First Russian Church service takes place in Zimbabwe / Православие.Ru

Johannesburg, December 11, 2010

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Harare, Zimbabwe.

From December 6–9, 2010, the rector of the church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Johannesburg, Priest Daniel Lugovoi, with the blessing of His Grace Archbishop Damascene of Pretoria and Johannesburg, and of his Grace Archbishop Seraphim of Zimbabwe, made a pastoral visit to Zimbabwe.

In the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the city of Harare, Fr. Daniel baptized an infant born to a Russian family residing there. In the city of Mutare, he served a moleben with a blessing of the waters, and conducted a talk on the fundamentals of the Orthodox Faith, in which about forty members of the Shona tribe participated. This is the first Orthodox service ever to be conducted in Church Slavonic in the history of the Russian speaking community of Zimbabwe. On December 9, Fr. Daniel met with the governor of the province, Manikalend S. S. Mushokve, and discussed a wide range of issues, including the Russian presence in the province and in the country as a whole. Mr. Mushokve, whose son is currently studying in Moscow, warmly recalled his visit to Russia in 2006, and his impressions of the beauty and grandeur of the Russian Orthodox churches.