Historical survey of the Orthodox Church in Africa
Although
this article focuses on the call for inculturation of the orthodox
faith in Africa, it is of paramount importance to give a brief
historical survey of orthodoxy in Africa. This will help in
understanding how orthodoxy came into Africa and why there is a need for
inculturation. Orthodoxy in African is witnessed in three main
categories, name; the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, the
Coptic Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. This article
limits itself to the orthodox churches under the jurisdiction of the
Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. The Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa have its headquarters
in Alexandria, Egypt and extend its ecclesiastical jurisdiction into
the entire Africa. It serves the eastern orthodox churches which
comprise Greek speaking and Russian speaking orthodox faithful mainly
living and working in major African cities as well as the native African
orthodox communities. Most of the native Orthodox Christians are in
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo, while significant number of Greek and
Russian Orthodox Communities are in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and
Mozambique. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All
Africa is ecclesiastically in communion with all eastern orthodox
patriarchates, autocephalous and autonomous churches in the world. It
is a member of the World Council of Churches, All Africa Conference of
Churches and Middle East Council of Churchesvi.
According
to the history of Eusebious (AD 320) and along tradition well kept by
both the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Coptic Orthodox Church, St. Mark the evangelist, evangelized Alexandria between
AD43-63vii. The authenticity of Eusebius records that John Mark
established churches in the city of Alexandriaviii, can be supported by
the fact that St. Mark was a missionary companion of St. Peter, the
apostle to the Jew (Gal 2:8). Therefore, Alexandria being a home of the
largest Jewish community in diaspora, it was very possible for Peter to
have sent Mark his spiritual son (1 Pet 5:13) to evangelise in
Alexandria. Consequently, Alexandria became a source of the gospel of
Christ for not only the rest of North Africa but also other places like
Ephesus and Sub-Saharan Africa. The book of Acts of Apostle (Acts 18:24;
1Cor 3:4-7) attests that a Christian Jew from Alexandria by the name
Apollos, was evangelising in Ephesus at the time of St. Paul.
 |
| St Antony
the Great (here) |
Throughout
history, the Alexandrian church has been known for; a) its involvement
in the ecumenical councils and it’s great contribution to the formation
of the Christian doctrines through its bishops like Athanasius the Great
(AD 298-373), b) formation of the NiceneConstantinople’s creed and
Christian doctrines like that of incarnation, c) allegorical method of
interpreting of the Holy Scriptures through its famous catechetical
school; through which the first Christian thinkers like Clement of
Alexandria and Origen successfully explained the biblical faith
philosophically and systematically, d) monasticism, whereby ordinary
Christians like Antony the Great (251-356) took a total commitment to the following of Christ
(Mk 19:17-21) and made it to the desert to live a life of asceticism and
contemplation. Monasticism inspired many people like St. Pachomius
(292-346) who developed the cenobitical or communal monastic way of
life. The flourishing of monasticism in the Egyptian desert brought
pilgrims from all over the world and at the same time the desert become
the place of encounter between the Christian monks and the Nubian
traders along the river Nile.
Apparently, through this encounter the
historical kingdom of Nubia to become Christian. Although right from the
beginning the Alexandrian church witnessed the Gospel of Christ as one
united church, the results of the 4th ecumenical council 451AD and that
of the 640 AD Arabic conquest have affected the unity and success of the
Alexandrian church in inculturation of orthodox faith in Africaix.
