by Heta Hurskainen | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски With its autonomous church in Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate could not accept the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s actions to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine (OCU) in 2018–2019. The Moscow Patriarchate severed its relationships with Constantinople and other primates…
Continue readingRussia’s “Scramble for Africa” and Its Church
The Geopolitical Perspective
by Cyril Hovorun | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски On December 29, 2021, the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate decided to establish a Russian exarchate for the entire African continent. The exarchate is to consist of two dioceses: one for northern and one for southern Africa. The title…
Continue readingThe Revival of the Order of Deaconess by the Patriarchate of Alexandria
The Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies “Metropolitan Panteleimon Papageorgiou” (CEMES) has recently published the Proceedings of its international conference on “Deaconesses, the Ordination of Women and Orthodox Theology”, both its English version and the Greek version. The book is dedicated to the Patriarch of Alexandria, for his decision to revive the order of Deaconesses,…
Continue readingWomen Deacons in Africa; Not in America
History was made on February 17, 2017 when five women were consecrated deaconesses in the Orthodox Church. For many of us, this is a welcome but shocking development. Speaking for myself, I expected the reintroduction of a female diaconate to occur in Greece, or elsewhere in Europe, or, even more likely, the United States; say,…
Continue reading