On 16th February 2024 the deliberations of the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Supreme Patriarchate of Alexandria continued under the presidency of His Beatitude Theodoros II Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.
Initially, the elected Metropolitans Theodoros of Brazzaville and Gabon Nikodimos of Nigeria arrived, who, having accepted their election as Pastors of two spiritually flourishing Provinces of the Throne, expressed grateful thanks to His Beatitude and holy Synodal Hierarchs, promising to work zealously for the spiritual progress of the rational flock.
Then, His Eminence Seraphim Metropolitan of Zimbabwe and Angola gave an extensive presentation on the topic: “The preservation of the unity of the local Churches under the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Africa (a practical-pastoral approach to the issue)”. A productive exchange of views followed on the above presentation.
Thereafter, the Holy Synod dealt extensively and analytically with the development of the issue of the uncanonical intervention of the Church of Russia into the spiritual and pastoral jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria on the continent of Africa, after the passage of more than three years since the manifestation of the non-canonical, arbitrary, unbrotherly and disruptive behavior by the Moscow Patriarchate, through the establishment of the so-called “Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa”.
After a dialogical discussion, the Holy Synod proceeded to depose from the high ministry of the Hierarchy, the acting “Patriarchal Vicar in Africa” former Bishop Konstantinos Zarayski, who had voluntarily settled in Cairo, Egypt for a long time within the See of the Holy Archdiocese of Alexandria, who committed a series of Canonical offenses (intervention in the jurisdiction of the ancient Throne, distribution of antimensia, purchase for money of native clergy even deposed ones, faction, ethno-tribalism, etc.), while he again condemned the new ecclesiological-political “theories” about the spread of the Russian world around the globe on the basis of nationality.
It is noted that on November 22, 2022, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria deposed the first “Exarch in Africa” of the Moscow Patriarchate from the high ministry of the hierarchy, former Metropolitan Klin, now Monk Hilarion Gorbachev.
Finally, after the Ceremony of the Great Messages by the elected Metropolitans of Brazzaville and Nigeria took place, the deliberations of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria were productively concluded.
From the Chief Secretariat of the Holy Synod