According to John Baur (2005), the Arabic conquest marked a turning
point in the history of the church in Egyptx because the implementation
of Islamic policy was discriminative to the minority who opt to remain
Christians. This kind of legislative policies affected also the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, and because of persecutions the
Patriarch and a large number of Christians fled Egypt. However, after
the Turks took Egypt in 1517, and Persecutions were over, the
patriarchate re-opened with few Greek speaking followers.
 |
| Fr. Ruben
Mukasa Spartas (here) |
The
decline of orthodox Christians in Egypt made the patriarchate look
beyond to other orthodox Christians living in Africa. These other
orthodox Christians were mostly the Greek communities who had settled in
major African cities for trade. They had come into Africa after they
fled Greece during the Turkish occupation. The first such community in
sub-Saharan Africa settled in Beira, Mozambique in 1899 where they built
an Orthodox Church and school. In most case these Greek communities
had their own churches, cultural centres and schoolsxi. Although for
years these communities were not open to the native Africans, their
presence attracted very few Africans either because of intermarriage or
interest in becoming orthodox Christians. Those who showed serious
interests were allowed to join the Greek schools and learn the Orthodox
faith, Greek language and culture. The best example is the Ugandan
students who joined a Greek school in Moshi Tanzania. This school
belonged to a Greek community of sisal farmers and they had a Greek
priest by the name Fr. Nikodemos Sarikas, who cooperated with Fr. Ruben
Mukasa Spartas of the Orthodox Church in Ugandaxii.
Over
the years, both the Greek and Russian communities have opened up and
more interaction with the native African Christians is much visible. The
best example is in Nairobi whereby the Greek community worship together
with the native orthodox Christians living in Nairobi. Moreover the
liturgy is mostly in English and Kiswahili and even the priest in charge
is a Kenyan, from St. Makarios Seminary.
Apart
from the Greek and Russian communities, there is a vibrant and rapid
growing native African church, which actually is the future of the Greek
Patriarchate of Alexandria. The native African Orthodox Church was
through the initiatives of Africans themselves. The best examples are
the church in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana. Native African
Christians searched for the orthodox faith after they protested against
the Protestant Churches Missionaries in 1930’s. Orthodox faith in these
countries has grown since they come under the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa in 1946. From that moment, the
Orthodox Church in Uganda and Kenya grew rapidly but after few years it
was tamed by the political upheavals of 1952-1963.
The period can be termed as the “dark age” of the Orthodox Church in
East Africa. It was “dark age” because the colonial program of arrests
and detention did not spare the leaders and the members of the African
Orthodox Church. For example Fr. Gathuna was arrested and detained from
1st June 1953 to 1961. The detention of Fr. Gathuna and other church
officials of the Orthodox Church left the 309-congregation spread
throughout Kenya, with a membership of about 30,000 followers without a
spiritual leader. Apparently, the few women who survived the arrests
could no longer gather for prayers. They feared being killed by the
colonial authority which suspected they were gathering taking oath or
planning how to feed MauMau men fighting in the bush. It is only by
1956/7 when the emergency surveillance relaxed, that few women started
meeting in different homes, for prayers. They used to call themselves
“Mwaki or Utheri” which mean light in Kikuyu language. They were calling
themselves “Mwaki” of a given place not to be suspected by the
authorities as an oath-taking gathering. They also wanted to maintain
the light of Christ in whom they believed and that He was forever with
them in those difficult times.
Meanwhile,
in 1958 the Patriarchate of Alexandria appointed a Metropolitan of
Irinoupolis (Dar es Salaam) to pastoral Orthodox Christians in Tanzania,
Kenya and Uganda. The creation of the Archbishopric of Irinoupolis
brought on one hand a more articulated means through which the Africans
could engage and know orthodox faith while on the other opened ways
through which the African orthodox Christians connected to the rest of
the world. For example;
1. Fr. Spartas of uganda visited Greece in 1959.
His visit had a very strong impact on the Greek Church and from this
visit Ugandan students were granted scholarship by the Greek government
to study theology in Athens and in Thessaloniki. Following the presence
of African students in Greece, mission awareness and teaching started
becoming more interesting in the Greek Church and Greek people started
volunteering themselves as missionaries in Africa.
For example; Fr. Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos (photo) and Mrs. Stavrista Zachariou among many
othersxiii. A department of mission studies was created in the
University of Athens. Also, missionary organizations such as the
Apostolic Diakonia of the church of Greece, formally «Πορευθέντες» (Go
Ye Mat 28:19)xiv under the leadership of present Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, Orthodox Missionary Fraternity of Thessaloniki (formerly
known as: Οί Φίλοι τής Ούγκαντα Βορείου Ελλαδος, translated as Friends
of Uganda Northern Greece) were formed.
