Diocese of Malawi
The Holy Diocese of Malawi is a diocese under the Archdiocese of Zambia of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.
History
The first ecclesiastical structure to receive the land of Nyasaland (present Malawi) was the Archdiocese of Johannesburg in 1927. In 1968 the present territories of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi were incorporated from Johannesburg into the new Archdiocese of Rhodesia (renamed in 1980 to Zimbabwe), and in the 1970s the first mission to Malawi was established. In 2002, Archbishop Theodoros, the future Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria, was elected Archbishop of Zimbabwe, with jurisdiction over Malawi.
In 2009, the territory of Malawi was received into the Archdiocese of Zambia, and His Eminence Archbishop Ioakeim started a missionary center at the tribal area of Blantyre, Malawi. In 2011, His Beatitude Theodoros II visited again Malawi to consecrate the Church of the Resurrection by the request of its tribal leader. Adjacent to the church now operates an Orthodox school with over 200 pupils. There is also a translation center and a printing office nearby for the local church, where more than a hundred (essentially ecclesiastical) publications have been issued in Chichewa, the local language. There is also a clinic for the needs of the indigenous people, while a hospital is being projected. The church also serves meal twice a day to three hundred children in the area.
The see of Malawi was finally established under the Archdiocese of Zambia on November 26, 2018 by a Patriarchal and Synodal Decree of His Beatitude, who consecrated Archmandrite Photios Hatziantoniou, missionary to Tanzania, as its Bishop headquartered in Lilongwe. In 2020, during the Patriarch's visit to Malawi, the President of Malawi welcomed Patriarch Theodoros in his palace, expressing his gratitude for all that the Patriarchate has offered to his people.
Ruling bishop
- Photios (Hatziantoniou) 2018–Present