The mission in Congo completes forty years this year since the great missionary of Africa, Fr Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos, after sowing the word of the true God and the Orthodox faith, departed to Heaven.
The Orthodox multiplied, the efforts of his successor and successor, Fr. Charitonos Pneumatakis and his successors bore fruit. Catechism continues, many ask for the Gospel to be preached to them. How will those in the mission have time to respond? Where will they be found and how will workers of the Gospel be created? This was the anxiety of all. And especially of the ever late Mgr. Timothy of Central Africa: “There must be a theological school, a Halki!” It took years, many efforts and struggles for his dream to be realized by his successor, Metropolitan Ignatius of Central Africa and now of Pentapolis, with the help of I.M. Megisti Lavra of Mount Athos, the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Mission, missionary associations and ordinary people who contributed to the great vision. The Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa came and inaugurated the School of Theology in September 2007. The State of Congo recognized it on an equal footing with other university faculties. So it began, young people came from the heart of Africa with fire to study and then run to their villages, forests and towns to carry the message of Orthodoxy. A boarding school was immediately opened to accommodate the students. Food, clothing, medical and health care, everything had to be taken care of by the Church, the Metropolis. The people there are poor. But we need to prepare staff to staff the Church. Missionary associations and ordinary people helped to meet the expenses. But when the economic crisis came to Greece, things became more difficult. What is to be done? How will the church continue to function? The Metropolis began to struggle to meet operating expenses. It does not receive any state aid or any grant from any organization for the Theological School. So the situation is difficult to deal with… Great anxiety for its continued operation.Any discontinuation would deprive the Orthodox Church of staff members, which are necessary for the functioning of the Holy Churches, schools, charity, catechesis, missionary work in the cities, in the villages, to the people in the forests. The 76 students will not be able to continue. Even if they are burning with missionary zeal.
All the students all over the world, when they don’t have classes, they go for a rest, for a holiday. But the students of the Orthodox School of Theology, instead of resting during the holidays, run under very difficult conditions and from now on they catechize and transmit the Orthodox word with wonderful results. They are empowering our faithful, inviting and leading many to Orthodoxy. In a letter the late first missionary Fr. Chrysostomos Papasardopoulos wrote:
“I have loved Africa, and I am determined to use the little strength I have left here. I await, therefore, with longing and anxiety the beginning of the young men, the stalwarts of Christ, who will come to undertake the glorious struggle.”
The lads have come and are preparing for this fight. What will happen? Will we help them continue their preparation? Shall this nursery, St. Athanasius Theological Seminary, continue to live and offer its fruits, young catechists, teachers, priests, missionaries…?
The Centrist African Nikephoros