2. Fr. Theodore Nankyamas
extended his connections to America in 1965 and later to Finland, where
he influenced many parishes and more the youth groups-pledging
themselves to prayer and financial help. For several years, Abbess
Marina and other Finnish nuns stayed in Kenya, stationed at Muguga from
where they were doing mission work. Till today the Finnish Orthodox
Church (through its Filantropia office) is actively involved in mission
work in Kenya and Bukoba (Tanzania), respectively. It is through Fr.
Nankyamas appeal the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) in U.S.A
was formed. Up to the present day, OCMC has continued to send American
missionaries in Africa and offering scholarships to African orthodox
students to study theology in Holy Cross Greek Theological seminary in
Boston. It is through such grounds some of the African orthodox bishops,
priests and theologians have acquired their theological training.
3.
During the state visit of the later president and Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus in Kenya, in 1970, he told the Cypriot newspaper: "…What
especially moved me is the fact that in the
Eastern region of Africa there are thousands of Africans who follow the
Orthodox faith… During my three-day stay in Kenya, I conducted mass
baptism of some 5,000 natives in two towns (Waithaka and Nyeri). It can
be said that there has been no similar event since the Christianization
of the Slavs…"xv this visit made the church of Cyprus to become very
active in missionary work especially in Kenya.
Since
the visiting of Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus to Kenya and opening of
the orthodox seminary in Riruta, Orthodox Church growth in Africa
although with some challenges has been experienced. This is an
indication that the seminary school in Nairobi is playing a key role in
training priests and catechists, who later after graduation return back
to their respective countries to serve.
Inculturation Process within the Orthodox Church in Africa
From
a missiological perspective, the term inculturation is use as a concept
that denotes the procedural patterns in which the Christian faith
manifests itself in a given context, in a given time and placexvi.
Inculturation, when understood as a process, demonstrates that
manifestation of planting of the Christian faith and the gospel of Jesus
Christ, in the soil of the African contextxvii. In the process of
inculturation, the energies of the Holy Spirit transform culture and
people involved into a new creation. The condition of transformation in
inculturation is the willingness of the local community to give up those
cultural elements that are not compatible with the Gospel. This happens
when the unending dialogical process of inculturation balances culture
in the anthropological sense of the word and the divine transforming
work of the Holy Spiritxviii. This dialogue should take place as a
platform for interaction of the faith and culture through mutual
critique and affirmation.
According
to Laurenti Magesa (2004, 5), inculturation is a process whereby faith
already embodied in one culture encounters another culturexix. The aim
of this encounter is to have the faith become part and parcel of a given
“new culture”. As far as the Eastern Orthodox Church is concerned, the
orthodox faith is already spreading beyond the traditional, orthodox
cultures (Hellenic, Syriac, Slavonic, [non chalcedonian:] Ethiopian and Coptic) into
Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Alaska and Americas where the orthodox
theology and ethos have to be embodied in these “new” cultural contexts.
This raises important question on how orthodoxy will be embodied into
these “new” cultural contexts. This calls orthodox theologians and
missiologists to creatively come up with authentic method to be applied
in the process on inculturation. The need for an authentic method is
because inculturation entails acceptance or rejection, giving up or
receiving thought forms, symbolic and linguistic expressions, attitudes
and practices between the faith and new culture. Concerning the
Orthodox Church in south Saharan Africa, the process of inculturation
may not require a systematic planning and arrangement but will require
critical study and theological direction. This is why it is crucial to
go back to the biblical, liturgical practices and theologies that
articulate inculturation, for example that of the local church by John
Zizioulas. According to John Zizioulas (2002, 254), to be local means
the church has taken roots in a given place with all its cultural,
natural, social, and any other characteristic that constitutes the life,
values and thoughts of the people involvedxx. The process of becoming
“African local church” will easy facilitate the transformation of the
Orthodox theological thoughts to meet the African
socialpsychological-religious ethos. Consequently, making the Africans
uphold orthodoxy as their way of
life, living it and apparently, orthodoxy become meaningful by
responding to their day-to-day live concerns. In order for this to
happen in the Orthodox Church in south Saharan Africa, key areas of
orthodox life must be highly considered. These areas includes (although
not limited to), worship, sacraments and church leadership.
