Metropolis of Johannesburg
The Holy Metropolis of Johannesburg and Pretoria and South Africa is a diocese in southern Africa under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. Its territory includes the parishes and missions located in the areas from East Africa, the equator down to the Cape of Good Hope.
The see of Johannesburg was established as a diocese on December 15, 1927, by a Patriarchal and Synodal Decree under the name Metropolis of Johannesburg and Southern Africa. In the decade of 1960, independence movements formed and clashes started to occur in Southern Africa. In 1968, with the election of Metropolitan Paul, the metropolis lost its territories in the provinces of the Cape, Natal and Orange, the territory of South West Africa (modern Namibia) and Mozambique, and the countries of Botswana and Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe) to establish two new metropolises.
Now, the metropolis occupied only the area of the Transvaal province, and was renamed Metropolis of Johannesburg and All the Transvaal. With the ceasing of the province by the government of South Africa in 1994, the metropolis had to receive its current name. It consists of several Greek-speaking parishes as well as Russian, Serbian and Romanian-speaking parishes, in addition to parishes that use English, Afrikaans, and other local languages.
The first monastery in the metropolis, Monastery of Ss Nektarius and Nicholas near Johannesburg, was founded in 2005.
Ruling Bishops
- Isidore (Georgiadis) 1928–1938
- Nicodemus (Zacharoulis) 1939–1966
(lost territory to establish the Metropolis of Rhodesia and the Metropolis of the Cape of Good Hope)
- Paul (Lyngris) 1968–1998
- Ioannis (Zachariou) 1998–2000
- Seraphim (Kykkotis) 2001–2010
- Damaskinos (Papandreou) 2010–Present