Russia has been making cultural gains across Africa through the expansion of its Orthodox Church.
As of February 2026, an estimated 350 Russian Orthodox Church parishes have been established across the continent, served by over 250 priests. In 2022, it only maintained one parish in South Africa.
Sermons are delivered in Russian, with translators interpreting.
For clergy members, the route to ordination has been a swifter process in the ROC, compared with its ‘rival’ denomination across the African nations, the Greek Orthodox Church. Approximately 1.3 million African believers belong to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, headquartered in Egypt.
Madagascan priest Alexy told Bloomberg he had been waiting years to join the Greek Orthodoxy, but had been welcomed into the ROC with “open arms”. His path to ordination involved an online training course followed by a seminary in Moscow, and three months of practical ministry.
He stated that the salary offered to priests allowed them “to live decently, take care of our family’s health, and provide for our children’s education.”
Whilst the Church insists its focus is mission, liturgy and theological teaching, it has been mired in political controversy.
Throughout Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, its stance on the war has been in lockstep with its government. In 2022, primate Patriarch Kirill of Moscow drew allegations of heresy by stating that dying in combat would “wash away all sins”.
The Church in Africa denies that it is part of Putin’s war recruitment drive.
Patriarchal Exarch for Africa, Metropolitan Constantine of Cairo, said: “False publications have appeared in the media alleging that [the ROC] is recruiting citizens of African countries to participate in military operations… [and] deceiving residents of the continent by offering training or employment in Russia, but in reality, sending them to conflict zones or military factories.”
He dismissed the reports as “lies and slander” intended to distract from the work of the Church.