The
current situation of the Orthodox Christianity south Saharan Africa
calls for a new mission paradigm that would facilitate inculturation.
However, in order for this to happen, the Orthodox theology of mission
has to develop and moreover, identify crucial areas for inculturation.
This proposes a dialogical process between African religious way of life
and the main Orthodox faculties such as dogmatic and liturgics,
biblical and pastoral theology. Apparently, this would result to
Orthodox theological ethos be incarnated within the Africa way of life.
Inculturation
in the Orthodox Church in south Saharan Africa is a necessity, a
mission and a call. Looking back to the history of the Orthodox Church
in East Africa, this call started in 1930s, when the African Independent
Churches broke away from the “Mission Churches”. The breaking away from
the mission churches was because of cultural imperialism, evangelising
methodologies and the collaboration of the mission churches with the
colonial authoritiesxxi. The founding of African Independent Churches
(AICs) or the so-called African Instituted Churches or African
Initiatives in Christianityxxii has to be understood as a call towards a
mission of inculturation within the churches in East Africa. This quest
for inculturation was initially understood as a problem for the mission
of a church by the Western European and North American mission
churchesxxiii. However, the emerging of the AICs is primarily an
extension of the need to inculturate mission Christianity to fit into by
the African spiritual realities. The AICs aspired for an “African
Christianity” that would contextualize the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be
good news for Africa and in addition contribute to the world
Christianity.
The
need for contextualized African Christianity made Africans like Reuben
Mukasa Spartas who by then had broken with the Anglican Church of Uganda
to search for Orthodoxy. For Spartas’, he was searching for a true
faith that would satisfy his people’s social-religious and
economic-political dissatisfaction experienced in their former Mission
Churches. This brings into account the inculturation process seeking
for identity. For Africans and especially in the AICs, both cultural and
ecclesial identities were paramount, for they wanted to remain true
African Christians something that was denied in their former mission
churches. For one to be regarded a true Christian, has to adopt western
lifestyle as practiced in mission stations. The seeking for cultural and
ecclesial identities is one of the key aspects of inculturation
process. This informs the peculiarities of one culture and how they can
be incompatible with Christian faith which is an identity by itself.
This is why Spartas sought affiliation with African Orthodox Church in
America (AOCA) and in 1925 he wrote to Archbishop George Alexander
McGuire the primate of AOCAxxiv requesting for admission to AOCA and
instructions on how to read the bible and preachingxxv. In answering
Spartas, McGuire did put him into contact with Archbishop Daniel William
Alexander, whom was in charge of AOCA in South Africa. Archbishop
William Daniel Alexander extended his mission to Uganda in 1931 - 1932
where he ordained Reuben Spartas and Obadiah Kabanda Basajakitalo (photo) into
priesthood. He also extended his mission to Kenya where he trained and
ordained Arthur Gatung’u Gathuna of Kikuyu Karing’a Education
Association (KKEA), which later became the Orthodox Church of Kenya. It
can be concluded that
by training and being affiliated to AOCA, the AICs in Kenya and Uganda
go an ecclesial identity that enabled them to profess that they are
orthodox in faith.
Having
gotten this identity the Orthodox Church in East Africa spread rapidly.
