From this morning, today, 25th October 2017, the second day of the Deliberations of the Synod of Hierarchs of the Alexandrian Throne, began, in the Synodal Meeting Hall, presided over by His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.
After the prayer and supplication to the Holy Spirit, the meeting began.
First speaker was His Grace Athanasios Bishop of Kisumu and West Kenya, who presented the first part of the current topic: “Church and Family”, in which he essentially analyzed the African reality, within the immense “variety” and diversity between African nations and races.
The next speaker was His Grace Neophytos, Bishop of Nieri and Mount Kenya who developed the second part of the speech “Church and Family”.
Their Graces analyzed and developed the topic in depth, highlighting the Theological extensions and encapsulating the parameters and aspects of the divine place of the Church as “the family of God” and the family as “Church at home”. Within the velocity of modern social change, family has changed its texture and has escaped its traditional form and self-awareness.
A debate followed in which many Hierarchs took the floor, analyzing this sensitive issue, in the African way of life and presenting personal experiences, describing problems and situations that require specific pastoral care and research.
Note that for the first time, during the Meeting of the Hierarchs, the Director General of Security of Alexandria, Brigadier Mustafa Ali, visited the Patriarchate, conveying to the Hierarchal Body the greeting of His Excellency the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mr. Abdel Fatah al Sisi, welcoming the Hierarchs to Egypt and the city of Alexander the Great and wishing the Hierarchs a good outcome of the Deliberations of the Hierarchy.
The morning session ended with an extensive debate on behalf of the Hierarchs, regarding the enormous issue of family in Africa, the spread of the HIV virus, both in childhood as well as the elderly, and how local Orthodox missions can assist people who are suffering from this affliction.
Thereafter in the afternoon session, the Holy Synod, the Elder Metropolitan Makarios of Nairobi spoke on the topic: “The Sacrament of Baptism”.
His Eminence developed the issue of Baptism with Theological accuracy, for minors, adults and the newly-illumined in Africa, citing examples from the pastoral practice of the Metropolises and Dioceses of the Throne.
Just prior to the end of the Session, His Beatitude the Patriarch, with great emotion referred to the late Metropolitan Procopios of Philippi, Neapolis and Thasos, who assisted the Missionary efforts of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa in Kenya and Uganda, by building Churches and participating in the suffering and the Orthodox witness of the local Missionaries. May his memory be eternal!
His Beatitude also mentioned the person of the late Georgia Georgiades, from Nicaea in Attica, who stood by the side of every missionary witness of the Patriarchate, aiming not to praise from humanity, but to the glory of God “in all nations”.
He then remembered Stella Kyriazi, who recently passed on to heaven, who for Egypt and the Patriarchate was a “contemporary Tabitha of God”, helping the poor and the distressed.
With the reference to these persons, the second day of the Deliberations of the Holy Synod of the Hierarchs, was concluded.
