Gabon, August 22, 2023
exarchate-africa.ru
The leaders and four parishes of a non-canonical structure have joined the Russian Orthodox Church’s African Exarchate in Gabon.
The parishes were part of a group calling itself the “Patriarchate of the Nations,” headed by a “bishop,” two “priests,” and two “deacons.” All of the former leaders have been received, together with their parishioners, as laymen, reports the African Exarchate.
Realizing its non-canonical situation, the group appealed to be received into the African Exarchate. They were catechized first by Fr. George Maximov, then by a lay missionary, then by Fr. Parthenios Dansu, who recently arrived in Gabon.
Recall that the Patriarchate of Alexandria ruled in February 2022 to defrock Fr. George and Fr. Andrei Novikov—another priest who has been active in Africa—for their activity on the Patriarchate’s canonical territory. The Alexandrian Synod made the same decision about Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, the head of the Russian Church’s African Exarchate, in November.
Fr. Parthenios visited all four communities, giving lectures on Orthodoxy. He also held choir workshops and taught them how to bake prosphora.
After completing the catechism, Fr. Parthenios “celebrated the rite of reception into the Russian Orthodox Church,” which seems to have been by the Sacrament of Chrismation, as seen in the photos.
exarchate-africa.ru
The Exarchate earlier received a non-canonical community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in October.
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