– Africa offers a unique variety of ethnic groups, nationalities, languages and traditions. Having come to the African continent, the Russian Orthodox Church has become fully aware of its scale and greatness, Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, said to RIA Novosti news agency.
According to His Eminence, liturgies are celebrated in the churches of the Exarchate in dozens of languages, not only in English, French and Swahili, but also in Afrikaans and languages of many indigenous peoples.
As Metropolitan Leonid pointed out, the Russian Orthodox Church “has always multiplied and treated with love the local customs if they do not run counter to the dogmata and canons of the Church.”
– People in Africa glorify Christ with a touch of local cultural and national traditions. This is what makes the African continent so special, a gem in the treasury of the Russian Church, the hierarch added, greeting all people living in Africa on the occasion of the World Day for African and Afrodescendant Culture, celebrated on January 24.