For example from 1937 to 1952 there were 309-congregation spread
throughout Kenya, with a membership of about 30,000 followersxxvi. The
rapid growth is a clear indication of inculturation process. Whereby
there is the keeping of one’s cultural identity and values on one hand
and on the other professing the true Christian faith. The same need for
identity made Fr. Spartas to seek affiliation with the Greek Orthodox
patriarchate of Alexandria when he realized that AOCA was not canonical
Orthodox Church. Some of the things that Fr. Spartas questioned were:
first the Apostolic Succession of Archbishop George Alexander McGuire
who had ordained Daniel William Alexander and secondly the liturgical
rites of AOCA. For example analysing the text and comparing it with the
other mainstream Christian liturgies, its formal structure is that of
Roman Catholicism, with a mixture of textual prayers borrowed from the
Anglican and its rituals from the Eastern Oriental Orthodox
ritesxxvii.
In
the inculturation process, the issue of keeping one’s cultural identity
and at the same time professing Christianity can bring confusion.
However, a mechanism of balancing the two is paramount. For example,
when the Orthodox Church started in Kenya, members of this church were
referred to as the “Agîkûyû Karîng’a” meaning pure Kikuyu i.e. those who
never wanted to abandon their cultural values and substitute them with
the Christian lifestyle as taught by the protestant missionaries. As a
mechanism of balancing one’s identity the Agîkûyû Karîng’a maintained
that they never said they would have nothing to do with God; they were
anti- western lifestyle, not anti-God or Christianity. They state that
they are Christians and no way would they be termed heathen simply
because they are Kikuyu. They justified themselves with the several
similarities and parallelisms drawn from the newly Kikuyu translated
Bible. First, and in general Kikuyu never had a different concept of
Ngai (God) than that of Biblical God. Neither did the missionaries who
translated the word of the Biblical God as Ngai in Kikuyu language.
Kikuyu concept of God is monotheistic just as it is in the Hebrew Bible.
Further, Agîkûyû Karîng’a argued being Kikuyu Christians did not
justify the mission to deny them Holy Communion due to practicing
cultural practices such as circumcision because St. Paul states that
circumcision is nothing and no circumcision is nothing but obeying the
commandment of God is everything (1 Cor 7:19, Gal 6:15). Rather, in the
inculturation process, this is clear test on how far should faith in
Jesus Christ replace the Kikuyu traditional customs & practices.
This test forms a beginning of the most appropriate way of incarnating
Christianity; thus facilitating a dialogue between biblical Christianity
and African cosmologies.
Drawing
similarities and parallelisms from the bible and Christian tradition
and imbuing them to cultural practices results to one of the authentic
measures of inculturation process. Such authentic measures resulted to
bringing assurance to the adherents of the Orthodox Church in East
Africa. From this assurance they start to draw new meaning and
self-understanding within the faith. When AICs started, these churches
understood themselves as “New communities of faith” who draw their
beliefs and practices from the Bible, while functioning structurally
like a traditional African family or homestead.
Such self-understanding
occurs because faith does not exist in a vacuum of space and time but
holds on cultural systems expressed rituals and symbols of a given cultural
context. Specifically, when the Orthodox Church started in Kenya, the
Kikuyu people understood the church as a family. This is based on the
principle of common kinship, where by the kikuyu people are one big
family tied and united together by the family norms and values of Gikuyu
and Mumbi their ancestors. In this understanding, a transformed African
family would perfectly image a new family of God that brings together
those who are born again in water and in spirit (John 3:5). Therefore,
according to St. Paul this family becomes a household of God (Gal 6:10, 1
Tim 3:15). Today in the inculturation process, Christian baptism can
adopt the African notion of being born in a family, which demonstrates
strongly the sense of belonging. In Christian understanding belonging to
a community of believers i.e. the church.
