The History of the Orthodox Church in Kenya

Nov 06, 2025 0

The Orthodox Church in Kenya has a unique and complex history, deeply intertwined with the socio-political landscape of the region. Orthodoxy is the expression of Tradition and the Teaching of Jesus Christ from the time of Pentacost when tongues of the fire of the Holy Spirit were sent to the disciples.

This article explores the origins and growth of the Orthodox Church in Kenya, from its early roots to its current state.

Kenyan Orthodox Liturgy + Communion

Early Influences and the African Orthodox Church

After World War I, in the United States of America, there was a strong demonstration of black independence and cultural nationalism. Out of this wave for recognition of black rights the African Orthodox Church was formed by blacks of West Indian origin and it was closely related to the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The African Orthodox Church was comprised mainly of black Anglicans/Episcopalians who were disaffected by the white dominance of their religious lives. The church made use of UNIA’s official information service. The Negro World to send out its message of the creation of a black church based on Apostolic tradition.

In 1924, William Daniel Alexander petitioned the AOC to open its doors in South Africa. Alexander was a black South African former Anglican clergyman and a member of an indigenous church which was of schismatic nature. The African Orthodox Church in America was headed by George Alexander McGuire, who came from the British West Indies. He had been baptised an Anglican, educated by Moravians and had become a pastor of that sect in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. Later he immigrated to the United States and worked for a period of time with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. From there he moved to the Protestant Episcopal Church and became Archdeacon for Coloured Work in the Diocese of Arkansas, the highest position, as a Black, to which he could aspire.

McGuire broke with this Church in New York and became deeply involved in the Black Nationalist Movement being instituted by the UNIA. He became the organisation’s Chaplain General in 1920 and within one year had established the African Orthodox Church. This was a period of black disillusionment and disenchantment with their status and with the enactment of discriminatory laws. This was not only true in the American South, but also in the Northern cities where the discrimination was often worse. It was also a time when the idea of separate development of the races was being aired. McGuire, motivated by his elevation to Chaplain General of the UNIA movement, conceived the idea of a universal Black Church which would unite Blacks of all denominations. The leader of UNIA strongly opposed this concept of a universal Black Church and with the proposed church affiliation to his movement.

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The Colonial Context and the Rise of Independence Movements

In the 1930s it was the attitude of the Colonial government and the foreign Missionaries, particularly from the Colonial Motherland, the United Kingdom, that the African should be given minimum education experience and that this should be under the direct supervision of the Missionaries. It was the Missionaries who held that Christianity must be linked with a cultural transference. In the Kikuyu areas this led ultimately to confrontation. Increasing pressure by the Missionaries, with the consent of the Colonial regime, to force the Kikuyu to give up their traditions was strongly opposed. The matter of female circumcision was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Kikuyu in large numbers boycotted the Mission schools and churches.

They then set up their own schools in a process known as Harambee. At this time schools were church sponsored, so once the Kikuyu had abandoned the Mission churches they had no schools. The word “Karinga” in Kikuyu means “orthodox” or “pure” and the members of this group wanted to maintain their cultural traditions, identity and beliefs, but they also wanted Christianity in its purest form. The Kikuyu community firmly supported their schools and soon they were quite numerous not only in the area of Nairobi, but in the rural areas as well.

Between 1935 and 1937 the Independent KISA and the Karinga KKEA were drawn closer in their efforts. The local organisations of KISA and KKEA had heard of a Bishop Daniel Alexander from South Africa. Bishop Alexander was the leader of the African Orthodox Church (AOC) in South Africa. This church was independent of any white-dominated church organisation and had association with the Afro-American African Orthodox Church.

Bishop Alexander spent 16 months in the Kikuyu areas operating from a base in Muranga. He baptised and lectured and provided specific religious training to four young men who had been proposed by both the Independent and the Karinga associations. Two of the men, from Kiambu and Nyeri, were ordained priests. These became the first priests of the African Orthodox Church in Kenya. The others, from Embu and Muranga, were ordained deacons, but they chose not to follow Orthodoxy and eventually they established the African Independent Pentecostal Church (AIPC).

