The Orthodox mission in the Congo: How parishes are born from unexpected encounters and acts of kindnesstranslated

The Most Reverend Father Hariton, Metropolitan of Kananga (Patriarchy of Alexandria), told, in a special edition of Trinitas TV, how Orthodox communities were born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following some unexpected meetings with the locals.

His Eminence reported that the beginnings of the Orthodox mission in some regions of the Congo were marked by numerous difficulties, from long distances and hard-to-reach roads to the lack of places of worship and Orthodox communities.

Metropolitan Kananga particularly remembered the time when he was sent to carry out missionary activity in the city of Goma, where he knew no one and had neither a church nor a home.

"Even I didn't know how this work would begin," Metropolitan Hariton testified, stressing that trust in God and obedience to the instructions he received helped him overcome the uncertainty of the beginning.

An unexpected meeting On his first day in Goma, two men searched for him at the hotel where he was staying, after some people had noticed him at the airport dressed in clerical robes.

They had a calendar with images of some clerics...