Church of Alexandria
The Church of Alexandria is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches. Its primate is the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, the successor to the Apostle Mark the Evangelist, who founded the Church of Alexandria in the 1st century. It is one of the five ancient patriarchates of the early Church, called the Pentarchy.
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa | |
| Founder(s) | Apostle Mark |
| Autocephaly/Autonomy declared | Traditional |
| Autocephaly/Autonomy recognized | Traditional |
| Current primate | Pope Theodoros II |
| Headquarters | Alexandria, Egypt |
| Primary territory | Egypt and Africa |
| Possessions abroad | ? |
| Liturgical language(s) | Greek, Swahili, English, local languages |
| Musical tradition | Byzantine Chant |
| Calendar | Revised Julian |
| Population estimate | 250,000 |
| Official website | Church of Alexandria |
Contents
History
When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt about 332-331 BC he established the city of Alexandria, named after him, from which his Greek-speaking successors, the Ptolemy dynasty, ruled Egypt. Alexandria also had many Greek-speaking Jewish inhabitants, and it was here that the Old Testament scriptures were translated into Greek, the Septuagint version. During the first century BC the city, and Egypt generally passed under Roman rule.
St Mark, a disciple of St Peter evangelised Egypt in the middle of the first century. He probably arrived about AD 40, and met a martyr's death around AD 63. Little is known of the early history of the Church in Alexandria and Egypt, beyond a bare list of names of bishops. By the end of the second century, however, the church had begun to spread among the indigenous population, and the Scriptures and Liturgical texts were being translated into local languages.
Since the schism occurring as a result of the political and Christological controversies at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.), 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 descendents becoming a part of the Coptic Orthodox Church (i.e., non-Chalcedonian).
The Church today
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. Missions spread and thrived in Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Cameroon, and elsewhere across the African continent.
Particularly sensitive to the nature of Christian expansion into Muslim countries, His Beatitude 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 Nektarios of Madagascar, another bishop with a profound missionary vision.
Today, some 300,000 Orthodox Christians comprise the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the highest number since the Roman Empire. The current primate of the Church of Alexandria is His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.
The Episcopacy
The Holy Synod
- His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa
- His Eminence Makarios (Tillyrides), Archbishop of Nairobi and All Kenya
- His Eminence Jonah (Lwanga), Archbishop of Kampala and All Uganda
- His Eminence Seraphim (Kykkotis), Archbishop of Zimbabwe and Angola and Southern Africa
- His Eminence Alexander (Gianniris), Archbishop of Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea
- His Eminence Theophylaktos (Tzoumerkas), Archbishop of Tripoli and All Lybia
- His Eminence Sergios (Kykkotis), Archbishop of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal and Dependencies
- His Eminence Ieronymos (Muzeeyi), Archbishop of Mwanza and Western Tanzania
- His Eminence George (Vladimirou), Archbishop of Guinea and the African Coast
- His Eminence Nicholas II (Antoniou), Archbishop of Hermopolis and Egypt Primum