Inculturation
facilitates contextualized reading and interpretation of the word of
God. Contextualized reading and interpretation of the scriptures enables
adherents of a given culture understand the Gospel of Christ
(Evaggelion) and its meaning to them. For Example, the AICs interpreted
the biblical stories and especially the Old Testament to reflect the
experiences of the colonial era, schism with the mission churches and
cultural-religious orientations of African Christians. Interestingly,
for the Africans to be under colonial powers was interpreted as being in
slavery. This metaphor was understood as similar to the Israelites’
slavery in Egypt (Exodus 118). The story of Israelites’ exodus from
Egypt become very popular, many similarities were drawn, for example
leaders in the AICs were acknowledged as “Moses” who would lead God’s
people out of slavery to the freedom. The hardships encountered both in
colonial slavery and in the process of forming the African Orthodox
Church were very similar. Such experiences by then were internal
conflicts, hunger, diseases and alienation from ancestral lands (Lam
5:1-5). The hope of new land was the formation of an African Church that
would liberate its members and deliver them into “Canaan” (Kingdom of
God) through faith in Jesus.
Bishop Innocentios of Rwanda & Burundi (see here)
During
the early years of Christianity in Africa, mutual collaboration of the
mission churches and the colonial government gave an impression that the
western culture and lifestyle is a Christian culture. This limited the
possibilities of facilitating dialogue between the gospel and the
African culture and lifestyle. There is a great disconnect between the
biblical culture and the Western European culture and lifestyle. For
example, during the colonial times, western missionaries enhanced the
concept of the “Lord or Master” which was negative to the Africans, and
in the process of inculturation the native African Christians opt for
“Savior or Liberator” instead. This proves that inculturation process
facilitates reading the bible as one’s story and at the same time
answering problems and challenges experienced. Apparently, as the native
people were reading the newly translated bible, their stories were
becoming even more close to the social- political and cultural-religious
notion of the Hebrew bible especially on religious ritualism and
symbolism, sacrifice and offerings, prophesy and healing, circumcision,
marriage and family.
Inculturation
enables the gospel and its’ truth to be meaningful to the African
needs, life-view and life-style. One of the key areas of the African
religiosity that this is experience is worship. Worship in African
understanding brings that acute consciousness of the unity between
humanity and visible and invisible universexxviii. For most Africans,
art and music accompanied by instruments and rhythms in worship brings
forth a wonderful concentration of both the psyche and body, energizing
the persons involved to communicate with God.xxix In this case, however,
the orthodox liturgical worship as the center of the orthodox life has
to be communicated through
the
African linguistic framework and thought, symbolism and color, dances
and lyrics. Abbess Marina, a Finnish missionary in Kenya once observed:
For the Kikuyu, it was very easy to accept the Orthodox Christianity
because in some respects, it is very close to his own traditional
religion. For Example, when an Orthodox priest lifts up the Holy Gifts
in the Holy Eucharist, the African who belongs to the Kikuyu tribe
remembers at once the way his forefathers, the tribe´s priest, offered
the lamb to their own godxxx. For the African Orthodox Christians to
enjoy the Eucharistic cerebrations introduction of African rhythms,
dances, drums and clapping is necessary. Because this has not been done,
what is happening in most African orthodox churches is African songs
and dances, clapping and dancing are coming after the liturgy. This is
showing the need to inculturate the liturgy to become part of the
African way of worship.
This
need and call for inculturation of Christianity made the first African
Orthodox leaders like Fr. Spartas Reuben Mukasa to seek affiliation with
the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria. This affiliation has been
essential for both the African church and the entire Orthodox Church
worldwide. Despite many unprecedented mission shortcomings, the meeting
of Orthodox missionaries and the African Orthodox Church created a
platform for dialogue between orthodoxy and African religiosity. This
dialogue can be done in the spirit of witness which guides us into the
whole truth (John 16:12-14). Guidance to the whole true would apply to
the totality of African aspect of life; social, economic, political and
spiritual. In the African traditional religion, there are no indications
where the religion ends and where the social, cultural and political
aspect of life begins. This can also be witnessed in early religion of
ancient Greece, whereby today the relation between religion and polity
in Orthodox Christianity has its roots in ancient Greece, where religion
was understood as the cultic life of the polis, never conceivable
outside itxxxi. Therefore, the coming and accepting of Christianity
especially within the AICs was not practically viewed as something
separate from the social, political organization of the society. This
was rather a call to the entire Christianity in Africa to facilitate
inculturation of African religious values, like communal life. This
could have made African Christianity to be deeply rooted into the
day-to-day life.
