The Holy Patriarchal See of Alexandria

[Owen Jones]

We just had a visit to our parish by the Ecumenical Patriarch and I learned a few things I did not know concerning the relationship with the Turkish government, etc., including the fact that when traveling to the U.S. His All Holiness receives secret service protection as a visiting head of state, and on this particular trip there were apparently some specific threats made on his life, so security was very tight.

But in the process my curiosity was pricked about the ancient See of Alexandria which I knew absolutely nothing about whatsoever, and found that they had a very impressive web site, that there are many metropolia (sp?) throughout Africa, and two of them are headed by African born bishops. I thought it would be interesting if anyone else has knowledge to share about the Church in Africa...

The Patriarchate traces its lineage to the Apostle Mark and includes St. Athanasius and St. Cyril.

[Dimitris]

Hallo Owen!

Thank you for sharing that with us. I wasn't aware that there are two African born metropolitans.

Regards,
Dimitris

[Owen]

One of them, Met. Jeronymos of Mwanza and All Tanzania, paid a visit to my parish as part of our campaign to help build a pairsh in his metropolis (St. Paul's, Kobunshwi).

Here are accounts of our mission team's adventures there:
http://www.stpaulsirvine.org/TanzaniatheSecondTimeAround_revised_.pdf
http://www.stpaulsirvine.org/OCMCstory2.pdf
And a podcast in which our priest explains his rationale for the enterprise:
http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/podup/illuminedheart/american_parish_builds_orthodox_church_in_tanzania

[Nina]

And the other one is I think Metropolitan Jonas.
There are several African born Orthodox priests (monks) who also received theological training in Greece, or USA.
Since many years Greece has done a lot of missionary work in Africa. There are not a lot of things published in English though. There are only few. For instance you can look for the book "Apostle to Zaire".
http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/frcosmas_intro.aspx
Or His Beatitude the Archbishop of Albania, was a missionary in Africa prior to his current role. And also my 1st spiritual father (who is a Greek monastic from Athos) is a missionary in Zaire (Congo) at the moment and has been for several years.

[Benjamin Amis]

All I know is that the Patriarch of Alexandria's full title is the "Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa," which I believe makes his office the only one (other than Rome) that bears the title of Pope within the Church (excluding the Oriental Orthodox of course), and that St. Athanasius was deposed by the Emperor for an Arian Patriarch for a time, but was later restored.

I guess I should know more about this ancient see, St. Athanasius is my parish's patron!

I wasn't aware that we recognized the Ecumenical Patriarch as a head of state. I wonder how many nations do? That would be very interesting to find out, given that Turkey will only recognize him as the Bishop of Phanar!