Chinsewu, Malawi, August 12, 2022
Photo: exarchate-africa.ru A group of more than two dozen former Protestants was baptized into holy Orthodoxy in Malawi yesterday.
Altogether, 29 people, including former pastors, received Holy Illumination at the hands of Fr. George Chabera of the Russian Orthodox Church’s African Exarchate in the village of Chinsewu, the Exarchate reports.
The group underwent a lengthy catechism under Fr. George in preparation for the Sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation.
In May, Bishop Chrysostomos of Bukoba and Western Tanzania of the Patriarchate of Alexandria baptized more than 200 people in a week.
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The Exarchate was established by the Russian Holy Synod on December 29 with 102 clerics of the Patriarchate of Alexandria who protested Patriarch Theodoros’ recognition of the Ukrainian schismatics and sought to be received into the ROC.
Since then, visiting Russian priests have been working to expand the Russian Exarchate throughout the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, receiving clerics, parishes, and parishioners from Alexandria. According to Exarch Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, the number of Exarchate clerics has doubled since December.
In February, the Synodal Court of the Patriarchate of Alexandria ruled to defrock Archpriests George Maximov and Andrei Novikov of the ROC for their activity on Alexandrian territory, though the Russian Church doesn’t recognize this ruling.
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