On Sunday, January 23, 2011, His Eminence Metropolitan George of Accra was enthroned in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior in Accra, before His Eminence Metropolitan Alexander of Nigeria, representative of His Beatitude Theodore II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.

From among the timely theological thoughts voiced by His Eminence the Metropolitan of Nigeria, it is worth concentrating here on two key points.

1) The fact that the local Orthodox Church of Ghana lives, breathes, and moves with a variety of persons, races, traditions, confessions, and religions. In a situation that urgently requires the Church’s peaceful coexistence with the other, the different, through dialogue and acceptance, and not just tolerance. The Church, and the faith in general, according to the Metropolitan of Nigeria, is and must remain a place of reconciliation between humans and God and between one another. And this can be achieved through genuine dialogue and conversation with other Christian Churches as well as other religions such as Islam and traditional African religions. This constitutes, according to Metropolitan Alexander, another challenge for the new Metropolitan, inasmuch as every sincere and true dialogue presupposes openness, willingness to listen to the other, readiness to overcome prejudices, and a desire to learn.

2) The missionary method of the apostle to the nations, Paul, as he expressed it in the city of Athens, at the Areopagus, with his recognition of the religiosity of the Athenians, their piety, and their desire to know the truth. Paul praised them rather than condemned them and thus showed us how to preach. This suggests a continuity between those to whom we preach the gospel and Jesus Christ, to whom we hope to direct them. The perpetually renewing Holy Spirit, “the consistent and creative Wisdom and Power of the God of all,” calls us now to finally realize, collectively, the need for a paradigm shift, abandoning the outdated missionary models from other times, other rationales, another theology, other political choices, and celebrating daily, with pain and great effort, but kenotically and with love, the mystery of the Incarnation here and now. We are further called, according to the Metropolitan, to adopt a new way of life and to listen with a favorable disposition to those prophetic voices, of both clergy and laity, both men and women, which are multiplying and which are calling for a change of course, a change of mind, i.e. repentance. What’s at stake is the very consciousness of our Church, the evangelical word and truth.

The Metropolitan of Nigeria’s thoughts are particularly apropos in light of the developments that have taken place in the Arab world and, more broadly, in Africa and its Church, which generate ideas, theology, new approaches and categories of thought, struggles, life, and hope. It is not fair for us to see Africa and its Church as a permanent receiver of ideas, views, and theological thoughts, but it has reached the point where we ought to accept it as a treasury from which many can draw benefit, including we ourselves. For Africa, while it would like all Orthodox brethren to participate in this process, cannot accept nationalistic approaches to the Church. And Africa knows that, with the grace of God, even if only eventually, this will come to pass.

His Eminence Metropolitan Alexander of Nigeria graced the podium of the Volos Academy for Theological Studies at the International Conference “Church and Culture” on May 7-10, 2009, presenting a paper entitled “Culture and Mission.” Due to its importance, this text has already been posted among other timely texts on the Academy’s website (Culture and Mission), while we await the imminent publication of the related collective volume from the Volos Academy which is due to be published shortly by “Indiktos” publishing. A French translation of this text, along with other texts from this same international conference of the Academy, was recently published in the well-known French journal “Istina,” issue 1, 2010 (see http://istina.eu/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=156&cntnt01lang=fr_FR&cntnt01returnid=82 )

For more, see: http://www.amen.gr/index.php?mod=news&op=article&aid=4720

and the blog “Private Road”: http://panagiotisandriopoulos.blogspot.com/2011/02/blog-post_9779.html