During the 1930s Bishop Alexander had also ordained two priests in Uganda. They too had rejected the foreign dominated churches.

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Why Orthodoxy?

Orthodoxy was unlike all other denominations. It was never associated with racism, colonialism or religious imperialism. It had not involved itself in universal missionary activity. Further, in America, the Orthodox were not associated with the establishment and often faced the same discrimination as did the Blacks. Orthodoxy also existed in Egypt, Ethiopia , India and the Middle East and in the eyes of the African Orthodox Church members, Orthodox Christians from these areas were kindred souls. Previous encounters with the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches had been futile. Neither wanted to recognise or include the African Orthodox Church in its communion.

Finally McGuire made contact with a bishop of a schismatic Catholic Church, known as the Old Catholic Church, and he received consecration. This bishop was Rene Vilatte, titled Mar. Timotheos, Old Catholic Archbishop of North America and First Primate of the American Catholic Church. Rene Vilatte was born in Paris, France and educated by Roman Catholics. For many years he vacillated between Catholicism and Protestantism. Later he emigrated to Canada and from there went to the United States. He was very active in the sense of Missionary zeal and eventually was recommended too be ordained a priest in the Old Catholic Church by the Bishop of Bern, Switzerland, Edward Hezog.

Rene Vilatte returned to the United States where he continued to work, but met many difficulties, particularly in achieving the episcopy. Since he could not induce either the legitimate Catholic Church to consecrate him as a bishop, nor the hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1880, Roman Catholics, led by a loan priest, in Southern India broke with Rome. The priest, Antonio Franscisco Xavier Alvares, sought consecration as bishop from the Syro-Jacobite Church of Malabar, which is an Oriental Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch. Patriarch Ignatius Peter III of Antioch gave his blessing to this consecration. Rene Vilatte requested that Alvarez elevate him to the episcopate.

Rene Vilatte as bishop made more than twenty subsequent consecrations of new bishops and of new churches. These consecrations became doubtful because they were made outside the authority of the Church. This prompted the Syro-Jacobite Church to officially withdraw recognition of the secession churches in 1938. Further, Vilatte was accused of not upholding the canons, nor did he remain within the jurisdiction of the Church of Antioch. This rejection of Rene Vilatte and his secession churches did not have much impact on the African Orthodox Church in the United States, but it did have serious implications on the churches in Uganda and Kenya.

The Ugandans severed relations with Bishop Alexander when they came to realise that he was not really Orthodox and immediately they entered into communication with the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria, Meletios Metaxakis. His Beatitude was sympathetic and able to guide the Ugandans well. In 1946, His Beatitude, Christophoros II, Patriarch of Alexandria, accepted the Ugandan Orthodox Church into his flock. In 1959 a diocese was created for East Africa and a bishop given the title of Irinoupolis (in honour of Dar es Salaam).

The people of Kenya were officially accepted under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria in 1946 and since then there has been a close relationship with the Apostolic See of St. Mark.

Challenges and Growth After Independence

By October 1952, both the KKEA (Karinga Association) and the KISA (Independents) were charged with subversion and their schools were closed. It was widely thought they were connected directly with the MauMau who sought independence from Great Britain. The government offered to reopen the schools, but only under the direct supervision of the government or the Missions. A few of the schools of KISA did opt to reopen, but non of the Karinga schools. The African Orthodox Church was forced to keep a low profile.

For ten years Karinga Orthodox were not allowed public worship, yet their faith sustained them until the State of Emergency was lifted. Independence came and President Jomo Kenyatta lifted the ban on the Orthodox. The Kikuyu Orthodox, under the leadership of Fr. Arthur G. Gathuna, chose to revive the Orthodox Faith in Kenya. Further, linkage was made with the Orthodox in Western Kenya who had received the Word initially from Uganda.

During the emergency period the Orthodox Church of Kenya played a leading part in the struggle for the Independence of the country. The Mau Mau movement had many leaders from the Orthodox faithful especially in Kiambu.

