy, but found it difficult to make contact with historic Orthodoxy in the parts of Africa where they lived. In the 1920s some of them made contact with the so-called African Orthodox Church in the USA (not a part of the canonical community of Eastern Orthodox Churches), notably Daniel William Alexander in South Africa, and Reuben Spartas in Uganda.

In the 1930s, Daniel William Alexander visited first Uganda, and later Kenya. Spartas, however, also made contact with Fr Nikodemos Sarikas, a missionary priest in Tanganyika, and through him made contact with the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria. In 1946 the African Orthodox groups in Kenya and Uganda were received into the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria.

In the 1950s, however, the Orthodox Church in Kenya suffered severe oppression at the hands of the British colonial authorities during the Mau Mau Uprising. Most of the clergy were put in concentration camps, and churches and schools were closed. Only the Cathedral in Nairobi (which had a largely Greek membership) remained open. Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus preached an anti-colonialist sermon at the cathedral on his way home from exile, and this led to friendship between him and the leader of the anti-colonial struggle in Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta.

After Kenya became independent in 1963 the situation eased, and the Church of Cyprus helped to get the Orthodox Church in Kenya back on its feet, building a seminary and sending missionary teachers.

The Church Today

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In recent years, a considerable missionary effort was enacted by Pope Petros VII. During his seven years as patriarch (1997–2004), he worked tirelessly to spread the Orthodox Christian faith in Arab nations and throughout Africa, raising up native clergy and encouraging the use of local languages in the liturgical life of the Church. Particularly sensitive to the nature of Christian expansion into Muslim countries, he worked to promote mutual understanding and respect between Orthodox Christians and Muslims. His efforts were ended as the result of a helicopter crash on September 11, 2004, in the Aegean Sea near Greece, killing him and several other clergy, including Bishop Nectarios of Madagascar, another bishop with a profound missionary vision.

Today, some 300,000 Greek Christians constitute the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt, the highest number since the Roman Empire. The current primate of the Greek Church of Alexandria is Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.

Administrative Structures and Hierarchy

Archdioceses (Metropolises)

• Holy Archdiocese of Accra with jurisdiction over Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Mali
• Holy Archdiocese of Alexandria in Egypt
• Holy Archdiocese of Axum in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, with jurisdiction over the Horn of Africa
• Holy Archdiocese of Cape Town with jurisdiction over Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland as well as the South African provinces of the Eastern, Northern, and Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Free State
• Holy Archdiocese of Carthage in Tunis with jurisdiction over Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia
• Holy Archdiocese of Harare with jurisdiction over Angola and Zimbabwe
• Holy Archdiocese of Hermopolis in Tanta with jurisdiction over the Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians of Egypt
• Holy Archdiocese of Irinoupolis in Dar es Salaam with jurisdiction over eastern Tanzania and the Seychelles
• Holy Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria with jurisdiction over northeastern South Africa
• Holy Archdiocese of Kampala with jurisdiction over Uganda
• Holy Archdiocese of Khartoum with jurisdiction over North Sudan and South Sudan
• Holy Archdiocese of Kinshasa with jurisdiction over the DRC
• Holy Archdiocese of Lagos with jurisdiction over Nigeria, Niger, Benin and Togo.
• Holy Archdiocese of Leontopolis in Ismailia with jurisdiction over northeastern Egypt
• Holy Archdiocese of Lusaka with jurisdiction over Malawi and Zambia
• Holy Archdiocese of Memphis in Heliopolis, Egypt
• Holy Archdiocese of Mwanza with jurisdiction over western Tanzania
• Holy Archdiocese of Nairobi with jurisdiction over Kenya
• Holy Archdiocese of Pelusium in Port Said, Egypt
• Holy Archdiocese of Ptolemais in Cairo with jurisdiction over Upper Egypt
• Holy Archdiocese of Tripoli with jurisdiction over Libya
• Holy Archdiocese of Yaounde with jurisdiction over Cameroon, the CAR, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe

Dioceses

• Holy Diocese of Antananarivo with jurisdiction over the Comoros, Madagascar, Maillot, Mauritius, and Réunion
• Holy Diocese of Brazzaville with jurisdiction over the Congo
• Holy Diocese of Bujumbura with jurisdiction over Burundi, the eastern DRC, and Rwanda
• Holy Diocese of Freetown with jurisdiction over Sierra Leone
• Holy Diocese of Gaborone with jurisdiction over Botswana
• Holy Diocese of Kolwezi with jurisdiction over Katanga^{[disambiguation needed ]} in the DRC
• Holy Diocese of Maputo with jurisdiction over Mozambique

Ruling Hierarchs

• Pope THEODORE II (Horeftakis) of Alexandria and All Africa
• Archbishop PAUL (Lyngris) of Memphis
• Archbishop DIONYSIUS (Hatzivasiliou) of Leontopolis
• Archbishop PETER (Giakoumelos) of Axum
• Archbishop CALLINICUS (Pippas) of Pelusium
• Metropolitan MACARIUS (Tylirides) of Nairobi
• Metropolitan JONAH of Kampala
• Metropolitan SERAPHIM (Iakovou) of Harare
• Metropolitan ALEXANDER (Gianniris) of Lagos
• Metropolitan THEOPHYLACTUS (Tzoumerkas) of Tripoli
• Metropolitan SERGIUS of Cape Town
• Metropolitan ATHANASIUS of Cyrene (in Moscow)
• Metropolitan ALEXIS (Leontaritis) of Carthage
• Metropolitan JEROME of Mwanza
• Metropolitan PROTERIUS (Pavlopoulos) of Ptolemais
• Metropolitan GEORGE (Vladimirou) of Accra
• Metropolitan NICHOLAS of Hermopolis
• Metropolitan DEMETRIUS (Zaharengas) of Irinoupolis
• Metropolitan JOACHIM (Kontovas) of Lusaka
• Metropolitan DAMASCENE (Papandreou) of Johannesburg and Pretoria
• Metropolitan EMMANUEL (Kiagias) of Khartoum
• Metropolitan GREGORY (Stergiou) of Yaounde
• Metropolitan NICEPHORUS (Mikragiannanitis) of Kinshasa
• Bishop IGNATIUS (Stavronikitis) of Antananarivo
• Bishop MELETIUS (Kamiloudes) of Kolwezi
• Bishop GENNADIUS of Gaborone
• Bishop SABBAS (Heimonettos) of Bujumbura
• Bishop JOHN (Tsaftarides) of Maputo

Auxiliary Bishops

• Bishop GABRIEL of Mareotis (serving in Alexandria)
• Bishop SPYRIDON of Canopus (serving St. Sabbas' Monastery in Alexandria)
• Bishop NICODEMUS of Nitria (serving in Cairo)
• Bishop NIPHON of Babylon (serving St. George's Monastery in Old Cairo)

Titular and Retired Hierarchs

• Metropolitan PHILEMON of Kavason (titular)
• Metropolitan JOACHIM of Tamiathis (titular)
• Metropolitan PORPHYRIUS of the Thebaid (titular)
• Metropolitan CYRIL of Naucratis (titular)
• Metropolitan THEODORE of Heliopolis (titular)
• Metropolitan PANTELEIMON of Antinoe (retired)
• Metropolitan IGNATIUS of Kinshasa (retired)
• Metropolitan HIEROTHEUS of Eleusina (retired)
• Metropolitan PETER of Nicopolis (retired)

See also

• List of Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Alexandria
• Greek Orthodox Church
• Greeks in Egypt

Bibliography

• Hayes, Stephen (November 1996). "Orthodox mission in tropical Africa". Missionalia 24 (3): 383–398. http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/orthmiss.htm. 

External Links

• The Patriarchate of Alexandria (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Antananarivo (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Harare (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Irinoupolis (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Lagos (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Mwanza (Official Site)
• Archdiocese of Yaounde (Official Site)
• Website of the Arabic-speaking Alexandrian Orthodox Christians of Egypt
• Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa
• CNEWA Profile of the Alexandrian Orthodox Church by Ronald Roberson