- His Eminence Dimitrios (Zaharengas), Archbishop of Irinoupolis and Eastern Tanzania and Seychelles
- His Eminence Damaskinos (Papandreou), Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria and South Africa
- His Eminence Ignatios (Sennis), Archbishop of Antananarivo and Northern Madagascar and Indian Islands
- His Eminence Emmanuel (Kiagias), Archbishop of Ptolemais and Upper Egypt
- His Eminence Gregory (Stergiou), Archbishop of Cameroon and Central Africa
- His Eminence Gabriel (Raftopoulos), Archbishop of Leontopolis and Augustamnica Secunda and the Red Sea
- His Eminence Nikodemos II (Priangelos), Archbishop of Memphis and All Egypt
- His Eminence Meletios (Kamiloudes), Archbishop of Katanga and Mainland Africa
- His Eminence Gennadios (Stantzios), Archbishop of Botswana and All the Kalahari
- His Eminence Savvas (Heimonetos), Archbishop of Nubia and Sudan and Eritrea
- His Eminence Ioannis (Tsaftaridis), Archbishop of Zambia and Middle Africa
- His Eminence Nikiforos (Mikragiannanitis), Archbishop of Kinshasa and Central Africa
- His Eminence Panteleimon (Arathymos), Archbishop of Brazzaville and Gabon and Atlantic Africa
- His Eminence Innocent (Byakatonda), Archbishop of Burundi and Rwanda and Inner Africa
- His Eminence Meletios (Koumanis), Archbishop of Carthage and North Africa
- His Eminence Daniel (Biazis), Archbishop of Aksum and All Ethiopia
- His Eminence Theodosios (Tsitsivos), Archbishop of Kananga and Equatorial Africa
- His Eminence Petros II (Parginos), Archbishop of Accra and West Africa
Auxiliary Archbishops
- His Eminence Athanasios (Kykkotis), Archbishop of Cyrene and the Libyan Sea
- His Eminence Theodoros (Dimitriou), Archbishop of Heliopolis and Middle Egypt
- His Eminence Narcissus (Gamo), Archbishop of Naucratis and the Egyptian Nile
Diocesan Bishops
- His Grace Chrysotomos (Karagounis), Bishop of Mozambique
- His Grace Neophytos (Kongai), Bishop of Nyeri and Mount Kenya
- His Grace Agathonikos (Nikolaidis), Bishop of Arusha and Central Tanzania
- His Grace Sylvestros (Kisitu), Bishop of Gulu and Eastern Uganda
- His Grace Photios (Hatziantoniou), Bishop of Malawi
- His Grace Prodromos (Katsoulis), Bishop of Toliara and Southern Madagascar
- His Grace Markos (Theodosis), Bishop of Kisumu and Western Kenya
Titular Archbishops
- His Excellency Porphyrios (Skikos), Archbishop of Thebes
Titular Bishops
- His Grace Nicholas (Boulaxis), Bishop of Nitria
- His Grace Theodoros (Didrakis), Bishop of Babylonia
- His Grace Germanos (Galanis), Bishop of Damietta
Retired Bishops
- His Eminence Panteleimon (Lampadarios), Archbishop of Antinoe
- His Eminence Proterios (Pavlopoulos), Archbishop of Diospolis
- His Grace Vasilios (Varvelis), Bishop of Arsinoe
Holy Archdioceses and Bishoprics
| Archdiocese | Established | See | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archdiocese of Carthage | 1st c. | Tunis | Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Western Sahara |
| Archdiocese of Memphis | 4th c. | Cairo | Egypt (Cairo) |
| Archdiocese of Pelusium | 4th c. | Port Said | Egypt (Port Said, Dakahlia, Damietta) |
| Archdiocese of Leontopolis | 4th c. | Ismailia | Egypt (Ismailia, Sharqia, Suez) |
| Archdiocese of Aksum | 4th c. | Addis-Abeba | Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia |
| Archdiocese of Tripoli | 1866 | Tripoli | Libya |
| Archdiocese of Ptolemais | 1908 | Minya | Egypt (Giza, Minya, Sohag, Asyut, Faiyum, Qena, Beni Suef, Aswan, Luxor, Red Sea, New Valley) |
| Archdiocese of Nubia | 1908 | Khartoum | Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea |
| Archdiocese of Hermopolis | 1927 | Tanta | Egypt (Arab-speaking communities) |
