Patriarch Theodore: Russian Church had a long-term dream to invade Africa

The head of the Church of Alexandria, Patriarch Theodore, said that the Russian Orthodox Church had long dreamed of invading Africa, according to the Vima Orthodoxias publication.

Patriarch Theodore said that he “always respected the ecclesiastical boundaries of each Church,” and his “heart hurts when another Orthodox Church strikes at a poor missionary and the missionary Church,” referring to the creation of the Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Africa.

Answering a journalist's question why the Russian Church did this, Patriarch Theodore stated that "it was a long-term dream, which seized the moment to become a reality."

He agreed with the journalist’s statement that the creation of the Exarchate is revenge for the recognition of the OCU, and said that his “late predecessor (Patriarch Peter VII – Ed.) deposed two Russian and two Serbian priests twenty-five years ago, who went to Johannesburg to trespass" the borders of the Patriarchate of Alexandria.

“They have always had a dream to expand their activities in Africa, because this is fertile ground because of the poverty of the people,” summed up the head of the Church of Alexandria.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Patriarch Theodore called the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church "jackals and bears from the North.”

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