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The [[Church of Alexandria|Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria]], then, like those of [[Church of Antioch|Antioch]] and [[Church of Jerusalem|Jerusalem]], could not do much more than hold on. Mission was out of the question in a society in which the [[conversion]] of a Muslim to Christianity was punishable by death. Most of the conversions went the other way.
In the 19th century things began to change. Large numbers of Greeks settled in Alexandria, which helped to revitalize the Church there. Also Greek and Syrian traders began settling in other parts of Africa, establishing Orthodox communities. At the same time, Western missionaries, both [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] and [[Protestantism|Protestant]], began evangelising in [[Orthodoxy in Sub-Saharan Africa|sub-Saharan Africa]]. Some Africans who had become Christian, however, began studying Church history, and discovered that the [[Orthodox Church]] was the original one, and therefore sought to become Orthodox. Different groups in East and West Africa made such discoveries independently of each other, and sought to be united to the [[Church of Alexandria|Patriarchate of Alexandria]]. This led to a great growth in Orthodoxy around Lake Victoria, in [[Uganda]], Kenya and Tanzania, and later in other parts of tropical Africa as well, especially in the second half of the 20th century.
Patriarch [[Petros VII (Papapetrou) of Alexandria|Pope Petros VII]], who was elected in 1997, actively encouraged mission until his untimely death in a helicopter crash on [[September 11]], 2004, along with three other bishops, including Bishop [[Nektarios (Kellis) of Madagascar|Nektarios]], a pioneer missionary in [[Madagascar]]. The new Patriarch, His Beatitude Pope [[Theodoros II (Choreftakis) of Alexandria|Theodoros]], himself has missionary experience, having been Archbishop of Cameroun and later [[Zimbabwe]].