From
traditional Orthodox circles inculturation may be considered new and
strange, however for two thousand year Christianity has undergone
“cultural surgeries”, meaning it has been incultured in different world
cultural contexts. For example, Jesus Christ became incarnate and grew
within the Jewish culture, apostle paul preaching to the gentile,
Cappadocian fathers integrated the gospel of Christ and communicated it
to their followers in images and symbols of the Hellenism, Cyril and
Methodius, inculturated orthodoxy to the Slavic culture while St. Herman
and St. Innocent (Veniaminov) of Alaska brought Orthodoxy too close to
the native customs and believes of the Aleutian peoplexxxii.To this
regard, it has come a time the Greek patriarchate of Alexandria as the
fountain of Orthodoxy in Africa to unwrap its “Greek-centered cultural
monism” and open more towards communities in Africaxxxiii. This will
start by initiating the process if inculturation; starting with
leadership and especially having more native African bishopsxxxiv, then
theological education that will guide the process of the localization of
the Orthodox Church in Africa. To be local means the church has taken
roots in a given place with all its cultural, natural, social, and any
other characteristic that constitutes the life, values and thoughts of
the people involved. This is well justified in the orthodox Eucharistic
worship where people offer to God as the body of Christ all that is
“His Own”, (Your own of your own we offer to
you). Therefore, the Alexandrian church has to become truly African
church by absorbing and using local characteristics of Africa that are
compatible with the gospel. In order to archive this, the orthodox
seminary in Nairobi has to deepen its theological training and seek new
theological hermeneutical approaches to interpreting and translating
orthodox ethos into African context. This will aim at stabilizing
Orthodoxy among the Africans and creating platform from which Orthodox
faith can give answers to social problems that are affecting Africa
society. Africa is a home of diverse religions practices and it is
therefore important for the Orthodox seminary schools to introduce in
their African religious and cultural studies. Such studies would equip
the graduates with knowledge of African culture and skills to
constructively engage in dialogical process of inculturation.
Conclusion
Out
of this study, it has been noted that right from the beginning the
AICs, inspired for an Africanized Christianity. Native Africans like Fr.
Spartas of Uganda searched for ecclesial identity and that is how he
ended up being Orthodox. To be African Christians was to happen through
inculturation. This is why read the biblical stories as their own
stories, drawing similarities and parallelisms in order to have
ecclesial identity on one hand and on the other hand maintain their
African cultural values.
Given
the phenomenological growth of Orthodoxy in south Saharan Africa,
Africanization of Orthodox faith is necessary. In order to Africanize
the orthodoxy it is important to ask how orthodox faith will be embodied
into African cultural contexts? This calls orthodox theologians and
missiologists to creatively come up with authentic method to be applied
in the process on inculturation. The need for an authentic method is
because inculturation entails acceptance or rejection, giving up or
receiving thought forms, symbolic and linguistic expressions, attitudes
and practices between the faith and new culture. Concerning the Orthodox
Church in south Saharan Africa, the process of inculturation may not
require a systematic planning and arrangement but will require critical
study, theological direction and dialogue between orthodox ethos and
African religiosity. This is why it is crucial to go back to the
biblical, liturgical practices and theologies that articulate
inculturation.
The
process of becoming “African local church” will easy facilitate the
transformation of the Orthodox theological thoughts to meet the African
social-psychological-religious ethos. Consequently, making the Africans
uphold orthodoxy as their way of life, living it and apparently,
orthodoxy become meaningful by responding to their day-to-day live
concerns. In order for this to happen in the Orthodox Church in south
Saharan Africa, key areas of orthodox life must be highly considered.
These areas includes (although not limited to), worship, sacraments and
church leadership. Orthodox liturgical worship being the center of the
orthodox life it is necessary to introduce African rhythms, dances,
drums and clapping. This would result to making the liturgy part of the
African way of worship.