| Archdiocese of Johannesburg | 1927 | Johannesburg | South Africa (Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West) |
| Archdiocese of Nairobi | 1958 | Nairobi | Kenya |
| Archdiocese of Kinshasa | 1958 | Kinshasa | Congo (Kinshasa, North Kivu, South Kivu, Congo Central, Kwilu, Ituri, South Ubangi, Tshopo, Maniema, Kwango, Upper Uele, Mongala, Mai-Ndombe, Equator, North Ubangi, Tshuapa, Lower Uele) |
| Archdiocese of Cameroon | 1959 | Yaounde | Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Saint Thomas and Prince |
| Archdiocese of Zimbabwe | 1964 | Harare | Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique |
| Archdiocese of the Cape of Good Hope | 1968 | Cape Town | South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, Northern Cape), Eswatini, Lesotho |
| Archdiocese of Mwanza | 1992 | Mwanza | Tanzania (Mwanza, Mbeya, Kagera, Tabora, Morogoro, Kigoma, Dodoma, Mara, Geita, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Simiyu, Shinyanga, Manyara, Ruvuma, Singida, Rukwa, Iringa, Njombe, Katavi, Songwe) |
| Archdiocese of Kampala | 1994 | Kampala | Uganda |
| Archdiocese of Accra | 1997 | Accra | Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso |
| Archdiocese of Antananarivo | 1997 | Antananarivo | Madagascar, Mayotte, The Comoros, The Mascarenes |
| Archdiocese of Nigeria | 1997 | Lagos | Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Togo |
| Archdiocese of Irinoupolis | 1999 | Dar es-Salaam | Tanzania (Dar es-Salaam, Tanga, Mtwara, Pwani, Lindi, West Zanzibar, North Pemba, South Pemba, North Zanzibar, South Zanzibar), Seychelles |
| Archdiocese of Zambia | 2001 | Lusaka | Zambia, Malawi |
| Archdiocese of Katanga | 2006 | Lubumbashi | Congo (Upper Katanga, Tanganyika, Upper Lomami, Lualaba) |
| Diocese of Mozambique | 2006 | Maputo | Mozambique |
| Archdiocese of Burundi | 2009 | Bujumbura | Burundi, Rwanda |
| Archdiocese of Botswana | 2010 | Gabarone | Botswana, Namibia |
| Archdiocese of Brazzaville | 2010 | Brazzaville | Congo (Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, Buenza, Mpumbu, Niadi, Plateau, Kuvete, Likuala, Lekumu, Kwilu, Sangha, West Kuvete), Gabon |
| Archdiocese of Guinea | 2010 | Conakry | Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Cape Verde |
| Diocese of Kisumu | 2015 | Kisumu | Kenya (Kisumu, Kakamega, Bungoma, Kisii, Homa Bay, Migori, Siaya, Busia, Nyamira, Vihiga) |
| Diocese of Nyeri | 2015 | Nyeri | Kenya (Nyeri, Kiambu, Muranga, Nyandarua, Kirinyaga) |
| Diocese of Arusha | 2016 | Arusha | Tanzania (Arusha, Morogoro, Dodoma, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Singida, Iringa) |
| Archdiocese of Kananga | 2018 | Kananga | Congo (Kasai, Central Kasai, Eastern Kasai, Lomami, Sankuru) |
| Diocese of Goma | 2018 | Goma | Congo (North Kivu, South Kivu, Maniema) |
| Diocese of Gulu | 2018 | Gulu | Uganda (Eastern, Northern) |
| Diocese of Kisangani | 2018 | Kisangani | Congo (Tshopo, Ituri, Upper Uele, Lower Uele) |
| Diocese of Malawi | 2018 | Malawi | Malawi |
| Diocese of Toliara | 2018 | Toliara | Madagascar (Atsimo-Andrefana, Upper Matsiatra, Vatovavy-Fitovinany, Atsimo-Atsinanana, Androy, Amoroni Mania, Anosy, Menabe, Ihorombe) |
| Diocese of Bukoba | 2019 | Bukoba | Tanzania (Kagera) |
| Diocese of Eldoret | 2019 | Eldoret | Kenya (Uasin Gishu) |
See also
External links
Sources
- Patriarchate of Alexandria website - Archdioceses
- Patriarchate of Alexandria website - Dioceses
- Eastern Christian Churches: Patriarchate of Alexandria by Ronald Roberson, a Roman Catholic priest and scholar
- The Patriarchate of Alexandria in 2021 by Markos Markos
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