Orthodox Mission

Mission in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg and Pretoria

On 18 March 2001 His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim was enthroned as the new Archbishop of Johannesburg to replace the late Metropolitan Ioannis, who reposed in the Lord in October 2000. One of his first acts as Archbishop was to open and speak at the first Orthodox missiological conference held in South Africa, a joint venture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, with the support of several other bodies.

We welcome His Eminence and look forward to more news of mission acvtivity in the Archdiocese in future.

There is more news on the web page of the Archdiocese.

The African Orthodox Episcopal Church

In February 1997 the leaders of the African Orthodox Episcopal Church (AOEC), which has about 7 congregations to the north of Pretoria, wrote to the Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria and asked to be united with the Orthodox Church. They had made contact with the Orthodox Church though Stephen Hayes and Archimandrite Michael Visvinis of the Pretoria parish.

The AOEC is an African independent church (AIC). There are over 7000 AICs in South Africa, and many more in other parts of the continent. It was one of a group of AICs that claimed an Orthodox background, but is uncanonical, and has sought to be united to the Orthodox Church.

In March 1999 Archbishop Ioannis, the Metropolitan of Johannesburg and Pretoria, appointed Fr Bert Olechnowicz as the official liaison person between the Archdiocese and the AOEC, and Fr Bert is planning to hold a series of meeting with the AOEC leaders to help them prepare to be received into Orthodoxy. The members of the AOEC speak several different languages, and so liturgical texts will have to be translated into Zulu, Sotho, Tsonga and other languages.

This mission page

As I develop these pages, I hope to put information about Orthodox mission here, with links to other sites with information about Orthodox mission. If you know of other sites dealing with Orthodox mission and evangelism, please let me know.

In you have any news or comments on mission, click here to comment in the Orthodox Mission Discussion Board

Some other sites with information on Orthodox mission

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Created: 1998-07-29
Updated: 2014-08-02