In 1958, because of the rapid development of the Orthodox faith in East Africa, a Metropolitan was appointed to care for the Spiritual needs of the three East African countries. The late Archbishop and President of Cyprus Makarios III, a leading personality in the fight for the independence of his country was closely associated with the President and leader of the independence movement of Kenya, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus, on the invitation of the Mzee Kenyatta visited Kenya and was given the warm welcome of a national hero. His love for the African Orthodox people of Kenya is evident through the construction of a Technical School and a Theological Seminary for the education of the African people. The African Orthodox people of Kenya owe their spiritual growth in the Orthodox faith to the great generosity of the late Archbishop Makarios.

The African Orthodox Church of Kenya under the canonical jurisdiction of the Holy Archbishopric of Irinoupolis is the only legitimate Church in the country.

Today through the generosity of the Orthodox people from abroad (Greece, Finland, America, Cyprus) the Orthodox Church in Kenya is making a great contribution to the social, economic and educational development of the country, Many Secondary Schools, Clinics, Nursery Schools and hospitals are to be found throughout the country and hundreds of Scholarships are given to children of Kenya for their educational needs.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa (Ancient Greek: Πατριαρχεῖον Ἀλεξανδρείας καὶ πάσης Ἀφρικῆς, romanized: Patriarkheîon Alexandreías ke pásīs Afrikês, lit. 'The Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa'), also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, is an autocephalous patriarchate that is part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is commonly called the Greek or Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria to distinguish it from the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria.

Members of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate were once referred to as "Melkites" by non-Chalcedonian Christians because they remained in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after the schism that followed the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The head bishop of the Patriarchate of Alexandria is the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, currently Theodore II of Alexandria.

His full title is "His Most Divine Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of the Great City of Alexandria, Libya, Pentapolis, Ethiopia, all the land of Egypt, and all Africa, Father of Fathers, Shepherd of Shepherds, Prelate of Prelates, thirteenth of the Apostles, and Judge of the Œcumene". Like the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, he claims to have succeeded the Apostle Mark the Evangelist in the office of Bishop of Alexandria, who founded the church in the 1st century, and therefore marked the beginning of Christianity in Africa. It is one of the five ancient patriarchates of the early church, called the Pentarchy.

The history of the Patriarchate of Alexandria includes some of the greatest and most renowned fathers of the Church, especially the histories of Athanasius and Cyril, who were patriarchs of Alexandria at the ecumenical councils of Nicaea and Ephesus respectively. In the schism that was created by the political and Christological controversies at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Church of Alexandria split in two.

The majority of the native (i.e., Coptic) population did not accede to the Council of Chalcedon, adhering instead to the Miaphysite Christology of the Oriental Orthodox communion, and became known as the Coptic Orthodox Church. A small portion of the Church of Alexandria followed Chalcedonian Christology, and this is called the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, since it used Greek as its liturgical language.

These Greek Chalcedonian believers were loyal to the Eastern Roman Emperor and in communion with the Patriarchs in Rome, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. A healthy correspondence of Eulogius of Alexandria with Gregory the Great of Rome is evident from the fourteen books of Gregory's letters called the Registrum.[7] After the Arab conquest of Egypt in the 7th century - which permanently separated the region from the Byzantine Empire - the Greek Chalcedonians became an isolated minority in the region, even among Christians, and the church has remained small for centuries.

These Alexandrian Christians remained in ecclesiastical communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople, who likewise recorded their names and also the Pope of Rome in his diptychs. During the Crusades, they also gave no hint of schism with Rome, since the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria administered holy communion to Latin merchants and prisoners and allowed Latin priests to use their own ritual books. Patriarch Nicholas I ordained a priest for the Latin rite and sent a representative to the Fourth Lateran Council.

In the 19th century Orthodoxy in Africa began to grow again. One thing that changed this in the 19th century was the Orthodox diaspora. People from Greece, Syria and Lebanon, in particular, went to different parts of Africa, and some established Orthodox Churches. For a while there was some confusion, especially outside Egypt. As happened in other places, Orthodox immigrants would establish an ethnic "community", which would try to provide a church, school, sporting and cultural associations.

