Church of Alexandria

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The Church of Alexandria is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches. Its primate is the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, the successor to the Apostle Mark the Evangelist, who founded the Church of Alexandria in the 1st century. It is one of the five ancient patriarchates of the early Church, called the Pentarchy.

Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa
The Church of Alexandria
Founder(s) Apostle Mark
Autocephaly/Autonomy declared Traditional
Autocephaly/Autonomy recognized Traditional
Current primate Pope Theodoros II
Headquarters Alexandria, Egypt
Primary territory Egypt and Africa
Possessions abroad  ?
Liturgical language(s) Greek, Swahili, English, local languages
Musical tradition Byzantine Chant
Calendar Revised Julian
Population estimate 250,000
Official website Church of Alexandria


History

When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt about 332-331 BC he established the city of Alexandria, named after him, from which his Greek-speaking successors, the Ptolemy dynasty, ruled Egypt. Alexandria also had many Greek-speaking Jewish inhabitants, and it was here that the Old Testament scriptures were translated into Greek, the Septuagint version. During the first century BC the city, and Egypt generally passed under Roman rule.

St Mark, a disciple of St Peter evangelised Egypt in the middle of the first century. He probably arrived about AD 40, and met a martyr's death around AD 63. Little is known of the early history of the Church in Alexandria and Egypt, beyond a bare list of names of bishops. By the end of the second century, however, the church had begun to spread among the indigenous population, and the Scriptures and Liturgical texts were being translated into local languages.

Since the schism occurring as a result of the political and Christological controversies at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.), the portion of the Church of Alexandria loyal to Chalcedonian Christology has liturgically been Greek-speaking, the majority of its native (i.e., Coptic) population and their modern descendents becoming a part of the Coptic Orthodox Church (i.e., non-Chalcedonian).

The Church today

In recent years, a considerable missionary effort was enacted by Pope Petros VII. During his seven years as patriarch (1997-2004), he worked tirelessly to spread the Orthodox Christian faith in Arab nations and throughout Africa, raising up native clergy and encouraging the use of local languages in the liturgical life of the Church. Missions spread and thrived in Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Cameroon, and elsewhere across the African continent.

Particularly sensitive to the nature of Christian expansion into Muslim countries, His Beatitude worked to promote mutual understanding and respect between Orthodox Christians and Muslims. His efforts were ended as the result of a helicopter crash on September 11, 2004, in the Aegean Sea near Greece, killing him and several other clergy, including Bishop Nektarios of Madagascar, another bishop with a profound missionary vision.

Today, some 300,000 Orthodox Christians comprise the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the highest number since the Roman Empire. The current primate of the Church of Alexandria is His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.

The Episcopacy

The Holy Synod

Diocesan Bishops

Auxiliary Bishops

  • His Grace Athanasios of Cyrene
  • His Grace Gabriel of Mareotis
  • His Grace Spyridon of Kanopou
  • His Grace Nikodemos of Nitria
  • His Grace Niphon of Babylon

Titular Archbishops

  • His Excellency Theoklitos of Helioupolis
  • His Excellency Philemon of Karvasos
  • His Excellency Ioakeim of Tamiathus
  • His Excellency Porfyrios of Thivais
  • His Excellency Kyrillos of Nafkratis

Retired Bishops

Holy Archdioceses and Bishoprics

Archdiocese Established See Jurisdiction
Archdiocese of Memphis ?? Heliopolis, Cairo - Egypt
Archdiocese of Leontopolis ?? Ismailia - Egypt Ismailia, Suez, Zagzik
Archdiocese of Pilousion ?? Port Said - Egypt Port Said, Mansoura, Damiette, Kantara
Archdiocese of Ptolemais ?? Minia - Egypt Upper Egypt, Luxor, Aswan, Minia, Fayum, Asiut, Beni Suef
Archdiocese of Ermoupolis ?? Tanta – Egypt
Archdiocese of Tripolis 1866,
1959,
2004
Tripoli - Libya 'Libya'
Archdiocese of Carthage 1931 Tunis - Tunisia Tunisia, Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco
Archdiocese of Cyrene 2009 Marsa Matrouh in Egypt
Archdiocese of Khartoum ?? Khartoum - Sudan Sudan
Archdiocese of Aksum ?? Addis-Abeba - Ethiopia Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia
Archdiocese of Kenya ?? Nairobi - Kenya Kenya
Archdiocese of Kampala and All Uganda 1959 Kampala - Uganda Uganda
Archdiocese of Accra 1997,
2009
Accra - Ghana Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia
Archdiocese of Nigeria 1997,
2004
Lagos - Nigeria Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Togo
Archdiocese of Cameroon ?? Yaounde - Cameroon Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Islands of St Thomas and Principe
Archdiocese of Central Africa ?? Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazaville (Republic of the Congo)
Diocese of Katanga 2006,
2009
Lubumbasi - Congo Katanga Province in the Congo
Diocese of Burundi and Rwanda 2009 Bujumbura in Burundi Burundi, Rwanda, a great area of the Eastern Congo
Archdiocese of Mwanza ?? Bukoba - Tanzania Tanzania
Archdiocese of Irinoupolis 1959 Dar-es-Salaam - Tanzania Tanzania, Seychelle Islands
Archdiocese of Zambia 2001,
2009
Lusaka - Zambia Zambia, Malawi
Archdiocese of Zimbabwe ?? Harare - Zimbabwe Zimbabwe, Angola, Malawi, Botswana
Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria 1927 Johannesburg - South Africa (The areas from East Africa, the Equator down to the Cape of Good Hope)
Archdiocese of the Cape of Good Hope 1968 Cape Town - South Africa Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, and the following areas of the Cape (West and East): Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein, Welkom, George, Knysna, Kimberley, Pietermaritzburg, all Natal
Diocese of Mozambique 2006 Maputo - Mozambique Mozambique
Diocese of Madagascar 1997 Antananarivo - Madagascar Madagascar, Islands of Mauritius, Reunion, Comores, Maillot

See also

External links

Sources


Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches of Orthodoxy
Autocephalous Churches
Four Ancient Patriarchates: Constantinople · Alexandria · Antioch · Jerusalem
Russia · Serbia · Romania · Bulgaria · Georgia · Cyprus · Greece · Poland · Albania · Czech Lands and Slovakia · OCA* · Ukraine*
Autonomous Churches
Sinai · Finland · Estonia* · Japan* · China* · Ukraine*
The * designates a church whose autocephaly or autonomy is not universally recognized.