![]() ![]() In December 2021, the Patriarchate of Moscow founded its own Exarchate in Africa, which exploits the dissatisfaction of some priests towards the Greek hierarchy and actively seeks to poach priests previously belonging to the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Black African Christians now make up the majority of the faithful in the patriarchate, while most of the bishops continue to be Greeks. Nowadays, in addition to Egypt, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria has dioceses in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Botswana, Burundi, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Congo, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda. At the same time, it increasingly developed missionary activities, first in East Africa and later in the southern parts of the continent. In the first half of the 20th century, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate managed to secure its position as an independent church within the Egyptian state. While the Greeks initially celebrated the liturgy like the Copts according to the Alexandrian rite, from the 10th century onwards, the Byzantine rite gradually prevailed. It was not until 1846 that a Greek Orthodox patriarch was able to take his seat in Alexandria again. During Ottoman rule (from 1517), the Greek patriarchs of Alexandria usually resided in exile in Constantinople. Although the Melkite patriarchate was never formally abolished, for a substantial amount of time, the patriarchate remained orphaned, especially, after the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642. ![]() Due to their adherence to the church policy of the Byzantine emperors, the opponents of Chalcedon called them "Melkites" (loyal to the emperor). The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria originally comprised the predominantly Greek minority of Christians in Egypt who followed the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451). ![]()
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