The third cycle of the online lectures "Time for Action" of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies was successfully launched on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 with the lecture by His Eminence the Metropolitan of Cameroon Mr. Grigorios on the topic “Orthodoxy in Africa: Problems, challenges, perspectives”. The event was prefaced by the Director of the Volos Academy Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, who moderated also the discussion that followed.

After reviewing the history of the mission in Africa from the first Christian centuries to the present day, the speaker mentioned the peculiarities of the spread of Christianity in this continent, both because of the harsh living conditions and the need for religious inculturation, as well as because of the past of the region with the successive conquests, slavery and colonialism. He presented the difficulties faced by the Patriarchate of Alexandria as a result of the adventures faced by the Greek-speaking population through the centuries, and finally focused on the recent aggressive invasion of Africa by the Russian Orthodox Church, with the establishment of a Russian Exarchate, a reality with clear geopolitical goals that completely contradicts the ecclesiastical canonicity, being essentially an attempt by the Russian Church to impose its own conditions on the global Orthodox community. In the discussion that followed, special emphasis was placed on the lack of strong reactions on the part of the other Orthodox Churches to the Russian invasion of the canonical borders of the ancient Patriarchate of Alexandria, as well as the extent of the corruption, phenomena that these developments reveal and also the importance of all these developments on the global political map.

The video recording of the lecture is available on the Volos Academy's YouTube channel in Greek

and in English language.

The next lecture in this series of online lectures “Time for Action” will take place on Thursday, March 2, 2023 with speaker Dr. George Demacopoulos, Professor and Co-Founding Co-Director of the Center for Orthodox Christian Studies at Fordham University (New York, USA) on the topic “’Soson Kyrie ton laon sou’ and the Sacralization of Violence.”

The full program of this third cycle will be announced soon.