Click
The Orthodox Church in Uganda, an outgrowth of indigenous self discovery
The Orthodox Church in Tanzania
Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa (& the Decolonization of Africa)
How “White” is the Orthodox Church?
Pioneers of the Orthodox Church in Uganda!
Natives Africans bishops in the Orthodox Church
Hope for the Kikuyu (Kenya) / "The caves along the Tana River became the refuge for freedom fighters..."
"THE WAY" - An Introduction to the Orthodox Faith
Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life
LIVE, BEYOND THE LIMITS!
«African needs to be helped, to find his divine roots, for his soul to be at peace, to become united with God...»
NOTES
i
Translated from Greek as city of peace, likewise taken from Dar es
Salam (capital city of Tanzania) which in Arabic means the city on peace
ii Tillyridis (Metropolitan Makarios of Kenya), 2014, 74-78.
iii Tillyridis (Metropolitan Makarios of Kenya) 2014, 93-100.
iv Mbiti 1969, 1
v Magesa 2004,5
vi Njoroge 2014, 327
vii Baur 2005, 21
viii Groves 1964, 35 ix Njoroge 2014, 328 x Baur 2005, 25
xi Njoroge 2013, 292 xii Welbourn 1966, 88, Tillyrides 2002, 152
xiii
See related articles « Οί Φίλοι της Ούγκαντα Βορείου Ελλάδος» (which
later changed its name to Orthodox Mission Abroad) no.42, January- March
1974
xiv Papathanasiou, 2004, 302
xv Tillyrides (Metropolitan
Makarios of Kenya) article, Makarios Legacy in Kenya. Last accessed on
21st Feb 2016. Available at
http://www.Orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/church_history/makarios_tillyrides_makarios_legacy.htm,
xvi Sauca 1996, 3
xvii Bosch 1991, 447
xviii Njoroge 2011, 406
xix Magesa 2004,5
xx Zizioulas 2002, 254
xxi Njoroge 2011, 408
xxii Pobee and Ositelu 1998,3
xxiii
Hayes, Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa. Last accessed 21st Feb
2016. Available at
http://www.josephpatterson.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/orthodox-mission-in-tropical-africa
xxiv Alexander, address to the first annual synod on the Uganda Diocese
of the African Orthodox Church on April the 23rd 1932. This Address is
found in the Archives of the African Orthodox Church of America in the
Pitts Theological Library. xxv Ibid. xxvi Githieya 1997,104
xxvii See
the original liturgical text of the African Orthodox Church in America
Liturgy found at Pitts Theological Library, Emory University U.S.A.
Natsoulas 1981, 81-104.
xxviii Magesa 2004, 203
xxix Mbiti 2000, 17
xxx
See article by Abbess Marina (Igumenia) Lintula Convent: “Mission and
Diakonia: tools of witness: An experience from Kenya” presented at
International Conference on the Social Witness and Service of the
Orthodox Churches on 30.4.-5.5.2004 Valamo, Finland. xxxi Vassiliadis
Petros, Article on Politics on Orthodox Christianity. Last accessed 21st
Feb 2016. Available at
http://users.auth.gr/~pv/Politics%20in%20Orth.%20Christianity.htm xxxii
Ware 1997, 181
xxxiii Papathanasiou 2004, 306
xxxiv The current
Patriarch Theodore II has so far ordained four native African Bishops
(H.E. Ieronimos, Metropolitan of Mwanza, H.G. Innocentios Bishop of
Rwanda and Burundi, H.G. Neophytos, Bishop of Nyeri and Mt. Kenya and
H.G. Athanasios, Bishop of Kisumu and Western Kenya)
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of the African Orthodox Church of America in the Pitts Theological
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changed its name to Orthodox Mission Abroad) no.42, January- March 1974
His
Eminence metropolitan Nicolaos of Axum, Mission report to His Beatitude
Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria christophoros and to the Holy Synod.
