Bishop Chrysostom of Bukoba and Western Tanzania of the Patriarchate of Alexandria called on the Russian Orthodox Church to “get out of Africa”. He believes that money will not help the Russians establish themselves on the continent.
This was reported by the Orthodoxia News Agency.
The bishop said that the leadership of the Moscow Church calls the Ecumenical Councils into question. They question the authority of the Church Fathers, denigrating them and claiming that Greek theologians distorted the Christian faith through Greek philosophy.
“With this audacity and arrogance, they call our Ecumenical Patriarchate into question and do not commemorate our Ecumenical Patriarch Varfolomey. With this audacity and arrogance, they call Patriarch Feodor of Alexandria into question and do not commemorate him. With this arrogance, they bless the armed invasion of Ukraine,” Chrysostom noted.
According to him, the Russians have arrogantly invaded Orthodox Africa armed with rubles.
“They have no doctrine, they do not engage in catechization, and they do not conduct missionary work. They merely hand out rubles. They buy consciences. They lure away priests and laypeople, seize churches and property. They tear Christians away from their Mother Church, Alexandria, through which they were reborn in baptism. They tear priests away from their Mother Church, Alexandria, from which they received their priestly orders. They exploit the poverty and ignorance of destitute Africans and steal them from the Mother Church that gave birth to and raised them,” the bishop stressed.
He believes that the Russians will not be able to build their power in Africa on rubles.
“You will not put down roots here. You will not steal the faith of our Christians with your dishonest money. Get out of Africa! You will achieve nothing!” the hierarch said.
As LF reported, the Russian Orthodox Church named the reason for and purpose of expanding its influence in African countries. It believes that “Africans are experiencing spiritual thirst and see in the Russian Orthodox Church a large, strong church in which they are interested”. This was stated by the Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, Metropolitan Konstantin of Cairo and North Africa.
It was previously reported that the Russian Orthodox Church had officially established its presence in Cameroon through the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa.
Recently, the Russian Orthodox Church received official registration in the Republic of Madagascar.
As LF reported, the Kremlin uses the Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument of influence in Africa and uses it to recruit local residents to participate in the war against Ukraine.
We previously reported that the African Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church lures Kenyans into the war in Ukraine. Young Kenyan citizens are offered the opportunity to travel to Russia for work or study, with the church undertaking to sponsor the trip.
It is known that the Russian Orthodox Church considers Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda key countries for developing its mission in Africa. This was reported by Metropolitan Konstantin of Cairo and North Africa (Ostrovsky).
We previously wrote about how Russia is “reformatting” Africa and the Global South.