In Africa south of the Sahara most of the growth in Christianity began as a result of mission initiatives by Western Christians; Roman Catholic, Protestant and especially in the 20th century adherents to Western-origin Christian bodies that do not fit into this old dichotomy. These Western-initiated churches were, however, very often tied to Western culture. African-initiated churches interested in the various forms of Orthodoxy, but finding it difficult to make contact with historic Orthodoxy in the parts of Africa where they lived, sought further afield.

The Coptic Orthodox Church

The Coptic Orthodox is the oldest church in the world. It was founded by St. Mark the Evangelist, author of the second gospel in Alexandria, Egypt in the year 61 A.D. The word “Copt” means Egyptian. Copts are the native Christians of Egypt and the direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians who were converted to Christianity by St. Mark.

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, enthroned by the Coptic Orthodox Church on November 18, 2012, is the 118th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. Pope Tawadros studied to be a pharmacist, but after he graduated from Alexandria University’s Faculty of Pharmacy, he decided to dedicate his life to God. In 1983, he graduated from the Coptic Church Clerical College, and over the years he transitioned from being monk, to priest to general bishop, and today pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Even as he moved through the ranks of the church, His Holiness never stopped pursuing formal education getting joint degrees in pharmaceutical engineering, business administration and Christian education. He has also authored 12 books on Christian theology.

In 4th century, two monks came from Egypt to Ethiopia. They spread gospel and baptized many people, and church started to be established in Africa. In 1976, His Grace Martin Antonuos Markos came to Kenya and established churches and ordinated African priests. Thanks to God, we have more than 100 churches and 6 mission hospitals (including 2 giant hospitals, 240 beds in Kenya and140 beds in Zambia), 3 community schools in Zambia,1 big homeless program in Kenya(Raha Kids), 2 international schools in Congo in addition to giant programs for orphans, widows; 8 HIV programs caring for HIV positive patients(35,000 patients in Kenya, 9,000 in Zambia and 3,000 in Tanzania); School fees programs which help our children to get all types of education, subsidizing by the church.

First and foremost, the church believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God, to be followed according to the interpretation of the early church fathers. The church believes in seven sacraments which are mysteries through which the Holy Spirit imparts grace to the believers.

The main worship service in the Orthodox Church is the Divine Liturgy celebrating the Eucharist. The liturgy is the story of humanity’s redemption. It is told regularly in order to remind believers of Christ’s work to reconcile the world to God, so that all may be led to repentance as they partake of His body and blood. The most commonly used liturgy in the Coptic Church was written by St. Basil the Great in the 4th century. The liturgy is usually celebrated on Sunday (the Lord’s day), but may also be celebrated on any other day of the week.

In addition to the Divine Liturgy, the church holds Bible studies, youth and family meetings, Sunday school classes, fellowship and spiritual conferences for all ages. The Coptic Orthodox Church is known historically for its contribution in relieving poverty, sickness, suffering of people spiritually and physically. The ancient fathers leave rich heritage in the field of literature, spiritually and wisdom, helping to strengthen the faith of African people very much.

The Kingdom of God is for everyone! Although the Coptic Church was founded in, and has its home, in Egypt, today there are thousands of Orthodox churches all over the world, with millions of believers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Christ never intended for any of His followers to be alone, but rather that they should exist and worship in community with one another forming one body - the church. (Acts 2 & Ephesians 4). We believe in the church we find life, love, and liberty from sin. The church is a family and a place not to be judged for our sins but to be saved from our sins.

The following table presents a summary of key milestones in the history of the Orthodox Church in Kenya:

Year/Period	Event
1930s	Rise of independence movements and the desire for Christianity without cultural transference
1935-1937	KISA and KKEA draw closer, leading to the arrival of Bishop Daniel Alexander
1946	The people of Kenya were officially accepted under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria
1952	KKEA and KISA charged with subversion, schools closed
Post-Independence	Revival of the Orthodox Faith in Kenya under leaders like Fr. Arthur G. Gathuna

Alexander I of Alexandria