THE discord between the Patriarch of Alexandria, Theodoros II, and the Russian Orthodox Church in Africa is intensifying, with no apparent end in sight.

Patriarch Theodoros continues to denounce Russian efforts to expand into Africa which ignore the established canonical authority of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The latter maintains that Orthodox Christians in Africa fall under its jurisdiction.

The Patriarch strongly criticised the latest Russian expansion efforts in Africa when the Exarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Africa, Metropolitan Konstantin of Zaraisk, completed a tour of ten African countries last month.

“We do not hesitate to condemn, with a resounding voice, the illicit intervention of the Russian Church, which has regrettably disregarded every principle of ecclesiastical law and order,” the Orthodox Times website reported.

Theodoros indirectly accused the Kremlin, which, according to him, is providing the logistics for the Russian operations. “Through secular methods and financial influence, [the Russian Orthodox Church] seeks to undermine what our Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils have safeguarded over the centuries,” he said.

Metropolitan Konstantin recently completed an almost three-week tour that included South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo, and Benin.

As reported by Le Croix International, there are 250 Russian priests in Africa, who are responsible for about 300 local communities. Metropolitan Konstantin told the publication that his goal was “to establish even more Russian Orthodox parishes in Africa to better serve the Continent”.

Amid his extensive travels, Metropolitan Konstantin was warmly received by the President of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

President Touadéra welcomed the Russian Orthodox Church’s activities, noting that the Church had achieved a significant foothold in the nation in a relatively short time.

Metropolitan Konstantin thanked the people of the Central African Republic and the political Establishment for the “favourable conditions” for the Church’s work in their country.

The Russian exarchate was formed in December 2021. Since then, the Patriarchate of Alexandria has taken various steps, including unfrocking Russian Orthodox exarchs in Africa, to control its expansion, but the results have been ambiguous.

After the Patriarchate of Alexandria unfrocked the current Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, Metropolitan Konstantin of Zaraisk, in February 2024, the Russian Orthodox Church decided that such a decision was “unlawful” and “invalid”.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew of Constantinople, came out strongly against Moscow and in support of Patriarch Theodoros this summer. Bartholomew accused the Russian Orthodox Church of ethnophyletism (confusion between the Church and the race/nation), saying that the Russian religious leadership would be accountable to God for its canonical violations.