A Ukrainian theologian Archimandrite Kyrylo (Hovorun) commented on the recent decision of the ROC Synod to establish the African Exarchate on the territory of the Church of Alexandria, thus violating the canonical rules of the Church.
Hovorun noted that there are neocolonial tendencies being observed on the African continent where China is playing a leading role.
“The Chinese are building a huge port terminal in Djibouti and have acquired their only military base in Africa. In Namibia, the Chinese built a ‘university.’ I drove past this ‘university.’ It’s like a vocational school to train locals to perform low-skilled work at Chinese uranium mines. At these mines, the new owners immediately abolished trade unions and other anti-colonial benefits,” the theologian wrote on Telegram.
Hovorun believes that Russia now seeks to take part in this new Scramble for Africa to make up for lost ground during the first “scramble” that took place in the 19th century.
“The Church (ROC, – ed.) Immediately offered its services. Moreover, the recognition of the OCU by the Patriarchate of Alexandria was not the reason but merely a pretext for the synod’s decision to open the African Exarchate. This is a real gift of fate. But something tells me that people, including the transitioned African clerics, are decorations at best and expendables at worst. Canonicality and ecclesiastical unity have already become such an expendable material,” Kyrylo Hovorun summed up.
It should be recalled that earlier, Archimandrite Kyrylo, commenting on the ROC’s Africa move, declared that only canonical outlaws could openly break the canon approved at the Ecumenical Council.
Archimandrite Feognost Pushkov, a cleric with the Russian Orthodox Church, said that 102 African priests had joined the Russian Orthodox Church to improve their difficult financial situation.
