On the eve of the feast of the Nativity of Christ the first community in Angola numbering more than two hundred people was received into the Russian Orthodox Church, reports the website of the Patriarchal exarchate for Africa.
On 5th January in the capital of Angola Luanda the Russian priest of Angolan origin and cleric of the diocese of Krasnodar Raphael Da Konseisao baptised twenty-seven people living locally.
Then Father Raphael chrismated more than two-hundred faithful who had joined the Russian Orthodox Church from a non-canonical structure.
The priest then served the Divine Liturgy at which the newly-illumined received Holy Communion.
These people came to learn of the Russian Orthodox Church via the internet in 2022. They made contact with the head of the missionary department of the Patriarchal exarchate for Africa Father Georgy Maximov and the community leader, a former ‘priest’ of the non-canonical structure Seraphim, expressed a desire for the entire community to become members of the Orthodox Church.
Seraphim and his community were ready to fulfill all the requirements and Seraphim himself agreed to abandon his holy orders and transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church as a layman. He then studied online with the Patriarchal exarchate in Cote d’Ivoire.
As part of the work of the Patriarchal exarchate for Africa Russian missionaries several times visited the catechumens and gave them instruction.
The catechisation was undertaken for more than a year by Father Georgy Maximov, A. V. Lyulka and Father Raphael Da Konseisao.
Last year a meeting was held with the Patriarchal exarch for Africa the metropolitan of Zaraisk Constantine during his archpastoral visit to the continent of Africa.
During all this time the community studied the Orthodox faith, they gathered for morning and evening prayers and very much awaited their reception into the bosom of the true Church of Christ.
Patriarchal exarchate of Africa
Translation: DECR Communication service
