The Russian Orthodox Church in Africa – For Political or Ecclesial Reasons?

Abstract

Since 1921, the See of Saint Mark has been the sole canonical Eastern Orthodox Church serving the African continent. Alexandria allows presbyters from other Orthodox jurisdictions to serve immigrants of their nations, but under local Alexandrian jurisdictions. This practice of not having other Orthodox jurisdictional dioceses or bishops in Africa has helped eliminate the so-called ‘diaspora problem’ ( Holy and Great Council 2016 ) in Africa. That was until December 2021, when the Patriarchate of Moscow created two dioceses in Africa, after Alexandria supported the 2019 autocephaly of Ukraine awarded by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Was this invasion done for ecclesiastical reasons or state politics? What caused Alexandrian clerics to leave their mother Church? Did the Moscow–Ukrainian war, schism and autocephaly cause this? Using textual and oral evidence, this study unveils the Russian state using their inherent religious-state model as the reason for Moscow's invasion of Alexandria, and the Alexandrian clerics having joined Moscow because of administrative challenges of their dioceses, long before the Ukrainian autocephaly and war.