Сleric of the ROC: In Tanzania, rectors who want to join MP are kicked out

Archpriest Andrei Novikov. Photo: patriarchia.ru

The rector of the Life-Giving Trinity church in Moscow's Vorobyovy Hills, Archpriest Andrei Novikov, said on his Facebook page that Bishop Agathonikos, who would previously threaten the priests that did not recognize the OCU and wanted to pass to the MP, had expelled six African rectors from parishes in recent days.

“Bishop Agathonikos ‘Half-Tanzanian’ (he turns out not a vicar of the Tanzanian Metropolis, but an independent bishop of the new Greek diocese in Tanzania) has expelled six African rectors from parishes in recent days. There are all super-canonical grounds for their adoption under the omophorion of the Russian Orthodox Church: they were required to sign a receipt recognizing the power of Theodore of Alexandria and his decisions. This means the decisions on the recognition of ‘OCU’ as well. This is a direct requirement to recognize the split,” wrote Archpriest Andrei.

The cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke about the audio recording of the conversation he had got his hands on. In this recording, Bishop Agathonikos talks with one of the African priests, hieromonks, who began to commemorate the Moscow Patriarch and who appealed to him.

“The voice on the recording clearly belongs to a Greek bishop calling himself a bishop in Tanzania and demanding submission to Theodore (patriarch of the Church of Alexandria – Ed.). He speaks with a thick Greek accent, identical to the voice of Agathonikos as can be judged from the recording of his services and sermons. There can be no doubt. In some places, it is difficult to make out the words in the recording, since he speaks now louder now quieter with an eerie accent ... This is what lying, mud, politicking, blackmail and threats are used to establish the struggle for the ‘canonical territory’ of the Alexandrian patriarchy, which united with the schism. It is curious that Agathonikos told each of the priests who were invited separately that the Russians had paid others, but hadn’t paid you alone. Base, cheap, shameful. As regards money – all this is a monstrous slander in relation to Father Georgy Maksimov and in relation to me. The priests of the Russian Orthodox Church who stayed in Tanzania and communicated with the Tanzanian clerics did not give any ‘bribe’ money, did not pay anything to anyone and did not promise to pay," added the cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church.

As the UOJ previously reported, the Church of Alexandria intimidates those who wish to transfer to the MP, according to the cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church. 

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