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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Patriarch Petros VII of Alexandria and All Africa, one of the most senior leaders in the Orthodox Church, who has died in a helicopter crash, was widely respected for the missionary work done under his leadership and for preaching for Christian-Muslim dialogue.
Petros, who was 55, was killed on Sept. 11 along with several other senior church leaders when the military helicopter in which they were flying went down on its way to the monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece, one of the most holy Orthodox sites.
“We are devastated from this tragic accident where the Patriarch of Alexandria, venerable clerics, his staff and the crew lost their lives,” the Reuters news agency quoted Church of Greece leader Archbishop Christodoulos as saying.
Patriarch Petros “was a distinguished Patriarch who during his tenure moved forward the work of the total revitalization of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, both in Egypt and the rest of Africa,” the Greek Orthodox archdiocese said in a statement.
“Due to his work, Orthodoxy made great strides in the African continent and drew an ever-increasing number of African people into the Orthodox family,” the statement issued by Archbishop Demetrios of America said.
Condolences came also from many other Orthodox leaders including Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow.
The Alexandria patriarchate traces its establishment to Saint Mark in AD 42, and is traditionally regarded as second in Orthodox Church rank after the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul). It consists of 14 dioceses and has about 500 priests, mostly from Africa, serving some 300,000 members.
Petros was born in Cyprus on Sept. 3, 1949. He graduated in 1969 from the Apostle Barnabas seminary in Nicosia, and in the same year was ordained a deacon in the Macheras monastery. The following year, he served as a deacon to the then Patriarch of Alexandria, Nicalaos VI.
He studied at the Theological School in Athens in 1978. In December 1978, he was promoted to Archimandrite in the Cathedral of St Nicholas in Cairo and at the same time was appointed Patriarchal Vicar in charge of the Patriarchal offices in Cairo.
In October 1980, he was sent to South Africa, where he was put in charge of the newly-built Church of the Panagia Pantanassa and at the same time was named Vicar-General of the Metropolis.
Three years later, he was elected Bishop of Babylon and Patriarchal Vicar in Cairo, and in the same year was consecrated a bishop. In 1990, he became Metropolitan of Accra and West Africa. The following year, he became Patriarchal Exarch in the Archdiocese responsible for Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and in 1994 became Metropolitan of Cameroon and West Africa. He had further education in missiology in Dublin, Ireland.
Enthroned as Patriarch on March 9,1997, Petros had by then participated in several interdenominational and inter-Orthodox meetings as a representative of the Patriarchate.
In a letter sent to the Patriarchate’s authorities, World Council of Churches’ deputy general secretary Georges Lemopoulos said he lamented the loss of “a tireless witness of the gospel, a true servant of the people committed into his care by God, an advocate of fraternity and peace among peoples, an enthusiastic animator and renovator, a builder of the ecumenical movement in the Middle East, in Africa, and the world.”
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